Edward Ory was a highly-acclaimed trombonist and a well-known band leader who rose to prominence during the 1910s and employed some of the great jazz players from that era including Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Mutt Carey and Jimmie Dodds. Universally known as 'Kid', Ory grew up in LaPlace, Louisiana until 1907 when he relocated to New Orleans and established one of the city's best-known jazz ensembles.
In 1919 he joined an exodus of a significant group of New Orleans-based jazzmen who moved to the West Coast to pursue their musical careers in Los Angeles - where the burgeoning film industry had provided a range of exciting opportunities for talented musicians. In the mid-1920s Ory moved north to Chicago where he found work in the recording industry with artists such as Jelly Roll Morton, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and his old friend Louis Armstrong.
After a brief hiatus from music during the Great Depression, Ory eventually made a comeback in the 1940s and helped to lead the revival of interest in New Orleans jazz in the post-war era. He eventually retired in 1966 and lived in Hawaii until his death in in 1973 at the age of 86.
