Brian Thacker

Irving “Miff” Mole is the trombonist most frequently credited with liberating the trombone from its role as a counter-melody, bass line instrument. Making his recording debut with The Original Memphis Five in the early Twenties, Mole introduced a new level of performance technique for the jazz trombonist. Mole combined the percussive technique of the Dixieland trombone style with a melodic

Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton was born in New York City on Feburary 1, 1904; his parents were from the West Indies and he grew up in the San Juan Hill section of the city.[1. Kurt Dietrich, Duke’s ‘Bones (Rottenberg, Germany: Advance Music, 1995), 19.] Little is known about his childhood, except that he was an avid reader and that as an adult, Nanton had “owned hundreds of books on the most

During the 1920s trombone playing started to develop into a more sophisticated style. Just as jazz was maturing so were the performances of the trombonists. Miff Mole and Joe Nanton were pioneers in new techniques and styles for the trombone in jazz. Growing out of the Dixieland tradition, Nanton is credited with the development of mute and plunger technique on the trombone, copied from the cornet

“Kid” Ory is by far the most famous and familiar of the early Dixieland trombonists. Ory’s career spanned the mid 1890s to the 1960s; during this time he continued to play in the Dixieland style while jazz progressed in other areas. With the revival in Dixieland style in the 1960s, Ory again found himself in the forefront of performance circles, being one of the few original musicians still