Edward “Kid” Ory

Mr. Edward “Kid” Ory was born in Woodland Plantation near La Place, Louisiana on December 25, 1886. As a child he started playing music on his own homemade instruments. He played the banjo during his youth but his love was playing the trombone. However, the banjo helped him develop “tailgate” a particular style of playing the trombone. By the time he was a teenager, Ory was the leader of a well-regarded band in southeast Louisiana. In his early twenty’s, he moved to New Orleans with his band where he became one of the most talented trombonists of early jazz from 1912 to 1919. In 1919, Ory relocated to Los Angeles, California for health reasons. He assembled a new group of New Orleans musicians on the West Coast and played regularly under the name of Kid Ory’s Creole Orchestra. There, he recorded the 1920s classics “Shine,” “Tiger Rag,” “Muskrat Ramble,” and “Maryland, My Maryland.” In 1922, he became the first African American jazz bank from New Orleans to record a studio album. In 1925, Ory moved to Chicago and took interest in working on radio broadcasts and recording with names such musicians as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Johnny Dodds, and many others. During the Great Depression, Ory left music but returned in 1943 to lead one of the top New Orleans style bands of the period until 1961. It was about 1966 when Ory retired and spent his last years in Hawaii. He did, however, play occasionally for special events. One of his last performances was in 1971 when he surprised everyone by coming back to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He passed away in Honolulu, Hawaii at the age of 86 on January 23, 1973.