The title of the CD to my left  this morning is quite a run-on, but in the interest of accuracy here goes: Preservation Hall Jazz Band: New Orleans Preservations, Volume 1. If you don’t have enough preservation in your cultural food chain, this one delivers a feast. This is a superb recording of old songs from the New Orleans Style canon that shimmers with a fine instrumental attack.

More is the pity that executive producer Ben Jaffe released it without liner notes to give a sense of why certain songs made the cut and their provenance. The third cut, “El Manicero,” is a wonderful version of “The Peanut Vendor,” albeit without the sweetly swinging scat-vocals we remember from Louis Armstrong’s take. The instrumental paean to a street salesman at his peanut cart carries a habañera feel and features a flowing interplay by trumpeter Mark Braud, clarinetist Charlie Gabriel’s dancing lines and Clint Maedgen humming along with his tenor sax. I don’t remember the last time I saw a jazz ensemble play this song from the bandstand; it was probably at Palm Court back during the first Clinton Administration. READ MORE->

Even on a sultry, drizzling June night in New Orleans, Preservation Hall packs them in. Fortunately, the tourists who come searching for the traditional jazz that was born in this city are served up the real music that locals might take for granted. What makes it different from some tourist destinations is that the history of jazz lives within its chipped cement walls as well as in the musicians that play within its environs. Those of us who live in New Orleans know these guys such as bassist Walter Payton, who taught many a youngster who attended McDonogh 15 in the Quarter and have gone on to enjoy professional careers themselves. Musicians who have jazz running through their veins-like trumpeter Mark Braud of the legendary Brunious family and Joe Lastie whose Ninth Ward clan helped to create and carry on New Orleans music-remain regulars here. READ MORE->

"By now, it can’t be a surprise that there’s a lot that is subtly smart about the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Like the best traditional jazz, little of what’s special about New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1is obvious, but a little contemplation reveals a lot. For instance, it’s not until you get to Walter Payton’s faux-Armstrong vocal on “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” that you hear the sort of voice you expect on the album. Otherwise, Clint Maedgen and Mark Braud’s vocals suggest that traditional jazz isn’t just music for tourists and older generations. The inclusion of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel #9” and “Choko Mo Feel No Hey” (minus second line drums) says that traditional jazz is an approach to music, not a narrow library of antique texts. The inclusion of Maedgen’s original “Halloween” implies that the music can handle new songs as well. The pleasures of New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1 aren’t solely conceptual. The ensemble playing is often wonderful, particularly in the ecstatic conclusion to “Tiger Rag,” where Braud’s trumpet and Charlie Gabriel’s clarinet keep threatening to break away from the band and each other, but never stray for good. On the Hall band’s first album since John Brunious’ passing, it also includes a second line of sorts for him, with “Westlawn Dirge” followed by a joyful “What a Friend” near the end of the album.

If nothing else, New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1 is a public service because it reminds the many young traditional jazz bands in town how it’s done. Many are all energy with accelerated tempos and sometimes manic energy, but the Hall band measures out the music more deliberately, saving the energy so that when it ramps up, it has more impact. “Wish I Could Shimmy …” also tells young bands that nobody, not even Preservation Hall, should engage in Satchmo impressions because they’re always going to be FTO—For Tourists Only—no matter how well the song is played." -Alex Rawls

"If Disneyland supposedly tops the list, then Preservation Hall in New Orleans’ French Quarter has to be the second-happiest place on Earth. Walking into the old barebones room is like entering a time warp, traveling back to a period where there were no frills and the thrills all emanated right off the bandstand. The walls in the Hall are dark with age, and the humid air hangs in the Crescent City like a dare to those who go there. There are no fancy lights; rather the eyes are left to conjure some of their own details in the musicians’ faces. Make no mistake: those that play here are from a special class. They honor the traditions of a time many now see as antiquated, but actually exist in the rarefied place where forward movement is not counted in years. Inside Preservation Hall the clock stands still, except for the rushing blood of those lucky enough to sit on the benches and listen to music being played that helps define where we came from and where we are going. It is world music by the simple fact that people from around the planet flock there to try and touch a greatness not easily found today. These new recordings honor that tradition and then some.  Young and old players make up the present Preservation Hall Jazz Band as they must, since the other side has claimed so many previous members. But this music doesn’t answer to a normal calendar. Rather, it’s all in the heart of those who play it, and while many of these songs have been around longer than cars, in these capable hands they hold the promise of tomorrow. “Short Dress Gal,” “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” and “What a Friend” and others set off visions of lives well spent and future joys waiting right outside the little room on St. Peter Street.

Some time ago, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Preservation Hall for its Jazz Band in the French Quarter in New Orleans, on two separate visits. Tonight’s effervescent performance vividly brought back those memories. Of course, some of the musicians are new to me, such as Ben Jaffe on tuba (doubling on bass, when the bassist sings and dances). Ben is the son of the founders of Preservation Hall, Allan and Sandra Jaffe, who, at the 1961 inception of this venerable venue, developed the mission to preserve the music of New Orleans and send a professional band, steeped in the genre, around the globe. Tonight’s final Sunday night set, the last of the series, inspired the packed crowd to clap, stand, sway, and smile broadly in this feel-good, melodic milieu.
READ MORE

The Deep South came north Friday night. The roof-raising concert - the party! - put on by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Blind Boys of Alabama was transporting. We weren't in Boston anymore. We were in the French Quarter. We were in Talladega.
READ MORE

Made in New Orleans: The Hurricane Sessions is a lovingly curated document that honors the venerable institution. The boxed set, available in a few different collector's additions, contains a CD featuring both archival and new recordings of the group, and a DVD, as well as several reproduced artifacts: photographs, employment contracts, etc. - no two of the 504 numbered sets contain the same doo-dads." READ MORE

In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, Preservation Hall creative director Benjamin Jaffe scrambled to salvage sopping master tapes and archival material from Allen Toussaint's famed Sea Saint Studios, which had been flooded with six feet of water. The stunning, hand-assembled Made in New Orleans box shares some of the results of Jaffe's inspired digging. READ MORE

The band was still playing old New Orleans repertory from the first half of the 20th century at its Town Hall concert on Tuesday night, the first big concert of the JVC Jazz Festival. It had drive, and funk, and, believe it or not, youth...
READ MORE