Creole Trombone Brings Kid Ory's Contributions To The Fore

Creole Trombone:Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz

John McCusker

University Press of Mississippi

2012: Jackson MS

Ed ‘Kid’ Ory was a pioneering New Orleans musician who was associated with some of the most important artists of the new jazz music of the early part of the 20th Century including Buddy Bolden, King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. Leading the Creole Jazz Band in California he made one of the earliest (if not earliest) recordings by a Creole New Orleans Jazz Band. He was an important component of some of Louis Armstrong’s most important small group recordings of the twenties and also some of King Oliver’s Chicago sessions.

In writing Ory’s story, McCusker was given access to Ory’s unpublished autobiography that was narrated in 1950 to Barbara GaNung, at the time his mistress and later his wife. It was initially taken in shorthand and later typed. This combined with his research into statistical, sacramental and public records. He weaves his story in the context of a creole, born 25 miles upriver from New Orleans, at a time when the racist southern white assault on the rights of non-whites occurred. Louisiana was the state whose law requiring separate accommodations was upheld in the infamous case of “Plessy v Ferguson.”

McCusker traces Ory’s early musical experiences growing up in a world where a racist caste system was imposed and all persons of color were disenfranchised. Ory first acquired a banjo when 13, a gift from his ailing father.  As a child he became familiar with Creole folk songs which he would perform later in his life. Brass bands of St. John Parish, where he grew up, piqued Ory’s curiosity and itinerant music teachers would come from New Orleans and offer musical instruction, with a James Brown Humphrey (father of grandsons Willie and Percy themselves noted jazzmen). Humphrey led the Onward Brass Band in LaPlace, taught children and young adults on the plantations and remote communities. Humphrey would also rehearse bands from the students he rehearsed including the Pickwick Brass band which Ory played in. McCusker’s narrative also discusses the traveling musicians and bands and the social functions that music would be heard at.

Ory displayed an entrepreneurial spirit in addition to a musical one. He acquired a beat up valve trombone and later changed to the more modern slide trombone. Moving to New Orleans, he met Buddy Bolden, who left a definite impression on Ory. Bolden’s musical innovation, as detailed by McCusker, was playing the blues for dances and such songs as Make Me a Pallet On the Floor and Funky Butt, were sensations. While not able to accept Bolden’s offer to play trombone, but watching Bolden play, as well as the competing John Robichaux with its musicality, he was able to have his own idea on how a band might sound.

After Bolden’s passing, Ory started leading bands in St.John Parish, sometimes playing in New Orleans. In 1910 he finally moved to New Orleans, first living with family members. Here Ory and his band would play at the dance halls country dances and picnics, and would enter cutting contests with other bands (such as that of Freddie Keppard) and an association with other individuals who would become major figures in early jazz as Johnny Dodds, an early encounter with young Luis Armstrong who would sit in with Ory’s Band at a picnic. Later the arrival of King Oliver (replacing Mutt Carey) would solidify Ory’s Band as the leading band in New Orleans and they would become known as the Ory-Oliver Band. When Oliver left for Chicago, Armstrong replaced him. 

Not simply a successful bandleader and musician, Ory was astute as a businessman and successful in sponsoring dances. When a former benefactor started sponsoring dances with Ory, Ory became dissatisfied with their deal and started sponsoring dances on his own. This led to police raids and probable threats on his life that led him to leave for California in August 1919 where he would be until 1925. Armstrong and Dodds were supposed to have joined Ory, but they didn’t so some of his former band members were recruited. His band became a leading band in Los Angeles and he met Arnie Norakog and the Spike Brothers In 1921 he would be recorded by Norakog and these were released by the Spike Brothers. These were some of the earliest jazz recordings by African-American musicians, including the original recording of Ory’s Creole Trombone, that later would be recorded by Louis Armstrong with Ory in the band. McCusker spends considerable space discussing the session, its importance and the music. These recordings are available on, Cabaret Echoes: New Orleans Jazzers at Work, 1918-1927 on the Off the Record label. 

