Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Preservation Hall Jazz Band set to play at Pete Seeger's Clearwater Festival

Article by jambands.com

Ani DiFranco, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Bela Fleck, Arlo Guthrie & The Guthrie Family, Dawes and Punch Brothers Set for Clearwater

Ani DiFranco, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Béla Fleck, Arlo Guthrie & The Guthrie Family, Dawes and Punch Brothers are among the acts slated to appear at Pete Seeger’s annual Clearwater Festival. The environmentally-focused event will return to Croton-on-Hudson, NY in Westchester County on June 16 and 17. Other marquee acts slated to appear include: Deer Tick, Balkan Beat Box, Donna The Buffalo, Peter Yarrow, Joanne Shenandoah, The Klezmatics, Tinawiren, Tom Paxton, Raul Midón, Tom Chapin, Tim O’Brien, Aoife O’Donovan (Crooked Still), David Amram and Ollabelle.
In addition, Jay Ungar & Molly Mason, Guy Davis Band, Toshi Reagon & Big Lovely, Melissa Ferrick, Brave Combo, Jill Sobule, Sara Watkins, Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys, Jesse Lége & The Bayou Brew, The Chapin Sisters, Joel Rafael, Dala, Joe Purdy, Joseph Firecrow Band, David Wax Museum, Alsarah, The Deadly Gentlemen, Walkabout Clearwater Chorus, Elizabeth Mitchell, The Rivertown Kids, Power of Song, The Storycrafters, Rick Nestler, Kim & Reggie Harris, Arm-of-the-Sea, Charlie Dane, Roger the Jester, Linda Richards and Paul Richmond will perform. Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is a 501©3 tax exempt nonprofit, member- supported corporation whose mission is to preserve and protect the Hudson River. 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Internship Opportunity at Preservation Hall



Attention New Orleans College Students:  Preservation Hall currently has an opening for one unpaid intern.  Music Business majors are preferred, but all are welcome to apply.  Interns at Preservation Hall are expected to perform a wide range of tasks with a keen attention to detail, as the world will be watching the results of your work.  Regular taskwork will include the processing of incoming merchandise, filing, data entry and general office upkeep.  A greater range of responsibility may be explored dependent on the quality of work exhibited.  A minimum of two four-hour shifts per week is requisite.  Three four-hour shifts per week is preferred.  In exchange for your hard work, you will have the opportunity to learn a variety of skills relative to working in the Music Industry, as well as the praise of one of New Orleans' most recognized cultural institutions to include on your future resume.  To apply, please submit your resume to Preservation Hall venue manager J. Lloyd Miller via Lloyd@preservationhall.com with the subject line “Preservation Hall Internship” by January 27, 2012.

For more information about Preservation Hall, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band or the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program, please visit www.preservationhall.com.  

Thursday, January 19, 2012

"Re:Generation" to be screened in New Orleans February 16th & 23rd



FIVE DJs TURN THE TABLES ON THE HISTORY OF MUSIC:

Follow DJ Premier, Mark Ronson, Skrillex, Pretty Lights and The Crystal Method as they remix, recreate and re-imagine five traditional styles of music. From the classical perfection of the Berklee Symphony Orchestra to the bayou jams of New Orleans jazz, our five distinctive DJs collaborate with some of today's biggest musicians to discover how our musical past is influencing the future.

New Orleans residents can check out the screening at:

AMC Elmwood Palace 20
1200 Elmwood Park Blvd
Harahan, LA 70123

SREENINGS:
February 16th 8:00pm (buy tickets here)
February 23rd 8:00pm (buy tickets here)

http://www.regenerationmusicproject.com/

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Limited-Edition Posters & T-Shirts from Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Friends at Carnegie Hall

Don't miss out on this limited edition poster collection and t-shirts that were made in honor of Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Friends historical performance at Carnegie Hall in New York.  All Proceeds to benefit the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program.

 PRESERVATION HALL ONLINE STORE CLICK HERE

Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Bowery Presents: Preservation Hall Jazz Band – Carnegie Hall – January 7, 2012

Some more great photographs of Preservation Hall Jazz Band 50th anniversary celebration at Carnegie Hall.

