Kid Ory

[jeffcrom]

I found an interesting Kid Ory website, and wanted to post a link in the Kid Ory thread here. Except that, as far as I could tell, there wasn't a Kid Ory thread. There should be, so here it is. If I'm wrong, administrators please merge, and I'll edit this post.

When I got interested in jazz as a teenager, my mom, who loved to rummage through junk stores, started bringing home anything that looked like a jazz album. When I was (I think) 16, she came home with an Ory album called This Kid's the Greatest - a collection of mid-50's tracks on Contemporary's Good Time Jazz subsidiary. I had previously heard some of the Armstrong Hot Five tracks, but the power and assurance of the 70-year-old Ory's playing on the Good Time Jazz LP made a huge impression on me.

Even at that time, I recognized that Ory's music was somewhat limited - but perfect within those limits, like many mostly self-taught, "folk" musicians. Ory was more than that, but probably not much more.

Anyway, here's a link to a poorly-designed website that is going to provide me hours of interesting browsing.