Musically things cooled off so in 1925 Ory moved to Chicago, settling in the Windy City and becoming a sideman on some of the most famous recordings of the twenties, starting with Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five recordings. Ory’s recollections of making the recordings are included along with McCusker’s discussion of some of the recordings and Ory’s role on them.  Ory would join and tour with King Oliver’s, The Dixie Syncopators until 1927. McCusker also details Ory’s relationship with Jelly Roll Morton with whom Ory recorded as a member of the Red Hot Peppers for some important recordings such as Black Bottom Stomp, but did not participate on later Morton recordings. He also recorded in Chicago with Luis Russell, Irene Scruggs and Butterbeans and Susie with his final recordings of the 1920s being with Johnny Dodds’ Chicago Footwarmers. 

Before the end of the decade, he followed his wife back to California. He would struggle playing music until in 1933 at the age of 46 he quit and took a job as a janitor with the Santa Fe Railroad. He didn’t totally quit music and by September 1942 was playing in Barney Bigard’s band that included Charles Mingus on bass. Bigard, as detailed by McCusker, helped Ory get paid royalties for Ory’s tune “Muskrat Ramble. In 1944, Orson Welles had Ory lead a band for his radio show and with this visibility Ory’s Band recorded for several labels.  Various albums have reissued transcriptions of Ory playing on Wells radio program and these are available as a download as well.. There are also details about his relationship with his second wife, a white woman, Barbara GaNung. She is depicted as a manipulative and controlling woman who was abusive to Ory, leading him to deny his African-American background and cut him off from many of his old friends and bandmates. This chapter, on his post Chicago years, is somewhat summarily presented in contrast to the discussion of his life which is the subject of the main body of the book. 

In addition to this detailed narrative of Ory’s life, McCusker has included a couple of short excerpts from Ory’s Autobiography, a selected Discography of Ory’s recordings, and the music for four “lost” compositions by Ory. There are also some rare photographs and label shots included, nearly 30 pages of end notes and an index. Creole Trombone is an invaluable look at a gentleman who played a substantial role in the development of jazz as well as the times and social context in which he lived. It is a significant addition to the jazz literature.

I purchased this. This review also appeared in the May-June 2013 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 348). Here is Kid Ory with Henry 'Red' Allen in Paris. I have made a few changes in my original review to reflect the comments from Kid Ory's daughter Babette. Babette's recollections of her father, along with Kid Ory's 1921 recordings, can be heard on the afore-mentioned Cabaret Echoes: New Orleans Jazzers at Work, 1918-1927 on the Off the Record label.

Butch Thompson and Pat Donohue Have The Vicksburg Blues.

Vicksburg Blues (Red House Records) is the first collaboration between pianist and clarinetist Butch Thompson and singer-guitarist Pat Donohue. The two have been staples of the blues, jazz and folk scenes in the Twin Cities, and have been regular performers for several decades on the national radio show, A Prairie Home Companion.

Donohue is one of the leading fingerstyle guitarists alive, while Thompson is amongst the leading interpreters of traditional jazz and ragtime piano. Thompson, mentored by the late Little Brother Montgomery, shows himself here to be quite a fine blues pianist, while Donohue got to see Big Joe Williams, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Jesse Fuller in the seventies before becoming one of the most accomplished guitarists in the tradition of a Blind Blake and Big Bill Broonzy, both of whom were comfortable playing with jazz musicians. Blake for example recorded with the likes of Johnny Dodds.

The album has them interpreting a number of classic blues from Leroy Carr, Blake, Jelly roll Morton and Little Brother Montgomery as well as early jazz numbers from Clarence Williams and Clarence Johnson, and King Oliver. The pair also contribute five originals as well as a composition Thompson collaborated with Little Brother. From the opening moments of Carr’s Midnight Hour Blues to the closing Thompson original Yancey Blues, their deft and imaginative playing and Donohue’s natural and heartfelt singing make for a truly delightful recording.

