Late Jazz Great Kid Ory’s One-of-a-Kind Horn Is Stolen

“Boo-Boo,” the unique slide horn left to his only child by legendary jazz trombonist Kid Ory, has been stolen by a thief who wittingly or unwittingly made off with a brassy piece of American musical history.

Babette Ory said Thursday she intends to get the trombone back even if she must pay a ransom, reward or personally slog around to the 100 or so pawn shops in and around Los Angeles where it may have been hocked.

She said she had not decided on how much reward or ransom she could pay. But, she added, “If I get it back, there’ll be no questions asked. . . . I won’t press charges.”

She asked anyone with information about the trombone to phone (213) 272-0548.

“I grew up with that trombone. . . . My dad started teaching me to play when I was 2 years old. It is part of me . . . the only family I have now.”

Boo-Boo--the late great Ory called it that because it also was his affectionate nickname for his daughter--was taken from her Hollywood home Wednesday night by a burglar who may have made off with the trombone without realizing its historical, sentimental or monetary value.

Babette Ory, a professional chef, said she had had the trombone appraised recently and that its monetary value as a collector’s item was between $10,000 and $15,000, although police estimated its replacement value at about $4,000.

Los Angeles police said the thief apparently broke into Babette Ory’s home sometime between 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. She returned just as the thief was leaving and was able to tell police only that he was white.

Kid Ory, composer of the Dixieland classic, “Muskrat Ramble,” and a number of other jazz standards, played his last note on Boo-Boo at a 1971 New Orleans concert. He died two years later in Honolulu at the age of 86. He had starred for many years at jazz clubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco and also performed at Disneyland.

A Louisiana Creole, Ory was a master of the tailgate trombone style and began playing in New Orleans in 1907. He claimed that he gave Louis Armstrong his first job as a professional trumpet player in 1918.

Babette Ory said Boo-Boo was handmade for her father sometime in the 1940s by a Los Angeles instrument maker named Earl Williams.

“They worked together on the design,” she said, “so they could get the special sound he wanted--very rich, very gutsy . . . so he could get that good, dirty smear.”

Engraved Scrollwork

The trombone has a smaller than usual bell and intricate engraved scrollwork. The jazzman’s true name--Edward Ory--is engraved inside the bell. The horn’s slide was wrapped with a green plastic band.

Also stolen from the home were an alto sax, a cornet, several guitars, some stereo equipment and jewelry.

But it is the trombone that is important to the jazz great’s daughter.

“I wanted to loan it to the jazz museum at Rutgers University, or to Heritage Hall in New Orleans,” she said. “That trombone was irreplaceable--he gave it to me when I was 12 years old. He said I would have it when he was gone.”