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Edward ‘Kid’ Ory: ‘The greatest slideman ever born’ [1]

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Date: 2024-05-08  

Edward “Kid” Ory. Credit: Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection

Bandleader and trombonist Edward “Kid” Ory, who started out playing homemade instruments and banjo before picking up a trombone, was considered an early pioneer of jazz.

Jazz great Louis Armstrong said Ory, who gave Armstrong his first professional job, was “the greatest slideman ever born.”

Ory was born Dec. 25, 1886 in LaPlace, where he and six musicians formed the Woodland Band.

“Ory looked youthful, dressed well, and was personable on the bandstand,” jazz drummer Hal Smith wrote for the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Collection.

“He became known as Kid Ory, but musicians nicknamed him ‘Dut,’ Creole for dude.”

The Woodland Band often played on horse-drawn wagons or trucks to advertise dances and compete for crowds. Ory stood near the tailgate to avoid hitting other musicians with his slide.

“His simple, staccato playing, coming from that position may be the reason that style of trombone is often called ‘tailgate,’ ” Smith wrote. “Ory’s own style was more complex than it appeared to be on the surface. He definitely played staccato ‘tailgate’ phrases, glissandos, smears and growls, open and muted.”

In 1919, Ory moved to California and formed Kid Ory’s Creole Orchestra. In 1922, the orchestra recorded “Ory’s Creole Trombone, ” commonly referred to as the first jazz recording by Black musicians from New Orleans. In 2005, the Library of Congress selected the song for the National Recording Registry, which recognizes songs that have cultural or historical significance.

After pausing to run a chicken farm during the Depression, Ory was hired as the bandleader for “The Orson Welles Almanac” radio show in 1944. Ory retired in 1966, but gave one last performance in 1971 at the second New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Ory died of pneumonia in Hawaii in 1973. In 1986, he was inducted into the Jazz and Big Band Hall of Fame.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/05/08/bitd-edward-kid-ory-jazz/

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