The opening Midnight Hour Blues certainly displays the empathy the two have four each other (and the melody was lifted by Robert Johnson for From Four Until Late). Its followed by Carr’s most famous song, How Long, How Long Blues with Thompson’s playing evidencing his love for Jimmy Yancey’s wistful style. The vocal and playing on Blind Blake’s gambling blues, Poker Woman (“I won a woman in a poker game, I lost her to another just the same”) evokes to me some of Big Bill Broonzy’s recordings with pianist Black Bob. Thompson conjures up Little Brother Montgomery’s piano style for Vicksburg Blues with Donohue singing strongly and sparely adding his guitar here.

Thompson’s velvety clarinet comes to the fore on If I Had You, while another Leroy Carr, Papa’s On the Housetop is a playful and rollicking performance, true to the spirit of the eighty year old original recording and followed by the pensive rendition of Jelly Roll Morton’s 219 Blues. Better Days is a lively feature for Donohue’s fluid playing followed by his Blues For Two, where he plays National Resonator style guitar in the vein of Tampa Red with Thompson adding his solid piano. Sunday Rag is a lovely original rag that Thompson and Montgomery co-wrote. Thompson plays straight ragtime here with Donohue’s complimenting him in a fashion I think Reverend Gary davis would have approved of. More lovely clarinet is heard from Thompson on James P. Johnson’s You Can’t Lose a Broken Heart.

Instrumentals, such as King Oliver’s Workingman Blues, takes us back to the early twenties with the interesting, if subdued playing. After the lively original “That D Strain,” the album closes with the melancholy Yancey Blues, Thompson’s tribute to the legendary Jimmy Yancey. It concludes this truly splendid album of traditionally oriented blues and jazz. This is simply the finest album of blues piano and guitar duets in a number of years and certainly one of the finest new blues albums I have heard in 2012.

I received my review copy from Red House Records.  This is scheduled for release on August 14. Here is Butch Thompson doing an instrumental How Long, How Long Blues in the vein of Jimmy Yancey and then Pat Donohue doing Mississippi John Hurt's Spike Driver Blues.

After All These Years McDermott and Christopher are Almost Native

It is easy to label both pianist Tom McDermott and clarinetist Evan Christopher as traditional jazz musicians, but both transcend that simple label.McDermott, a pianist rooted in ragtime and Jelly Roll Morton, has also become renown for his interpretations of the Brazilian choro idiom and the music of New Orleans legend James Booker. Christopher has become one of the most highly regarded clarinet players today and is a 2011 Jazz Journalists Association nominee, who has also exhibited abilities to excel beyond traditional jazz as evident by his European gypsy jazz recordings and his intriguing interpretations of modern jazz including a marvelous medley of Ornette Coleman’s Lonely Woman and Ramblin’, and John Coltrane’s After The Rain.

The new album by the pair, Almost Native (Threadhead Records) takes it title from the fact that someone asked Tom if he was born in New Orleans, and after he answers he moved there in 1984, they respond, “”Oh, well you’re almost a native then.” This latest recording is a duo recording of originals by the pair, eight by McDermott, and two by Christopher that displays the considerable empathy between them which enhances the lyricism at root of both their styles.

The music moves from the wistfulness of the opening Tango Ambiguo (Ambiguous Tango), the indigo charm of Christopher’s slow Waltz For All Souls which evokes George Lewis’ bluesy playing, the raggy playfulness of Le Manège Rouge (The Red Merry-Go-Round), to the the atmospheric Spooky Blues (For Booker)/Quite Enough Blues, with McDermott’s spare, restrained playing effectively setting the mood. There is a bit of cheeky humor for “The Don’t-Mess-With-My Two-Step, a piano solo, followed by a delightful and playful, Chorando Em Paris (Playing Choro In Paris). The last original recording here is a march, March of the Pony Girls, which exhibits all the warmth and humor the two exhibit throughout this.

