A Concise History of Jazz

[Lord Larehip]

By the early 20s, most Americans had still not heard real jazz. This changed when Kid Ory’s Sunshine Band played live on the radio in 1922, a piece composed by Ory called “Ory’s Creole Trombone”:

[video=youtube;PWUkShQQwk4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWUkShQQwk4[/video]

The broadcast was recorded and so we have it with us today. Notice how different it is from ODJB. The broadcast is credited with the being the first recording of blacks playing in authentic New Orleans style (although if Ory is black then I’m Louis Farrakhan).

Art Blakeney (left), Ory (center) and Louis Armstrong pal it up backstage at the 1948 Dixieland Jubilee. Louis and Ory were old friends and, in fact, Louis got his big break from Ory when he was just a kid following Ory’s band around New Orleans. He worked up the nerve to approach Ory (who, by all accounts, was a very nice man) and asked to audition. Ory listened to him and told him he played great blues but his jazz needed work. Rather than turn Louis away, Ory brought him into the band under the instruction of the primary cornetist, King Oliver. Oliver and Louis immediately hit it off, becoming as father and son. King taught Louis everything about jazz and the rest is history.