FESTIVAL IN NEW ORLEANS

Gigi Cavicchioli

Translated by Louis Iosub

The days preceding the Festival have seen the return in the city of two great pioneers of jazz : Ed Garland and Kid Ory.

Garland, who left New Orleans in 1914, has appeared several nights at the Preservation Hall, playing a few numbers with all the bands.

Particularly moving was Kid Ory's return, after not having set foot in New Orleans after 1919. When Ory appeared at Gate 19 of the city airport, at 10.40 PM on Monday April 19. a strong Muskrat Ramble (played by the Olympia Brass Band, augmented for the occasion by some twenty volunteer and famous musicians, among whom veteran trombonist Earl Humphrey) has greeted a moved and the 80 years old Ory, moved and incredulous at such a warm welcome.

(...)

After Kid Ory, without trombone, taking the stage to collect a good harvest of applause, comes a little eight years old boy from England  called Enrico Tomasso who quite naturally attacks on vocals with an Armstrongian When It's Sleepy Time Down South gurgled with severe risk for young tonsils.

(...)

And finally, the main dish : Kid Ory's return to limelight after years of retirement. With the usual rhythm section of Ewell, Sayles and Kohlman, reinforced by Danny Barker's guitar, and with Thomas Jefferson on trumpet, Bobby Hackett on cornet and Raymond Burke on clarinet, good old Kid Ory appears on the scene, very thin and tense.

After Eh La Bas, well sung, Ory follows with Yellow Dog Blues, Bill Bailey, and of course the inevitable and immortal Muskrat Ramble, with the support on bass of Ed Garland, other venerable, yet very good, old man. Ory is not heard a lot (some unmistakable vamps in Muskrat Ramble) but frankly only a reckless organisation could hope for anything more.