A bonus track, the lively Irresistível (Irresistible), derives from McDermott’s New Orleans Duets and concludes a thoroughly charming recording. It is available from www.louisianamusicfactory.com, cdbaby, itunes and other sources. Tom McDermott’s website is www.mcdermottmusic.com and Evan Christopher's website is www.clarinetroad.net. 

Evan Christopher and Tom McDermott doing an in-store performance
at the Louisiana Music Factory on Decatur Street in New Orleans.

Classic Commodore Reissues

The introduction of the compact disc had a definite benefit in allowing the reissue of vintage jazz and blues material, including much that had never been reissued on vinyl LPs. Back in June 1997, Jazz & Blues Report, issue 222, ran my review of several reissues of material from the legendary Commodore label. Amazon does show some of these as still available.

GRP Records recently acquired the Commodore label catalog of classic jazz recordings from the thirties and forties. Founded by Milt Gabler, owner of the Commodore Record Store, and later an important figure at Decca Records, it was among the most important of the early jazz independent labels that started to flourish during the swing era. GRP has launched an important series of reissues from the label with a collection celebrating Commodore, along with five albums devoted to artists.

The Commodore Story (CMD-2-400) is a double disc survey of the label which presents an overview of many of the artists represented on the label. It opens with a segment called Commodore Highlights, with six selections starting with Eddie Condon’s Chicago style jazz group on a rousing Love is Just Around the Corner, and Billie Holiday’s famous reading of Abel Meeropool’s powerful protest song, Strange Fruit. The remainder of the first disc is broken into segments - A Handful of Stars; A Handful of Guest Stars, and Revival and Reminiscence; while the second disc has segments devoted to Trumpets (and Cornets); Trombones; Reeds; and Pianists. It would take far too much space to list all of the performers, much less discuss all of the music, but highlights include Lester Young on Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, a rare sample of his clarinet playing, Roy Eldridge with Chu Berry on a take of Body and Soul that predates Coleman Hawkins’ classic recording, Jelly Roll Morton’s solo rendition of Mamie’s Blues, Bunk Johnson’s Franklin Street Blues, an early recording in the New Orleans revival, Will Bill Davison’s That’s a Plenty, the unique clarinet styling of Pee Wee Russell on Keeping Out of Mischief, Art Hodes’ wonderful blues piano solo, A Selection From the Gutter and Willie ‘the Lion’ Smith’s accurately entitled masterwork of stride piano, Finger Buster. This is a terrific sampler of the breadth of the Commodore catalog which is centered mostly on pre-bebop styles of jazz.

Billie Holiday came to Commodore after Columbia refused to record her singing the topical Strange Fruit in 1939. Commodore allowed her to do a four song session which included that song, the ballad Yesterday, her blues Fine and Mellow, and I Got a Right to Sing the Blues. After Columbia dropped Holiday, she returned to Commodore in 1944 with pianist Eddie Heywood for three sessions. Commodore’s Milt Gabler would soon produce more Holiday for Decca which would involve a shift from the swing combos that predominated on her many recordings. Holiday only recorded sixteen songs for Commodore, and these are presented with a a number of alternates for several titles on The Complete Commodore Recordings (CMD-2-401). Given the number of alternates (Only Fine and Mellow and On the Sunny Side of the Street are heard by single recordings), the chronological presentation of the material (alternates and all) does not serve a casual listener well. Holiday remains the jazz vocalist supreme, phrasing her vocals like a Louis Armstrong trumpet solo (to cite Tony Bennett and others). However, the studio bands anchored by Eddie Heywood’s piano suffer (as do any latter Holiday) when compared to the exquisite backings of the Teddy Wilson led combos, particularly those with Lester Young. The accompaniments, particularly a series of trios, get a bit lugubrious, an effect emphasized by the sequencing of the alternate performances together. But whatever her limitations, Holiday’s ability to turn a phrase, deliver her lyrics, and project her vulnerability and hurting still haunts over fifty years after these recordings were waxed. A single disc containing all of the performances along with the best alternates would be a near essential purchase. As good as the music is here, it is more for the jazz collector as opposed to the generalist.

