Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Face of Offbeat's Jazz Fest Bible


Preservation Hall 2.0

Within the span of two days, music fans attending this year’s Jazz Fest will have the extremely rare opportunity to time-travel more than a half a century, in some cases close to a whole century. It’s easy. Hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in the festival’s traditional jazz venue, Economy Hall, on Saturday, May 5, and then go hear them on Sunday, May 6, when they will take to the Gentilly Stage as the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Friends. That show is essentially a continuation of their 50th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall on December 7, 2011, which itself was essentially a continuation of their 2010 release, Preservation, on which old-timers including Merle Haggard and Tom Waits trade guest appearances with rockers such as Jim James and Jason Isbell, folkies Pete Seeger and Ani DiFranco, Paolo Nutini from Scotland, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Del McCoury Band, Dr. John, Angelique Kidjo and so on.

Who might appear on stage Sunday? Several artists have been announced: Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty, the Rebirth Brass Band, Bonnie Raitt, Jim James, Steve Earle, Ani DiFranco, Wendell Eugene, Lionel Ferbos, and Jazz Fest founding producer George Wein, but there may be more. Guessing possible “surprise” guest artists is a favorite Jazz Fest pursuit, but think who you’re guessing about. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band. When’s the last time you dialed them up on your iPod? How’d the Preservation Hall Jazz Band suddenly get hip?

L-R: Clint Maedgen, Rickie Monie, Charlie Gabriel, Ben Jaffe. Photo by Golden Richard III.

It didn’t. Suddenly, that is. It’s taken almost 20 years to turn what had been a smooth-sailing, well-oiled machine from its cruise across the seas of nostalgia toward what would most certainly have been the junkyard where old cultural movements go to die, and point it toward a new future with a larger mission. Credit for that achievement goes to Ben Jaffe, who didn’t exactly inherit the family business, but he ended up running it anyway. Ben’s father, Allan, formally accepted responsibility for running the Hall (eventually purchasing it) with his bride, Sandra, in June 1961. The couple spent the next 30 or so years creating and maintaining what soon became a central and colorful American institution—an old, dusty building in the French Quarter where old, black men who still remembered the early years of jazz came to play every night, while another band, similarly composed, toured the world, becoming regulars at summer music series and festivals.

All was running smoothly until the unforeseen occurred: Allan Jaffe died of a heart attack in 1987 at the unfortunately young age of 53. Ben was just a junior in high school, and his mother shipped him off to college to have a life of his own while she and her sister and some of their friends ran the Hall. Ben gravitated toward music, playing his father’s instrument, the bass, but majoring in modern jazz at Oberlin Conservatory and booking his own “neoclassical” modern combo in local cities on weekends. The summer he graduated, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s bassist became too ill to travel, and Ben joined the band to play tuba and bass, beginning with a six-week residency in Paris. When he returned, he knew instinctively that running the Hall would be his life’s work. No words were ever spoken, no contracts signed. It’s a family business, so Ben still needs family approval. But that’s never been much of a problem since most of what he’s done has happened organically, one change at a time. Slowly and methodically, he changed the make-up of the band and eventually the very definition of the Hall, moving it from within the narrow confines of jazz history into the wide, open world of American roots music.


“When I took over responsibility for managing Preservation Hall, I was only 22,” Ben told writer Alison Fensterstock recently. “I was petrified that we’d cease to exist when the original band passed away.” In his first two years at the helm, that’s exactly what happened. Willie Humphrey, the 93-year-old lyrical clarinetist who’d been associated with the Hall since its founding in 1961 passed away in the summer of 1994. His younger brother, Percy, the trumpeter who’d been a solid and reliable bandleader since the Hall’s founding, passed away the following summer at the age of 90. “For the first six or eight years,” Jaffe recalls, “I’d have to spend half an hour after every show talking to fans about the band and what was going to happen now that Percy and Willie were gone. Some of these folks had been following the band for 20 or 30 years.

