ORY STILL VITAL

Jazz pioneer Kid Ory gave during his visit in October, many examples of good vitality, despite that he was born the same years as the birth of jazz. Musically speaking, his visits not very rewarding. This was what one might expect, since it was announced that he would bring a temporarily assembled orchestra and not his regular band. It's a known fact that for a good musical performance in traditional jazz, musicians are required to interact well and also that they are at the same wavelength musically. There was no reason to assume that this was the case considering such different musicians as the three blowers Kid Ory, Red Allen and Bob McCracken.

It is therefore easy to understand that the concerts noted a relatively low attendance. Of the three blowers. Allen appeared out of place and it was only rarely we could hear his marrow-filled trumpet tone that he is capable of. Probably he was deliberately kept back and he

was not allowed to have the solo space he needed for performing well. McCracken's is a skilled musician but lacked the stature as a band in the style needs. The orchestra's best assets was now the rhythm section, with pianist Cedric Haywood who accounted for some excellent efforts and his solos always meant an intensification in the musical events. He had good help of drummer Alton Redd, a musician who was a positive surprise. The bassist seemed, compared to the other two in the rhythm section, almost amateur.

The overall impression of the concerts was certainly a lot better than Ory´s last visit and I do not think they regretted that they had gone there.