Lester Young had been in New York when the recordings on The “Kansas City” Sessions (CMD-402) were made. The Kansas City refers to the Kansas City Five (or Six), the title for the small group ensembles that were recorded. After John Hammond recorded a Buck Clayton session with the Basie rhythm section with Eddie Durham’s electric guitar replacing the Count’s piano, Columbia rejected the session. Hammond brought three of the four sides to Gabler (he couldn’t find the fourth), and Gabler arranged to bring back the group, along with Lester Young, for five titles and released them as being by The Kansas City Six or The Kansas City Five (the tracks without Young). The sides with Young are particularly sublime, with Young and Buck Clayton playing with a mute for the heads before either of them or the fleet Durham would take a solo. The rhythm trio of rhythm guitarist Freddie Greene, bassist Walter Page and drummer Jo Jones define swing with their playing while Young, whether soling on tenor with a feathery, ethereal tone or a similarly velvety clarinet (as on Countless Blues and Pagin’ the Devil), is at the height of his melodious, lyrical, yet always earthy approach, with Clayton’s trumpet and Durham’s fleet single note guitar adding distinctive touches. Like Young’s recording debut on the Jones-Smith small group sides for Columbia, several of these recordings approach perfection, and if Freddie Greene cannot come close to his then girl friend Billie Holiday as a vocalist on Them There Eyes, Young’s tenor break certainly elevates it. Young would lead another Kansas City Six, five and a half years later with Jo Jones returning, along with trombonist Dickie Wells trumpeter Bill Coleman, pianist Joe Bushkin and bassist John Simmons for four tunes in which Young’s tenor saxophone dominates, but Wells provides more than a few delights including’ solos on the various takes of I Got Rhythm. Round this off with the four 1938 sides led by Buck Clayton, and you have a classic collection of small group session from swing’s heyday.

Last sessions (CMD-403) from Jelly Roll Morton collects a series of solo piano and small group recordings the pioneering jazz pianist and composer made for the General label shortly after making his famous Library of Congress Recordings (of which the music has been reissued on Rounder). By the time these were made, Morton’s career had fallen quite a bit from the days he was quite a dandy, as when he made the legendary Red Hot Pepper recordings for Victor. Constantly reminding others of his status as the creator of jazz, his solo pieces include a terrific rag, renditions of Winin’ Boy, Heard Buddy Bolden Say, the amusing children’s lyric on Animule Dance and Mamie’s Blues. Morton adds to the charm of several numbers with very amiable vocals and some commentary. The remainder of the album are small groups sessions, all of which have trumpeter Red Allen among others. If not having the precision of the Red Hot Pepper recordings (among the jazz masterpieces of the twenties), they all are spirited performances that show that even shortly before his passing, Morton could play and sing with vitality, and even have a little fun at the expense of the swing bands that had adopted his King Porter Stomp.

Perhaps not essential Jelly Roll, but still an important collection. Wild Bill Davison’s fiery trumpet graced many a “Dixieland” record date or jam session with his full speed ahead, take no prisoners uncompromising attack. The Commodore Master Takes (CMD-404) has the 24 sides Davison recorded as a leader in the company of such traditional jazz players as guitarist Eddie Condon, trombonist George Brunies and clarinet players Pee Wee Russell, Edmond Hall and Albert Nicholas. Many of the tracks are traditional jazz flagwavers, like That’s a Plenty, Muskrat Ramble, Original Dixieland One Step and High Society. The group can mute the energy level a bit for Baby Won’t You Please Come Home and Someday Sweetheart, while they get playful on Fats Waller’s Squeeze Me, which sports a particularly appealing solo by Russell on clarinet in addition to Davison’s wide open horn. This is not music for the head, and some of the ensemble playing lacks some of the charm of the better New Orleans ensembles (like those of George Lewis), but this is music for the heart and the feet, and he was still blowing strong until he passed away in 1989.