“Somewhere in the late 1990s, I realized what they really wanted was to experience New Orleans’ unique musical traditions. Over the years, Preservation Hall had come to represent those traditions in a very specific way. When I was growing up, I experienced New Orleans music as a living, breathing organism. The more I recognized Preservation Hall’s role in keeping New Orleans’ music traditions alive, the more I realized the way those traditions were being represented would have to change. And the audience would have to change. When I joined the Preservation Hall band, it was rare that you’d find anyone in our audience under 60 years old. It was a very mature audience.”

The changes began as Jaffe resurrected the Hall’s recording label. He began importing new music and new musicians into the band, recruiting most notably Clint Maedgen from the New Orleans Bingo! Show on vocals and saxophone. Around the same time, the two collaborated on a version of the Kinks’ “Complicated Life.” Long-time fans found such decisions heretical.

“I knew this wouldn’t be easy,” Jaffe says. “I knew that to find new audiences, people weren’t going to come to me, I would have to go to them. And I knew that change on this level might upset and confuse a lot of people, but I decided if I was going to fail at this, at least I would fail doing what I knew in my heart was right.”

Then came Hurricane Katrina, and Jaffe spent the next couple of years deeply immersed in relief efforts, raising more than $3 million and helping start a non-profit social service agency, Sweet Home New Orleans, that continues to provide service to local musicians in need.

Just as relief efforts were dying down and recovery efforts beginning to ramp up, a friend of Jaffe’s approached him with the idea of doing a high-profile benefit album featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and a roster of guest artists. Jaffe took his friend up on her offer but directed proceeds to The Preservation Hall Outreach Program—an effort to introduce young people to the music and encourage their efforts in perpetuating it. Preservation (its unwieldy full title: Preservation: An Album Benefiting Preservation Hall and Its Music Outreach Program) received quite a bit of attention and led the way to a 50th-anniversary celebration in 2011 that played out the full range of potential cultural celebration inherent in an institution like Preservation Hall: art and history exhibitions; dance and theater collaborations; music mash-ups and joint tours.

After recording nearly all the Preservation tracks in the Hall’s front performance room, the space itself seems to have come alive. After the BP oil spill, Jaffe, the band, Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), Trombone Shorty, Lenny Kravitz and the actor Tim Robbins gathered there to record a rap/trad jazz protest song based on the Wardell Quezergue and Smokey Johnson classic, “It Ain’t My Fault.” When Amy Winehouse music producer Mark Ronson set out to lay down his track for the recent Grammy-sponsored documentary Re:Generation, he, along with Bey, Erykah Badu, the Dap-Kings, Trombone Shorty, and Zigaboo Modeliste ended up playing a party at the Hall. During the past two Jazz Fests, the hottest tickets outside the Fair Grounds were for shows at the Hall. Two years ago, Jim James and My Morning Jacket brought the rock world’s attention to the Hall with what was, by all accounts a mesmerizing show followed by a 3 a.m. parade around the empty streets of the French Quarter, and last year Robert Plant made an unscheduled appearance at the Saturday Night show headlined by guitarist Buddy Miller, his music director.

As if to confirm its status as an essential American roots band, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was featured this past October on Austin City Limits with guests Jim James and the Del McCoury Band.
Jaffe insists that music fans who check out the Economy Hall set the day before won’t hear much difference in the music being played. The real difference, he says, will be in the make-up of the two audiences. And in that, he’s mostly right. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band continues to play in the same tradition that prevailed in the years when it was founded. For some people, that’s a tradition set in stone, never to be varied, but traditions have to breathe to live, and all Jaffe has done is set Preservation Hall free from a set of responses that are no longer as effective as they once were. Repositioned as an American roots institution still very much alive and well, New Orleans Preservation Hall and its world-traveling jazz band—even at the ripe old age of 50—are back on the American music radar in a major way.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band plays Jazz Fest on Saturday, May 5 at 4:25 p.m. on the People’s Health Economy Hall Stage and on Sunday, May 6 at 5:35 p.m. on the Gentilly Stage.


FREE TRACK TUESDAY! 'Taint Nobody's Business

Howdy! The next two weeks are going to be crazy with several PHJB performances at Jazz Fest, Two weekends of Midnight Preserves, A special Crescent City Revue at the Joy Theater, and a special record release. I'm getting excited just typing it! Before the musical chaos begins, let's take a quick break with this weeks FREE TRACK TUESDAY!

