Creole Trombone

Cover

Download PDF (145.5 KB)
 

Title Page, Copyright Page

Download PDF (72.5 KB)
 

Contents

Download PDF (37.3 KB)
 

Acknowledgments

Download PDF (72.2 KB)
pp. ix-xi

Foremost is the support of my family. Ian, Katie, and Ellen Mc-Cusker, 22, 17, 15, have endured seemingly endless treks through graveyards, archives, and libraries while I dogged the Ory story. Their mother and my wife and soulmate of twenty-five years, Johanna M. Schindler, looked after...

Introduction: Who Was Kid Ory?

Download PDF (56.7 KB)
pp. 3-5

In 1994 I led a history tour of jazz sites in New Orleans. Trombonist and educator Dave Ruffner, a member of the tour group from California, thought I gave Kid Ory the short shrift. He said Ory was more than just a sideman on the records of Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, and Jelly Roll Morton...

1. 1886–1896: Le Monde Creole en Campagne

Download PDF (105.5 KB)
pp. 6-23

The Woodland Plantation was a sprawling 1,882-acre sugar cane farm twenty-five miles upriver from New Orleans in a tiny St. John the Baptist Parish hamlet called LaPlace. Its main house—a raised, elongated cottage with a modest tin roof, cistern, and two stained-glass dormer windows...

2. ca. 1897–1900: Music

Download PDF (106.0 KB)
pp. 24-41

In recalling his early interest in music, Ory was inconsistent about his age. He was, however, consistent in his description of the phases of his progression. He first had a singing, or “humming” group, followed by a group that played homemade instruments; then he got a real banjo...

3. 1900–1904: Orphan

Download PDF (81.1 KB)
pp. 42-51

Burials took place immediately after death, as there was limited embalming available in St. John and the Ory family surely could not have afforded it anyway. Octavie’s jaw would have been tied shut and coins placed on her eyes to hold them closed. She was laid out in the home...

4. 1905–1907: Walking with the King

Download PDF (88.7 KB)
pp. 52-63

By 1905 Ory was spending much of his time with his brother Johnny across the river in Edgard. Johnny had become a partner in the Haydel and Ory store with his brother-in-law Clay Haydel. “It was a regular store on the [river] road,” remembered Haydel’s granddaughter Sybil Haydel...

5. 1908–1910: Kid

Download PDF (98.9 KB)
pp. 64-79

Shortly before they died, Dutt made a promise to his parents that he would remain in St. John Parish until he turned 21. He was supposed to look out for his younger sisters Annie and Lizzie. This, he said, was why in 1905 he did not take Bolden up on his offer to play with him. “I had to go back...

6. 1910–1916: New Orleans

Download PDF (152.2 KB)
pp. 80-111

The city of New Orleans was founded on a bend in the Mississippi River where it snakes along south of Lake Pontchartrain. It was settled by the French in 1718, ceded to Spain in 1762, returned to France in 1802, and sold to the United States as part of the Louisianan Purchase in...

7. 1917–1919: Creole Jazz

Download PDF (123.4 KB)
pp. 112-133

At the dawn of 1917, Ory’s was a successful and sought-after band. His clients included white bankers and black benevolent societies. They played lawn parties, Mardi Gras parades, Monday night dances at Economy Hall, and Sunday afternoons at Milneburg. Artistically, Ory’s band refined...

8. 1919–1925: California

Download PDF (120.7 KB)
pp. 134-155

Edward and Elizabeth Ory stepped off the train in August 1919 into a Los Angeles already brimming with transplants from Louisiana. Ads in California’s black newspapers like the California Eagle and Western Outlook carried notices and ads for the Louisiana Commercial Association...

9. 1925–1933: Chicago Sideman

Download PDF (138.0 KB)
pp. 156-183

Through most of his career Ory was a dance bandleader, seldom playing in the bands of others. The exception was, ironically, a period that was perhaps his most fabled—the late 1920s in Chicago. There he backed up Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and King Oliver, making classic...

10. 1933–1973: Epilogue (Contains Image Plates)

Download PDF (1.2 MB)
pp. 184-188

In 1937 Ory’s brother John and his wife Cecile and family moved from St. John Parish and joined him in Los Angeles, where they found a home a few blocks away. According to Johnny Ory’s son Harold, the family passed the time at home playing bridge into the wee hours, cooking...

APPENDIX I: Autobiography

Download PDF (39.0 KB)
pp. 189-190

APPENDIX II: Autobiography

Download PDF (111.0 KB)
pp. 191-192

APPENDIX III: Selected Discography

Download PDF (106.9 KB)
pp. 193-199

APPENDIX IV: Lost Compositions

Download PDF (809.2 KB)
pp. 200-209

Notes

Download PDF (136.8 KB)
pp. 210-239

Index

Download PDF (590.0 KB)
pp. 240-250