Thomas "Papa Mutt" Carey (September 17, 1891 – September 3, 1948) was an American jazz trumpeter.[1]
Mutt Carey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Thomas Carey |
| Also known as | Papa Mutt Carey |
| Born | September 17, 1891 Hahnville, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | September 3, 1948 (aged 56) Lake Elsinore, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Instrument | Trumpet |
| Formerly of | Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band |
Early life
edit
Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana,[2][3] and moved to New Orleans with his family in his youth. His older brother Jack Carey was a trombone player and bandleader; Mutt was playing cornet in his brother's band by about 1912.
Career
editAlthough Carey's early work was with brass bands in the New Orleans area (1913–17),[4] in 1914, he started working with Kid Ory[4] and would continue to do so, on and off, through the 1910s.
After touring the vaudeville circuits in 1917,[4] he returned to New Orleans in 1918[4] and then went to California with Ory in 1919,[4] eventually taking over leadership of the band when Ory left in 1925.[4]
Carey's big band, the Jeffersonians, appeared in the silent films The Legion of the Condemned and The Road to Ruin (both 1928).[4]
Carey rejoined Ory's band from around 1929 to 1933, when the lack of work during the Depression led him to work as a Pullman porter.[4] In 1941, he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Jelly Roll Morton in Los Angeles.[5]
In March 1944 Carey rejoined Ory in an all-star band that was a leader of the West Coast revival of traditional New Orleans jazz, put together for the CBS Radio series The Orson Welles Almanac. The All Star Jazz Group also included Ed Garland, Jimmie Noone (succeeded by Barney Bigard), Bud Scott, Zutty Singleton and Buster Wilson.[6][7][8] Renamed Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band, the group then made a significant series of recordings on the Crescent Records label.[9]
Carey left Ory's band in 1947 to lead a group under his own name.[1]
Personal life
editCarey died in Lake Elsinore, California, on September 3, 1948, aged 56.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 76. ISBN 0-85112-580-8.
- ^ Carr, Ian Fairweather Digby, and Priestley, Brian. The Rough Guide to Jazz, Third Edition. Rough Guides Ltd., 2004. p. 125.
- ^ Kernfedl, Barry, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Macmillan, 1994. p. 185.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Zieff, Bob. "Carey, (Papa) Mutt". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
- ^ "Bury Jelly Roll Morton on Coast". DownBeat. 8 (15): 13. August 1, 1941. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
- ^ "Radio Almanac". RadioGOLDINdex. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- ^ "Orson Welles Almanac—Part 1". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- ^ "Orson Welles Almanac—Part 2". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- ^ Ertegun, Nesuhi. Liner notes for Tailgate! Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band. Good Time Jazz Records L-10 and L-11, 1953, also used for Good Time Jazz Records L-12022, 1957.
External links
edit- Mutt Carey 1891-1948 at the Red Hot Jazz Archive
- 1944 Orson Welles Broadcasts at The Kid Ory Archive
- 1945 Jade Palace at The Kid Ory Archive
- Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band: 1944–1945 The Legendary Crescent Recording Sessions at AllMusic (Scott Yanow)