Hal Smith organized On the Levee with one clear aim: to play in the sound of Kid Ory’s revival-period band. Smith, an admirer of Ory drummer Minor Hall, built a team steeped in the idiom — Clint Baker on trombone (enamored with Ory’s own playing), pianist Kris Tokarski, trumpeter Ben Polcer, clarinetist Joe Goldberg, guitarist Alex Belhaj, and bassist Joshua Gouzy, whose primary influence is Ory bassist Ed Garland. The band debuted in Pensacola and found its footing around New Orleans and on the traditional-jazz festival circuit.
Their album Swinging New Orleans Jazz For Dancing — Or Just Listening! (Big Al Records, 2018) collects revival standards — “Original Dixieland One-Step,” “Wolverine Blues,” “Maple Leaf Rag,” “Panama,” “Aunt Hagar’s Blues” — played slow and low with a bobbing swing. The Syncopated Times praised its intentionality: “While there are some bands with 50 years in, or more, still playing in revival style, none are doing it with the intentionality of this group.”
In May 2022 the band performed at the Kid Ory Historic House in LaPlace for the 100th anniversary of Ory’s first recording session, with the set taped for a documentary. The band’s exact founding year is not published; it was a going concern by 2018 and remains one. Smith now lives in Searcy, Arkansas, and travels for engagements, working regularly with Tim Laughlin’s New Orleans All-Stars, Banu Gibson’s New Orleans Hot Jazz Orchestra, and his own New Orleans Night Owls and Morton Seven alongside On the Levee.