Today's free track is entitled, 'Taint Nobody's Business, featuring the PHJB with the impeccable Steve Earle. The track is from the 2010 release, PRESERVATION: AN ALBUM BENEFITING PRESERVATION HALL AND ITS MUSIC OUTREACH PROGRAM.

 Copy and Paste download to SHARE with FRIENDS:
http://soundcloud.com/preservationhall/16-taint-nobodys-business/s-283vL
PRESERVATION is AVAILABLE on iTUNES ($13.99), including 6 BONUS TRACKS

TRACK LISTING:
  1. Andrew Bird"Shake It and Break It"
  2. Paolo Nutini"Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea"
  3. Tom Waits"Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing"
  4. Yim Yames"Louisiana Fairytale"
  5. Del McCoury"After You've Gone"
  6. Ani DiFranco"Freight Train"
  7. Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger"Blue Skies (Comin My Way)"
  8. Jason Isbell"Nobody Knows You"
  9. Brandi Carlile"Old Rugged Cross"
  10. Richie Havens"Trouble in Mind"
  11. Merle Haggard"Basin Street Blues"
  12. Blind Boys of Alabama"There is a Light"
  13. Dr. John"Winin' Boy"
  14. Louis Armstrong"Rockin' Chair"
  15. Amy LaVere"Baby Won't You Please Come Home"
  16. Steve Earle"Tain't Nobody's Business"
  17. Cory Chisel"Some Cold Rainy Day"
  18. Buddy Miller"I Ain't Got Nobody"
  19. Angelique Kidjo with Terence Blanchard"La Vie En Rose"
*Bonus Tracks (Only on iTunes):
  1. Anita Briem"C'est Si Bon"
  2. Paolo Nutini"Pencil Full of Lead"
  3. Yim Yames"St. James Infirmary"
  4. Tom Waits"Corine Dies On The Battlefield"
  5. Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger"Sailin' Up Sailin' Down"
  6. Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger"We Shall Overcome" 

Monday, April 23, 2012

PHJB to Perform at The Great Googa Mooga Festival (5/19)

We are excited to announce that the Preservation Hall Jazz Band will be performing at  
The Great GoogaMooga, the highly anticipated food, drink and music
festival set to take place in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on May 19 and
20, 2012.

General Admission at GoogaMooga is free but attendees must register to
obtain a ticket to the event
; concessions in General Admission are
priced individually. With Extra Mooga, GoogaMooga's all-inclusive paid
ticketed experience, guests have exclusive viewing of the Main Stage
shows and access to 20 different events per day, ranging from music to
comedy, culinary seminars, cocktail demos, wine and beer tastings and
theme parties.


For more information and tickets please visit The Great GoogaMooga
online at www.googamooga.com.

To find GoogaMooga on Facebook and Twitter please visit www.facebook.com/googamooga
 and @GoogaMooga.

Friday, April 20, 2012

A Midnight Preserves Roundup: Tangiers Blues Band 5/3 and 5/5

Join the Pres Hall family Thursday, May 3rd at Midnight for a special Midnight Preserves performance by Tangiers Brass Band. Tangiers will also be opening for Lil' Band O' Gold Saturday, May 5th.
Not familiar with Tangiers Brass Band? Here ya go!
The Tangiers Blues Band was formed in 1998 after guitarist Chris Scianni (Dangerman, Echobrain with Jason Newsted) and drummer Dave Borla (Dangerman, Echobrain) met photographer/harmonica player Danny Clinch and discovered their mutual love for blues music. The first Tangiers Blues Band jam session took place on Thanksgiving night that year with other musicians and friends, including Huey from the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, King from Cooley High, Mick Jones from Foreigner and tennis palyer/guitarist John McEnroe. The original line-up was formed after that with Chris (guitar), Dave Borla (drums), Danny (harmonica), Huey (lap steel), King (vox and guitar) adding their long time friends Dave Sellar (bass) from Darla Hood and Peter Levin (keys) who had played in various bands in New York City and currently tours with The Blind Boys of Alabama.