All photographs by Michael Jurick | music.jurick.net





CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

CMJ review of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performance at "Sleep No More"

Preservation Hall Jazz Band @ McKittrick Hotel: January 5 

By


photo by Zach Timm

The traditional New Orleans jazz that the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performs transports you to another era from the first note blown. On any trip to New Orleans it is a must that you attend one of the band’s daily gigs at the legendary Preservation Hall, an intimate venue that is the size of a Brooklyn living space. Preservation Box would better describe the 40+ capacity venue, but the setting is the perfect way to see the band.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band is in NYC to celebrate its 50th anniversary as a group. The celebration continues tomorrow at Carnegie Hall with help from a star-studded lineup of friends and performers including My Morning Jacket, Mos Def, Allen Toussaint and many more. As expected this show sold out immediately and was a super hard ticket to get. Thankfully the band decided to come up a week early and do a set of intimate performances called the Crescent City Stomp at the McKittrick Hotel/Manderlay Bar, which I was fortunate enough to attend last night.

If you haven’t been to the McKittrick Hotel it is an astounding five-floor mansion, which is the setting of the interactive, theatrical performance Sleep No More. This event just took place on the first two floors, which included the 1920s speakeasy Manderlay Bar. With its old-timey décor, it made for the perfect setting for the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performance.

I was front and center for this show, close enough that I was dodging Freddie Lonzo’s trombone as he played. Once the band started to play, the space transformed into the sweaty club scene of New Orleans. Beers in hand, the crowd danced and grooved to that Crescent City swing as the band performed tunes like “Shake It And Break It,” “Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing” and “When The Saints.”

Later in the show the band was joined on stage by My Morning Jacket’s Jim James for a couple of songs, and we were even graced with the presence of the “Burlesque Queen Of New Orleans,” Trixie Minx, who did a little performance during one of James’s songs. Later in the band’s second set, Tao Seeger added guest vocals on a song, and the intimate show wrapped with the gospel classic “I”ll Fly Away.”

READ ORIGINAL REVIEW FROM CMJ HERE

Preservation Hall Jazz Band's 50th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall photos featured in Rolling Stone

Photos by Scott Irby Ranniar

Preservation Hall Jazz Band 50th Anniversary Celebration

Jim James, Steve Earle, Mos Def and more pay respect to the New Orleans institution at Carnegie Hall


The Preservation Hall Jazz Band

GIVERS performing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Jim James of My Morning Jacket performs during the Preservation Hall Jazz Band 50th anniversary at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 7th, 2012.
 The Del McCoury Band performs with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

 Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews & Mos Def with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band 50th anniversary at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 7th, 2012. 

 Steve Earle w/PHJB

 Tom Sancton and George Wein

Allen Toussaint performs during the Preservation Hall Jazz Band 50th anniversary at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 7th, 2012.


 Grand finale


Monday, January 9, 2012

NY Times-Tribute to New Orleans, Inside and Out by Jon Pareles

New York times writer Jon Pareles recaps Preservation Hall Jazz Band's night in Carnegie Hall
Photo by Art Mintz - NY Times

     The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, a quintessential New Orleans institution, discovered new out-of-town admirers after Hurricane Katrina, and it brought many of them along for a concert on Saturday night at Carnegie Hall to celebrate its 50th anniversary.  Preservation Hall, at 726 St. Peter Street, started in 1961 as a place where longtime New Orleans musicians could play the city’s most traditional jazz. It gathered a core Preservation Hall Jazz Band that performs regularly at the hall itself, with personnel gradually changing through the years. Ben Jaffe, the bassist and sousaphone player who is the group’s current creative director, is the son of the band’s previous director, Allan Jaffe. Other band members including the drummer Joe Lastie, the trombonist Freddie Lonzo and the clarinetist Charlie Gabriel, come from multigenerational musical families. 

