John McCusker, author of Creole Trombone: Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz, stopped by the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage for an interview during Jazz Fest this afternoon. Lucien Barbarin, who tours internationally with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and with Harry Connick, Jr., assisted with musical demontstrations.

Among several points of jazz history that McCusker addressed was the story that Ory left New Orleans for "his health". That's the story he told, but the real impetus for his leaving was a disagreement with a connected Scicilian mobster...