LCV Spring 2013 - (Page 67)
w
hen Edward “Kid” ory left rural LaPlace,
Louisiana, in 1910, he stepped into a 192-yearold city already steeped in a diverse musical
history. the city staged the first opera performances in
north america no later than 1796, when a letter written
by a member of the prominent Pontalba family references
a performance of andréGentry’s Sylvain. By the
antebellum period the city was an opera center with
italian, french and English opera companies. there was
even a local publication, Le Moqueur, devoted entirely to
opera news. in 1837 one writer asserted: “we have now,
in this place, what no city in america, and few cities in
the world can boast of ... strong (opera) companies in the
English, french, and italian languages, and what is more
they are extremely well patronized.” the popularity of
opera institutionalized European musical traditions in
new orleans, providing a marketplace for classical
musicians to perform and numerous venues for the
public, of all stripes, to enjoy.
still, opera, though significant, was but one spoke in
a diverse musical wheel, one that also included public
dancing, singing and drumming among the city’s black
population. there are references to slave dances as early
as 1786, during the spanish colonial period, when a law
was passed restricting the hours of dances at public
squares on sundays until “the close of evening (church)
service.” Public dances were still very much in
evidence in 1808 when one writer described witnessing
blacks making music and dancing on the city’s
outskirts: “they have their own national music,
consisting for the most part of a long kind of narrow
drum of various sizes, from two to eight feet in length,
three or four of which make a band.”
COURTESY OF BABETTE ORY
Editor’s Note: Edward “Kid” Ory
(December 25, 1886 - January 23, 1973) was among the many
great musicians in New Orleans’ first generation of jazz. He
was born at Woodland Plantation near La Place, Louisiana.
After a successful early career working and recording with
Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Joe "King" Oliver and
many others, he retired from music at the onset of the Great
Depression. By the 1940s he reemerged on stage and became
an important force in reviving interest in New Orleans jazz.
opposite: Kid Ory posed in 1947 at his home on Arlington Avenue in Los
Angeles, purchased with the royalties from his famous tune, “Muskrat Ramble.”
above: After several years of obscurity, during the resurgence of interest in
“hot” jazz in the mid-1940s, Ory resurfaced in radio broadcasts, recording
sessions and club appearances. In 1946, Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band played the
Jade Palace in Los Angeles with Bud Scott, Mutt Carey and Joe Darensbourg.
Spring 2013 • Louisiana CuLturaL Vistas 67
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of LCV Spring 2013
LCV Spring 2013
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