Clarinet Pee Wee Russell’s Commodore collection is titled Jazz Original (CMD-405) and accurately suggests his individuality. The Commodore recordings compiled here include several under Eddie Condon’s nominal leadership, an alternate of Squeeze Me from a Davison session, four selections with the Three Deuces (Russell, pianist Joe Sullivan and drummer Zutty Singleton), and the closing four titles by Pee Wee Russell’s Hot Four (heard on a total of eight takes). While the backing might suggest a traditional jazz backing, he was equally at home in the company of Fats Waller, Coleman Hawkins and Red Allen, and with Allen appeared with Ornette Coleman’s rhythm section. Unlike Wild Bill Davison, Russell’s playing can’t be pigeon-holed as a traditional jazz or Dixieland. He’s too much a swing player as well as a helluva blues player, as he shows on two takes of Serenade to a Shylock which offer Jack Teagarden’s persuasive singing as well. The trio sides with Sullivan and Singleton are a particular delight, and display the melodic quality characteristic of his playing. The ensemble playing here is generally stronger than on the Davison collection, as can be heard on the spirited alternate take of a Muggsy Spanier-led rendition of Rosetta. This album will probably be the biggest revelation for many. After all, Pres, Lady Day and Jelly Roll are among jazz’s greatest legends. Pee Wee Russell’s music may not reach the Olympian heights of their finest work, but he soars fairly high.

For purposes of FTC regulations, I was provided the review copies by Jazz & Blues Report.

A Brassy Classical Salute to Satchmo

This review has been submitted to Jazz & Blues Report, and hopefully will be published in its August issue.

The celebrated Canadian Brass has issued a release “Swing That Music: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong” (Opening Day Entertainment Group), an album that puts a classical take on swing jazz. Louis Armstrong was of course one of the seminal musicians of the 20th Century, and I forget which jazz writer (it may have been Gary Giddins) observed he even influenced how classical trumpeters played. On this release, the Canadian Brass salutes Satchmo in a program of tunes associated with Armstrong and some of his contemporaries. The songs range from the title track, which was a big band hit for Armstrong, to James P. Johnson’s “Carolina Shout,” Jelly Roll Morton’s “Black Bottom Stomp,” and several George Gershwin compositions including “Promenade” from the musical “Strike Up the Band.”

Its entertaining to hear the various songs translated into a chamber group format, and much of the credit goes to the late Luther Henderson as a writer, arranger, orchestrator and more who worked with Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Victor Borge and the Canadian Brass, to whom he contributed over 100 arrangements including arrangements to 11 of the 17 selections here including recasting Johnson’s stride piano classic to the brass group, three Bach preludes, Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” Waller, Razaf and Brooks’ “Black & Blues” (which Armstrong was one of those who popularized along with “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” The arrangements allow brief solos with the other horns adding color or musical counterpoint. The playing is spirited and as expected the members of Canadian brass have marvelous tone and technique, yet they certainly bring enthusiasm and charm to a collection of performances that might be called chamber jazz. Particular performances that stand out might be the wistful melancholy of “Black & Blue,” along with the jaunty rendition of “Black Bottom Stomp,” and one of the classic Hot Five recordings “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue,” with its nice voicings and playful quoting of “Shortnin’ Bread,” during the performance. “Swing That Music” is worth hearing, and many will find this a delightful chance of pace.

The Canadian Brass website from which this can be purchased is http://www.canbrass.com. Downloads are available for purchase from itunes and amazon.