The TBB line-up changes from show to show, with a deep rotation of musicians they have known and jammed with for many years, and in many different configurations. In addition, they have many “special guests” who will sit in with them for a night when they are around including G-Love, Phil Lesh, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Charlie Giordano (Bruce Springsteen) and Chris’ father, Joseph Scianni. The line-up on the TBB studio recordings consists of Chris, Danny, Pete, King and Dave Sellars with Jon Graboff (Ryan Adams and The Cardinals) on lap and pedal steel guitars and Mo Roberts (Shemeka Copeland) on drums. The recording was done in one day at Moon Palace Studios, mixed and produced by Tim Latham (Lou Reed, Tribe Called Quest) a long time friend of all the guys.

Here are some highlights from the 2011 Midnight Preserves performances featuring Tangiers Blues Band.


Thursday, May 3
MIDNIGHT
TANGIERS BLUES BAND playing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Saturday, May 5
8:00pm
Lil’ Band O’ Gold (CC Adcock, Steve Riley, Warren Storm, 'Dickie' Landry, David Egan, Tommy McLain, Lil' Buck Senegal, Pat Breaux, Richard Comeaux)
plus Tangiers Blues Band

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

FREE TRACK TUESDAY! Blue Skies (Comin My Way)

Although it's pouring outside, the Hall family is lookin' forward to some Blue Skies in another installment of FREE TRACK TUESDAY!

Today's free track is entitled, Blue Skies (Comin My Way), featuring the PHJB with the legendary Pete Seeger and Tao Seeger. The track is from the 2010 release, PRESERVATION: AN ALBUM BENEFITING PRESERVATION HALL AND ITS MUSIC OUTREACH PROGRAM.

 Copy and Paste download to SHARE with FRIENDS:

PRESERVATION is AVAILABLE on iTUNES ($13.99), including 6 BONUS TRACKS

*Join the Pres Hall family Friday, April 27th at midnight for our first Midnight Preserves installment: Preservation Hall Jazz Band Together with Tao Seeger*

TRACK LISTING:
  1. Andrew Bird"Shake It and Break It"
  2. Paolo Nutini"Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea"
  3. Tom Waits"Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing"
  4. Yim Yames"Louisiana Fairytale"
  5. Del McCoury"After You've Gone"
  6. Ani DiFranco"Freight Train"
  7. Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger"Blue Skies (Comin My Way)"
  8. Jason Isbell"Nobody Knows You"
  9. Brandi Carlile"Old Rugged Cross"
  10. Richie Havens"Trouble in Mind"
  11. Merle Haggard"Basin Street Blues"
  12. Blind Boys of Alabama"There is a Light"
  13. Dr. John"Winin' Boy"
  14. Louis Armstrong"Rockin' Chair"
  15. Amy LaVere"Baby Won't You Please Come Home"
  16. Steve Earle"Tain't Nobody's Business"
  17. Cory Chisel"Some Cold Rainy Day"
  18. Buddy Miller"I Ain't Got Nobody"
  19. Angelique Kidjo with Terence Blanchard"La Vie En Rose"
*Bonus Tracks (Only on iTunes):
  1. Anita Briem"C'est Si Bon"
  2. Paolo Nutini"Pencil Full of Lead"
  3. Yim Yames"St. James Infirmary"
  4. Tom Waits"Corine Dies On The Battlefield"
  5. Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger"Sailin' Up Sailin' Down"
  6. Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger"We Shall Overcome" 



The Preservation Hall Crescent City Revue: The Lineup!


First round of guests announced for The Preservation Hall Crescent City Revue at the Joy Theater



Just announced! The first round of guest artists that will be joining The Preservation Hall Jazz Band for the Crescent City Revue on May 5th at the newly renovated Joy Theater.  Guests confirmed so far - Dirty Dozen Brass Band horns, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Stanton Moore, Leo Nocentelli, Ivan Neville, Benny Jones & Uncle Lionel (of Treme Brass Band), Fleur De Tease, Pedrito Martinez, Ernie Vincent, David Torkanowsky, and Little Freddie King!  Opening up the festivities that night will be the one and only New Orleans Bingo! Show.  More guest artists will be announced soon so stay tuned!


