The handwriting on the sheet is consistent with that of Armstrong. This item, along with photographs, music manuscripts, band arrangements, and ephemera, provides a wealth of information about the life and career of Ory (1886–1973), a key figure in the early history of jazz.

Born into a multiracial family of St. John the Baptist Parish sugarcane laborers, Ory went on to lead what Armstrong termed “one of the hottest jazz bands” in New Orleans in the 1910s. Ory’s notable sidemen of that era included Armstrong, Dodds, and Joseph “King” Oliver. After he moved to Los Angeles in 1919, Ory’s band became the first Black jazz band from New Orleans to record (1922), and his compositions “Savoy Blues” and Muskrat Ramble” are considered jazz standards. In the 1920s, he recorded with Armstrong, Oliver, and Jelly Roll Morton in Chicago, performing on classic recordings like Armstrong’s “Strutting with Some Barbeque,” Morton’s “Grandpa’s Spells,” and Oliver’s “Sugarfoot Stomp.”

Ory spent the Great Depression away from music, working as a janitor at the Santa Fe Railroad office in Los Angeles and tending a chicken business on the side. But in the 1940s, buoyed by a revival in interest in early jazz, he mounted a comeback. Soon he was appearing on national radio broadcasts, in motion pictures and, most importantly to jazz fans, on records. His band was a critical link in the evolution of jazz, between the demise of Buddy Bolden in 1906 and the ascent of Louis Armstrong in 1918. Ory rode the revival until his retirement in 1965.

The recently acquired Edward “Kid” Ory Papers trace each era of Ory’s half-century-long career, providing a glimpse into the world of the pioneering jazzman. Noteworthy items include the only known photographic portrait of Ory, taken in New Orleans circa 1917; sheet music likely in the hand of Jelly Roll Morton from a 1926 recording session Ory played on in Chicago; and personal snapshots of a day spent crawfishing in California with his brother Johnny in the late 1930s.

There are more than a hundred other photographs, including group pictures of bands Ory played in. There is music—a lot of music, in many forms, including manuscripts, transcribed arrangements of Ory band material from the 1940s and ’50s, and decades of commercial sheet music that offer a window into what tunes caught the trombonist’s ear over the years.

And there is Ory’s valve trombone: the silver Pan-American instrument was manufactured in Elkhart, Indiana, though the date remains uncertain (post-1918, possibly as late as the 1930s). Ory started on the valve trombone as a youth, circa 1904, but soon switched to a slide trombone. Ory’s signature style, dubbed “tailgate,” requires a slide trombone to execute the smears, slides, and growls essential to the sound. His ownership of the antiquated valve instrument is curious.

The collection was held for four decades by Ory’s stepson, Arthur GaNung, and was acquired by the author in 2020.

“It is rare to find such a rich cache of personal papers of one of the early jazz greats. The acquisition will fuel research in traditional New Orleans–style jazz for generations,” said Senior Historian Mark Cave.