Kid Ory: The Trombonist Who Hired Louis Armstrong

The Trombonist Who Hired Louis Armstrong

Edward "Kid" Ory was born on Christmas Day, 1886, near LaPlace, Louisiana, to a Louisiana French-speaking Black Creole family. He grew up on a plantation in St. John the Baptist Parish, taught himself banjo as a boy, and on his twenty-first birthday did what ambitious young musicians from the river parishes always did — he moved to New Orleans.

In the Crescent City, Ory picked up the trombone and became one of the most important bandleaders of early jazz. His band in the 1910s was a who's who of future legends: Joe "King" Oliver played cornet for him, Johnny Dodds played clarinet, Jimmie Noone sat in, and in 1919, a young trumpet player named Louis Armstrong joined the group. Kid Ory had an ear for talent that bordered on supernatural.

The Tailgate Trombone

Ory pioneered the "tailgate" style of trombone playing — named for the position the trombonist occupied on the back of the wagon during parade performances, where the slide had room to move. He was one of the early users of the glissando technique that became central to New Orleans jazz trombone. His playing was percussive, rhythmic, and deeply rooted in the collective improvisation that defined the New Orleans sound.

In 1919, Ory moved to Los Angeles, where in 1922 his band made the first West Coast jazz recordings by an African American New Orleans group. He then relocated to Chicago in 1925 and joined Louis Armstrong's legendary Hot Five sessions — the recordings that changed jazz forever. From 1944 to 1961, he led a revival band that kept traditional New Orleans jazz alive through radio broadcasts and live performances.

From LaPlace to Legend

Kid Ory retired from music in 1966 and moved to Hawaii, where he died on January 23, 1973. He had hired Armstrong, recorded with the Hot Five, pioneered a trombone style that every New Orleans musician after him inherited, and made the first jazz recordings on the West Coast. The kid from LaPlace built the foundation that everyone else played on.