Mutt Carey

Thomas ‘Papa’ ‘Mutt’ Carey [1891 - September 3, 1948] was a New Orleans cornetist who played with Kid Ory during the 1910s and 20s. He is also recognized for his work as a bandleader during the revival of traditional jazz during the late 1940s.

Thomas Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana in 1891, and moved to New Orleans with his family early in his life. He started on drums, later trying the guitar and the alto horn before finally settling on the cornet. By 1912, he was playing cornet with his older brother, Jack Carey, who was the trombonist and bandleader of the Cresent City Orchestra.

He joined with Kid Ory in 1914, and later toured the vaudeville circuit and played in Chicago in 1917, returning to New Orleans in 1918. The next year he toured with Kid Ory in California, and took over leadership of Ory’s band when Ory left in 1925. He would rejoin with Kid Ory from 1944 until he left in 1947 to make recordings as a bandleader in New York, in which his New Yorkers band was one of the more influential bands in the revival of traditional jazz in the later 1940s. He died in Elsinore, California (near San Francisco) on September 3, 1948.

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