[1] Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana,[2][3] and moved to New Orleans with his family in his youth.

[4] Carey's big band, the Jeffersonians, appeared in the silent films The Legion of the Condemned and The Road to Ruin (both 1928).

[4] In 1941, he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Jelly Roll Morton in Los Angeles.

[5] 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.