Get your tickets now by CLICKING HERE

Monday, April 16, 2012

A Midnight Preserves Roundup: Leo Nocentelli with Friends Funk Guitar Clinic (5/3)

Join the Pres Hall family Thursday, May 3rd at 5:30 for a special Midnight Preserves guitar clinic lead by legendary funk guitarist, Leo Nocentelli with friend, Bill Dickens.

Not familiar with Leo Nocentelli? Here ya go!
Known throughout the music industry as the "funkiest, fast-fingered" guitarist there is, a musician who can control your mind, body and soul with his experience, superior talent, musical mastery and inimitable style, he is LEO NOCENTELLI.

Leo is the lead guitarist, composer, innovator and the musical originator of the syncopated funk-style that won international acclaim for him and the band known as the "Pioneers of Funk", The Meters, the 2001 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Winners.


In the two decades plus, Leo's sound and styles, ranging from Funk, Blues, Jazz, Hip-hop, Rap to Rock, have added to the creation of his own unique brand of blazing musicianship. He has accompanied and collaborated with artists as varied as his style.


As the sole writer of such hits as Cissy Strut, Look A Py Py, Same Ol' Thing, Rigor Mortis, Funky Miracle, 9 to 5, Ease Back, Lonesome and unwanted People, The World Is A Little Bit Under The Weather, and Cordova, Nocentelli gained early recognition among his peers.

Leo has recorded with a list of Grammy Award Winners such as, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, The Winans, The Supremes, The Temptations, Paul McCartney, Dr. John, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Robert Palmer, George Duke, The Dells, Jack Bruce, Manhattan Transfer, Bobby Womack, Al McKay, and Robbie Robertson.


Thursday, May 3
5:300pm – 6:30pm
A Special Funk Guitar Workshop with Leo Nocentelli (of The Meters)

Thursday, April 12, 2012

A Midnight Preserves Roundup: PHJB Together with Theresa Andersson (4/28)

Join the Pres Hall family Saturday, April 28th at midnight for our Midnight Preserves installment featuring Theresa Andersson.

Not familiar with Theresa Andersson? Here ya go!
Theresa's life had not wanted for highs in the years immediately preceding. Hummingbird, Go! garnered accolades from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Paste, and the Los Angeles Times. Conan O'Brien and Craig Ferguson showcased her musical abilities on their late night TV shows, and Nic Harcourt picked her KCRW "Morning Becomes Eclectic" in-studio as one of his "Top 10 Live Performances of 2009." She sang "Ladies In Blue" on Here Lies Love, the 2010 concept album by David Byrne & Fatboy Slim. Allen Toussaint, one of the only outside players on Hummingbird, Go!, joined her onstage for a performance preserved on her recent concert DVD Theresa Andersson: Live at Le Petit.

Many artists are paralyzed when the non-stop action of an album cycle or tour winds down, but Andersson felt strangely inspired by not knowing what would come next. Over the past few years, looping pedals and effects had become an integral part of her unique one-woman shows. Now she began using them as composition tools, fashioning songs that would eventually form her new album, Street Parade. She conjured forth melodies and countermelodies, harmonies and rhythms, painting with her own voice as the primary instrument, building up panoramas of sound layer by layer.


Inspired by jazz innovators including Duke Ellington and Gil Evans, Andersson heard new sounds running through the arrangements in her head. No need to let a lack of formal training prohibit her from writing for horns and woodwinds. "I'd record the trombone player who lives down the street, or a friend who plays clarinet, just experiment with the music that way. I didn't worry about how things should be, but more how I was feeling." Hearing a sousaphone play one line might suggest using a flute for another. "I would keep molding it like that."

The final outcome was worth the wait. Opener "Street Parade" hints at the heyday of '60s sunshine pop in its introductory fanfare, then detours in a more introspective direction that underscores why Rolling Stone likened Andersson to "a spacier, sultrier Feist." The syncopated rhythms of New Orleans brass bands are reflected in the soft, percussive pulse of "Injuns," while "Fiya's Gone" percolates ever-so-slowly, like a Motown classic dipped in molasses. With their innovative combinations of timbres and distinctive harmonic resolutions, "Listen To My Heels" and "Plucks" show how richly her experiments with arrangements paid off.