After the devastation of New Orleans in 2005, jam bands, indie-rockers, and fellow long-running traditional groups supported and collaborated with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The largest project was “Preservation: An Album to Benefit Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program,” a two-CD collection released in 2010. At Carnegie Hall, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Del McCoury Band, My Morning Jacket, Steve Earle, Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards and Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) were on hand. So were the New Orleans-born musicians Trombone Shorty and Allen Toussaint, who sang a tribute to the band for putting “pride in your stride.”
While it’s a paradox that welcoming outsiders and trying out hybrids is a survival tactic for a deeply local tradition, that’s a fact of life for present-day New Orleans.
At Carnegie Hall, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band showed how easily it could hop from era to era. It could work like a rhythm-and-blues horn section or a tightly arranged little big band if need be, but it could also switch back into the polyphonic glories of vintage New Orleans jazz, in which nearly every instrument seems to improvise around the tune at the same time.
That’s what the band did on its own, in standards like “Bourbon Street Parade” (sung by its trumpeter, Mark Braud) — and, even more exuberantly, backing excerpts from the Trey McIntyre Project’s dance suite “Ma Maison,” with members in skeleton masks and harlequin costumes. The band also brought a New Orleans shimmy and wink to some of its guests: Tiffany Lamson of the Louisiana band Givers with “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” and Ms. Garbus belting “Careless Love.”
The band was more somber for a doleful version of “St. James Infirmary” sung by Jim James of My Morning Jacket; the song then turned upbeat for a return of the dancers. For Mr. Earle’s “This City,” a tribute to New Orleans, the band deferred to his roots rock. But there was a dialogue between traditions when Mr. McCoury’s bluegrass band shared songs with Preservation Hall; clarinet and fiddle traded solos that stayed true to their own idioms, while the rhythm meshed.
A big finale filled the stage as the Blind Boys of Alabama; Mr. McCoury; and Preservation Hall’s saxophonist, Clint Maedgen took turns singing the gospel standard “I’ll Fly Away” backed by the night’s full roster. But after the guests cleared away, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band returned along with teenaged musicians from its Preservation Hall Junior Jazz Band, whose members get lessons from the elder band Musical Outreach. They played — of course — “When the Saints Go Marching In,” with an old-fashioned polyphonic swagger that promised continuity for another New Orleans generation. 


Saturday, January 7, 2012

New Orleans Times-Picayune: PHJB the Toast of NY for Saturday's Anniversary Show

Great coverage from New Orleans Times-Picayune writer Keith Spera!


Preservation Hall Jazz Band the toast of New York for Saturday's anniversary show

Published: Friday, January 06, 2012, 5:00 PM     Updated: Friday, January 06, 2012, 5:09 PM




The primary members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band are in New York City this weekend to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary with a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall on Saturday. The roster of special guests includes My Morning Jacket, Del McCoury, Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Mos Def, Givers and Tao Seeger.
Preservation Hall Jazz BandMembers of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which includes trombonist Frederick Lonzo, left, trumpeter Mark Braud, center, and saxophonist and singer Clint Maedgen, far right, are in New York for a 50th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall on Saturday.











The show is likely to receive considerable attention from the New York media. On Friday, the home page of the New York Times web sitefeatured a four-plus minute video snapshot of the band in action at Preservation Hall on St. Peter Street in New Orleans. The paper's coverage also includes a pair of sumptuous photos by Mark Peterson.
Trumpeter Mark Braud is misidentified in a video caption as “Mark Brand,” but otherwise the clip paints a flattering portrait of the multi-generational band. Several current members, including Braud, were not yet born when the Hall was founded in 1961.
If you do not have a ticket for Saturday’s show in New York, you’ll have a second chance come spring: The Preservation Hall crew plans to recreate its 50th anniversary celebration, complete with several of the same special guests, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell. The Pres Hall celebration will close out the Gentilly Stage on May 6, the fest’s final Sunday, in the slot previous held by the now-disbanded Radiators.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Ben Jaffe Interview with AM New York

Check it out: More lovely press from NYC in support of our 50th Anniversary and tomorrow's huge show at Carnegie Hall...

  • For five decades, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has served as a keeper of and ambassador for the New Orleans jazz tradition.

