Complex sentence: When Morden had first found Ory in Los Angeles in the early 1940s, he had been retired from music for nine years, sorting mail at the post office, working on his chicken ranch and doing odd jobs.
Split into simpler sentences: When Morden had first found him in Los Angeles in the early 1940s, Ory had been retired from music for nine years. He had been sorting mail at the post office, working on his chicken ranch and doing odd jobs.