"When I'm experiencing a moment of happiness or excitement, that doesn't inspires me to write," Andersson explains. "I'm just living in that moment. And if I'm really sad or angry, that's not the time to be creative, either. It's the spaces in between that are interesting, and that's what this moment between parades represented."

 
Saturday, April 28
MIDNIGHT
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
together with
THERESA ANDERSSON


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Midnight Preserves, 2012: At a Glance

Friday, April 27

MIDNIGHT
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
together with
TAO SEEGER


Saturday, April 28
MIDNIGHT
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
together with
THERESA ANDERSSON


Sunday, April 29
MIDNIGHT
TREME BRASS BAND

Thursday, May 3
5:300pm – 6:30pm
A Special Funk Guitar Workshop with Leo Nocentelli (of The Meters)

MIDNIGHT
TANGIERS BLUES BAND playing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band


Friday, May 4
MIDNIGHT
HENRY BUTLER solo performance

Saturday, May 5
8:00pm
Lil’ Band O’ Gold (CC Adcock, Steve Riley, Warren Storm, 'Dickie' Landry, David Egan, Tommy McLain, Lil' Buck Senegal, Pat Breaux, Richard Comeaux)
plus Tangiers Blues Band

Sunday, May 6
MIDNIGHT
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
together with
STEVE EARLE

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

FREE TRACK TUESDAY! Apple Tree

The weather is warming up. The air is sweet, and the Hall Family has another FREE TRACK for you this Tuesday!

Today's free track is entitled, Apple Tree, and it comes from the 2005 release, Hurricane Sessions, by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Download Apple Tree
Copy and Paste download to SHARE with FRIENDS:

Hurrican Sessions is AVAILABLE on iTUNES ($9.99). You can also purchase the CD/DVD combo ONLY from Preservation Hall's ONLINE STORE

CD Track Listing:
01. RADIO INTRO.
02. HOW LONG BLUES
03. EH LA BA
04. BAND INTRODUCTION
05. APPLE TREE
06. COMPLICATED LIFE
07. DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO MISS NEW ORLEANS
08. INTRO.
09. LORD I DON'T WANT TO BE BURIED
10. OVER IN THE GLORYLAND
11. HEEBEE JEEBIES
12. BLOW WIND BLOW
13. SUGAR BLUES
14. I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE
15. WHO THREW THE WHISKEY IN THE WELL
16. PRECIOUS LORD
17. LAST CHANCE TO DANCE



The DVD chronicles the band’s history and includes the first television appearance by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on the Brinkley News Hour in 1961, as well as rare concert footage from the Newport Jazz Festival and a video of Preservation Hall filmed in the early sixties. In a contemporary ode to New Orleans, the DVD also includes a video for the song “Complicated Life.”  Directed by New Orleans native Henry Griffin and shot in the French Quarter months before the floods of 2005, the video follows Clint Maedgen through pre-Katrina New Orleans as he cycles through the French Quarter with a cast of revelers in tow and ends at Preservation Hall.

DVD Track Listing:
01. COMPLICATED LIFE
02. EARLY NEWS REEL
03. BRINKLEY NEWS HOUR 1961
04. NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL
05. GERMAN TV NEWS REEL 1960's
06. GERMAN TV NEWS REEL Part II
07. GEORGE LEWIS ALL-STARS, "Red Wing"

Monday, April 9, 2012

A Midnight Preserves Roundup: PHJB Together with Tao Seeger (4/27)


Join the Pres Hall family Friday, April 27th at midnight for our first Midnight Preserves installment featuring Tao Seeger.

Not familiar with Tao Seeger? Here ya go!
 ao is co-founder of the folk/rock groups RIG (Rodriguez/Irion/Guthrie) with Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion and The Mammals with Mike & Ruthy Merenda.   The Tao Seeger Band is a revolving cast of wonderful characters including Laura Cortese on fiddle and vocals, Jason Crosby on keyboards, Charlie Rose on pedal steel and banjo, Jake Silver on bass and Robin MacMillan on drums.  Their music can be described as a fusion of rock'n'roll and folk with a “rootsy and psychedelic” sound.  The newly formed band has performed at an impressive lineup of events including the 2009 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Newport Folk Festival and The Clearwater Concert: Creating the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders at Madison Square Garden where they stood in as the evening’s house band.  Together they have also toured throughout the northeast and Denmark.  You can catch the Tao Seeger Band on tour this summer and at the Mountain Jam festival, Hudson River Clearwater festival, Winnipeg Folk festival, Vancouver Folk festival and the Newport Folk festival.