  • Named after the French Quarter music venue Preservation Hall, the group has performed alongside artists ranging from Louis Armstrong to Robert Plant.

  • This week, fans and collaborators including rockers My Morning Jacket, folk singer Steve Earle, rapper Mos Def and bluegrass legend Del McCoury will join the band at a 50th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall.

  • amNewYork spoke with creative director and tuba player Ben Jaffee, whose parents founded Preservation Hall.

  • Is it challenging to carry on the legacy of Preservation Hall? It is. You spend a lot of time thinking about your decisions and the way they impact the musicians who play here and your audience. Then you have bigger responsibilities, because Preservation Hall has become a symbol of New Orleans' rich cultural history.

  • What do you wish more people knew about New Orleans jazz? One big misconception is that New Orleans jazz is old-time music or about re-creating something from the past. I liken our music tradition to our cuisine: The recipes for red beans and rice or gumbo haven't really changed, but you have people who bring new influences to them. To me, that's the ultimate statement, when you can take a tradition and breathe new life into it.

  • Why do you think the music of New Orleans has gotten so much attention the past few years? I believe it's almost singlehandedly a result of Katrina and what we went through. They saw people fighting for our lives and things that mattered to us and realized exactly how important New Orleans is. Also, our music kicks ass - none of this would survive if it wasn't great music.

  • Do you think Preservation Hall will be around in another 50 years? This is not only a celebration of the past 50 years, but about our future and where we are today. I can attest from playing all over the world that Preservation Hall makes people smile and have a good time. I feel like we could get everything figured out real quick if we could get everyone to a Preservation Hall concert.

    If you go: Preservation Hall Jazz Band is performing on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Ave., 212-247-7800, $30-$95.

Preservation Hall in the New York Times Magazine

As the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and friends get ready for their big show at Carnegie Hall tomorrow night, check out this great profile of their home venue in New Orleans in this week's New York Times Magazine...
(click to visit original site)

When Preservation Hall opened in 1961, its purpose was to save traditional jazz. It was probably a decade late. Dixieland was on its second or third revival, while the rest of jazz was evolving frantically. From then until now, the music of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band stood perfectly still. The instruments and the repertory have barely altered in decades: tuba, trombone, banjo, clarinet; “Mood Indigo,” “St. Louis Blues,” “When the Saints Go Marching In.” It was considered backward music for tourists; it was Dixie Beatlemania. And yet. Fifty years later, there is no other place like Preservation Hall. It’s hot and uncomfortable, and no alcohol is served. The musicians change nightly — the original players are long gone — but the sound is the same. The band has been playing its own funeral for the past 50 years, and it shows no signs of dying.
Wm. Ferguson

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The 50 New Orleans Newsmakers of 2011 by Kevin Allman and Alex Woodward

              The 50 New Orleans Newsmakers of 2011 

Kevin Allman and Alex Woodward on the people who made a name for themselves this year ... for better or for worse

The famous, the infamous, the people of substance and the flashes in the pan: this year brought them all. These are 2011's persistent headline-makers in New Orleans and south Louisiana, the people who at times seemed as ubiquitous as honey badgers, pop-up restaurants and pumped-up kicks.
 
47. Preservation Hall Jazz Band
The Standard-Bearers
Band director Ben Jaffe, the son of Preservation Hall founders Allan and Sandra Jaffe, has demonstrated how the band can grow while still staying rooted in the hall's famed jazz tradition, one Louis Armstrong once triumphed. With seemingly endless tours, music festival gigs, a starring role in Danny Clinch's documentary Louisiana Fairytale and performances alongside Pres Hall superfans My Morning Jacket, last year also saw the release of the album Preservation, the band's best-seller, showcasing its inimitable chops alongside the likes of Tom Waits and Pete Seeger. But 2011 wasn't the band's biggest year: the group enters 2012 celebrating its 50th anniversary at an all-star gig at Carnegie Hall with another roster of music stars — performers bowing to Pres Hall's evolving legend. In June, Jaffe told Gambit, "The only moment you get to go into this creative cocoon is when you perform, and I want to amplify that. I want to make it bigger."