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Artist
Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band
12+ albums
jazzNew Orleansdixielandnew orleans jazzbig band jazz
about
"Father of Dixieland Jazz." La Place, LA born multi-instrumentalist, Edward Kid Ory ( born Dec 25 1886 - died Jan 23 1973) was active from a young age as a ragtime era musician. Ory kept a band going steadily from the 1890's through the start of the Depression and then afterwards, his career rose like a phoenix in the 1940's, with Ory prolifically recording and playing steadily as a highly regarded trombonist until his retirement at nearly age 80 in 1966. In the early days, as early as age 7, Ory told tales of fashioning his own stringed instruments, such as violins and a banjo from a cigar box to play between innings at baseball games, house parties and country picnics, even before the turn of the 20th century. By 1907 he had started his own band out of Gretna LA, and was performing at bars in New Orleans. Ory soon figured out using abandoned houses, or renting out social halls where he could play and control the profit. His band wore suits and bowties,and played at all white Country Clubs, as well as the raucous dancehalls of black neighborhoods. Ory's entrepreneurial skills led him to a former plantation where he organized fish fry's with 5 cent sandwiches, and sold beer at 5 cents a glass. His band's employees who earned $17.50 a week in 1919, included at one time or another, not only Mutt Carey, King Oliver, but a jolly young orphaned replacement for Oliver named Louis Armstrong. Ory's many early clarinetists included Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, George Lewis and Jimm