   
Career Highlights
  • Three-week tour of India with Pete Seeger in 1996
  • Performed with the Salt Lake City Children’s Dance Company for the 2002 Winter Olympic opening ceremonies
  • Organized the Free Speech Festival in 2006
  • Singing at the annual School of the Americas rally in Columbus, GA for tens of thousands of protesters who’d taken a vow of peaceful assembly
  • Precious Friend recording at Wolf Trap w/ Arlo & Pete
  • Tao performed at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration with Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen
  • Performed to a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden for The Clearwater Concert: Creating the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders, an event celebrating his grandfather’s 90th birthday.
  • Has performed dates all around the world and headline some of the biggest festivals with his Grandfather Pete Seeger
  • Recorded 2 songs for Plaza Sesamo (Spanish version of Sesame Street) and will be a special guest on the show for an upcoming episode (fall 2009)
MIDNIGHT PRESERVES 4/27 SCHEDULE:
8:00pm-Preservation Hall Jazz Band
MIDNIGHT-Preservation Hall Jazz Band Together with Tao Seeger

Join the 4/27 Midnight Preserves event on FACEBOOK!


  



PHJB to perform at this year's FLEUR de LINDY EXCHANGE

Preservation Hall Jazz Band to play at this year's Fleur de Lindy Exchange, 2012!
Check out the daytime and evening schedules at Fleur de Lindy's website


Hope to see you there SHAKIN' DAT THANG!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

FREE TRACK TUESDAY: He's a Mighty Good Leader

Howdy Y'all. We have another great FREE TRACK TUESDAY!

This week's free track is He's a Mighty Good Leader from the 2008 release, Joe Lastie jr. and The Lastie Family Gospel.

Download He's a Mighty Good Leader
Copy and Paste link to SHARE with FRIENDS
http://soundcloud.com/preservationhall/hes-a-mighty-good-leader/download/s-WEhQz

Joe Lastie Jr. and The Lastie Family Gospel is AVAILABLE on iTUNES($9.99), as well as at Preservation Hall's ONLINE STORE

Track Listing
01. HE'S A MIGHTY GOOD LEADER
02. IN THAT CITY
03. RISEN
04. LEAD ME SAVIOR
05. I'LL FLY AWAY
06. JESUS KEEP ME
07. DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE
08. DO LORD
09 JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE
10. BYE AND BYE
11. WALK THROUGH THE STREETS OF THE CITY



About Joe Lastie Jr. and The Lastie Family Gospel:
Born and raised in the Lower Ninth Ward, Joe comes from a long line of family members equally dedicated to music and the church. Having played his first job with a rhythm section backing the Desire Community Choir, Joe went on to study jazz with Willie Metcalf at the Dryer Street YMCA with classmates Wynton and Branford Marsalis. Now a twenty-year veteran of the Preservation Hall drum kit, this recording showcases the musical and religious spirit that has made his family a fundamental part of the New Orleans music scene for generations.

Pres Hall announces Midnight Preserves lineup, show at The Joy Theater, special shows at Jazz Fest and brand new record


Preservation Hall announces the 8th Annual Midnight Preserves 2012 Lineup and Special 50th Anniversary performances and events during Jazz Fest Preservation Hall is excited to announce our Jazz Fest events in accordance with the continued celebration of the Hall’s 50th Anniversary - The 2012 Midnight Preserves lineup, The Preservation Hall Crescent City Revue at The Joy Theater, special performances and exhibition at Jazz Fest, and a brand-new record release...

