Mutt Carey

The All Star Jazz Group, left to right: Ed Garland (bass), Buster Wilson (piano), Marili Morden (proprietor, Jazz Man Records), Jimmie Noone (clarinet), Mutt Carey (trumpet), Zutty Singleton (drums), Kid Ory (trombone), Bud Scott (guitar)

Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana, in 1891,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. Carey toured the vaudeville circuits in 1917. He worked with Kid Ory on and off through the 1910s, and went to California with Ory in late 1919, making his first recordings there about 1921.

When Ory moved to Chicago, Illinois, Carey took over leadership of the band which was based in Los Angeles, California through the 1930s.

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. Renamed Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band, the group then made a significant series of recordings on the Crescent Records label.

Carey left Ory's band in 1947 to lead a group under his own name. He died in Lake Elsinore, California, on September 3, 1948, aged 56.