Kid Ory

AKA:

Father of Dixieland Jazz

Birth Name:

Edward Ory

Birth Date:

December 25, 1886

Birth Place:

LaPlace, Louisiana

Death Date:

January 23, 1973

Place of Death:

Honolulu, Hawaii

Age:

Cause of Death:

Pneumonia and a heart attack

Cemetery Name:

Holy Cross Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Music

Edward "Kid" Ory was an American jazz composer, trombonist and bandleader. One of the early users of the glissando technique, he helped establish it as a central element of New Orleans jazz. As trombonist and bandleader, Kid Ory was a pioneer of the traditional New Orleans jazz style and played a key role in the New Orleans Revival of the 1940s. He is credited as the leader of the first black New Orleans jazz band to make a recording, and Ory’s recording of “Creole Song” in 1944 is the first documented performance of a jazz-informed song sung in Creole patois. During his long musical career, he worked alongside with jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Joseph “King” Oliver, Jimmie Noone, Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Sidney Bechet. Ory retired from music in 1966 and spent his last years in Hawaii.

Fun Fact

Kid Ory was a mentor and teacher to Benny Goodman and Charlie Mingus.

When the Depression lowered the curtain on the Jazz Age, Ory returned to California, where he worked as a postal sorter and ran a chicken ranch. Fortunately his career was far from over when he was at the forefront of the second Jazz Age in the 1940s and 1950s.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Holy Cross Cemetery

5835 West Slauson Avenue

Culver City, California, 90230

USA

North America

Map:

Cemetery map of Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, Los Angeles, California

Grave Location:

Grotto Section, Lot 59, Grave 4

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery turn left and drive by the former office and up the hill. As you approach the Grotto cave on your left, park 30 rows downhill from the cave. Ory’s simple monument is in the second row from the curb.