Preservation Hall’s 8th Annual Midnight Preserves Lineup:

We are proud to announce this year’s Midnight Preserves Lineup, featuring intimate limited-seating performances at Preservation Hall featuring both national and local artists. This year’s lineup includes Steve Earle, Theresa Andersson, Henry Butler, Tao Seeger, and much more! The Midnight Preserves series will also feature the Hall’s most admired bands paying tribute to legendary Hall musicians. Proceeds from the series will benefit The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program.


Friday, April 27
8:00pm
The Preservation Hall Jazz Masters featuring Leroy Jones
MIDNIGHT
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
together with
TAO SEEGER
PURCHASE TICKETS for APRIL 27


Saturday, April 28
8:00pm
Tornado Brass Band featuring Darryl Adams
MIDNIGHT
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
together with
THERESA ANDERSSON
PURCHASE TICKETS for APRIL 28


Sunday, April 29
8:00pm
Lars Edegran and The St. Peter Street All-Stars present a Tribute to George Lewis
MIDNIGHT
TREME BRASS BAND
PURCHASE TICKETS for APRIL 29


Monday, April 30 – May 1
New Orleans Jazz Concerts from 8pm-11pm

Wednesday, May 2
8:00pm
Mark Braud and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band present a Tribute to John Brunious

Thursday, May 3
5:30pm – 6:30pm
A Special Funk Guitar Workshop with Leo Nocentelli (of The Meters)

8:00pm
New Birth Brass Band pays Tribute to Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band

MIDNIGHT
TANGIERS BLUES BAND playing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
PURCHASE TICKETS for TANGIERS BLUES BAND


Friday, May 4
8:00pm
The Preservation Hall Jazz Masters featuring Leroy Jones
MIDNIGHT
HENRY BUTLER solo performance

Saturday, May 5
8:00pm
Lil’ Band O’ Gold (CC Adcock, Steve Riley, Warren Storm, 'Dickie' Landry, David Egan, Tommy McLain, Lil' Buck Senegal, Pat Breaux, Richard Comeaux)
plus Tangiers Blues Band

Sunday, May 6
MIDNIGHT
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
together with
STEVE EARLE
PURCHASE TICKETS for MAY 6


The Preservation Hall Crescent City Revue at The Joy Theater, May 5

Part of the Superfly During Jazzfest Concert Series, Preservation Hall Crescent City Revue featuring Preservation Hall and Friends will perform on Saturday, May 5th at the brand new Joy Theatre, located in downtown New Orleans on Canal Street. Reminiscent of the revues of the 1920s, this special multi-media performance will celebrate the music that has made the venue and band famous for a half-century. Special guests from near and far will be in attendance, and more info on these special folks will be announced in the coming weeks so stay tuned.



Preservation Hall at New Olreans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2012

The Preservation Hall Jazz band will be performing TWICE at this year’s Jazz Fest.

The Hall Band’s first performance will be starting at 4:25pm, Saturday, May 5th at the Economy Hall Tent.

On May 6th, the Preservation Hall band and friends will close out Jazz Fest on the Gentilly Stage with a mega performance featuring a number of special guests:
Steve Earle
Jim James of My Morning Jacket
Ani Difranco
Allen Toussaint
Trombone Shorty
Bonnie Raitt
Wendell Eugene
Lionel Ferbos
...and More to be Announced

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band LIVE at Carnegie Hall limited 10” release at Jazz Fest


Rounder Records is releasing a limited edition 10” vinyl of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band Live at Carnegie Hall in advance of the full-length concert to be released later this year.
-Vinyl will be released at JAZZ FEST! (more info coming soon)
-504 LIMITED copies
-33 1/3, 10” vinyl
Tracks Include:
"Sweet And Low Down,”
"That's Enough,"
"Saints Go Marchin In,"
"Bourbon Street Parade,"
"Tootie Ma"

50 Years of Preservation Hall Exhibit
Take a glimpse into the history and evolution of Preservation Hall, and of the bands that have performed in the Hall and on tour since its inception in 1961. The exhibit features rare photographs, artifacts, music and video from the Hall's archives, as they continue to celebrate 50 years of preserving, cultivating, and perpetuating Traditional New Orleans Jazz. The exhibit coincides with the more expansive "Preservation Hall at 50" exhibit currently on display at the Old U.S. Mint.

The exhibit will be on display in the Grand Stands during Jazz Fest.