PHJB Announces Live at Carnegie Hall Album: St. Peter and 57th (EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD)

Entitled St. Peter and 57th (September 25th, Rounder Records), the album will feature a number of special guests from an assortment of genres including,Features guests such as George Wein, Del McCoury Band, Allen Toussaint, Ed Helms, GIVERS, Steve Earle, Tao Seeger, My Morning Jacket, Trombone Shorty, Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), King Britt, Blind Boys of Alabama, and Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs

 

In commemoration and celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the iconic venue Preservation Hall, the prolific New Orleans jazz legends Preservation Hall Jazz Band are set to release a live recording of the band's acclaimed January 7th performance at Carnegie Hall.  

Rehearsal--Photo by Howard Lambert

The concert was orchestrated to benefit the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program, directly supporting the passing of the musical and cultural traditions of New Orleans to the city's next generation of musicians. A portion of the proceeds from the album will also benefit the program.  

The band is also sharing "St. James Infirmary, Part 1" featuring My Morning Jacket's Jim James, which just premiered on Pitchfork. 

AVAILABLE NOW IN THE STORE: Limited-Edition 10" Vinyl PHJB Live at Carnegie Hall

 

AVAILABLE NOW FROM OUR ONLINE STORE!
LIMITED-EDITION 10" VINYL OF "PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND: LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL(ONLY 504 COPIES AVAILABLE!)

<<CLICK HERE TO ORDER NOW!!>>

Featuring 5 LIVE tracks from the Preservation Hall & Friends 50th Anniversary Performance at Carnegie Hall on January 7, 2012, this Limited Edition(504 available) 10" Vinyl features The Preservation Hall Jazz Band performing:

That's Enough
Tootie Ma
Bourbon Street Parade
Sweet And Low Down
Saints Go Marchin' In

A full-length album of Preservation Hall & Friends: Live At Carnegie Hall will be released later this year.

Recorded Live at Carnegie Hall - January 7, 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

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

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

FOR COMPLETE PHOTO GALLERY CLICK HERE

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. 

ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

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

 By Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune 
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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.

Matthew Hinton / The Times-PicayuneMembers 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.

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...

Preservation Hall Celebrates 50 Years

• 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.

NBC New York spotlights PHJB's Golden Anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall

Preservation Hall Jazz Band Throw Themselves A Party 

By Michael Tedder

            

 

Since 1961 the Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been keeping the tradition of boisterous New Orleans jazz alive, one boogie-fortified, horn-blaring performance at a time.

One suspects that the Preservation gentlemen are constantly coming up with excuses to throw a party, but their current blowout seems especially justified. On Jan. 7 the Preservation Hall Jazz Band will celebrate their 50th "Golden" Anniversary with a performance at Carnegie Hall that's apparently several years in the making.

"I started thinking about the anniversary shortly after we celebrated our 45th Anniversary back in 2006," says Ben Jaffe, creative director and tuba player. "I've been laying down the groundwork for the show for almost 18 months. Ultimately, I want the evening to be a memorable night of music."

The Jazz Band started as a touring outlet for the group of musicians that gathered at New Orleans Preservation Hall, an unretouched, un-air conditioned building which has been around since 1812 and has previously served as a tavern and photo gallery. Jaffe's parents, Allan and Sandra, founded the band 50 years ago, and he credits Preservation's longevity to not mucking up a good thing.

"We're like a pot of red beans and rice. No matter what day of the week, no matter how many times you've eaten them... they're always delicious when the right person is cooking them," he says. "Preservation Hall, no matter where we travel in the world, we connect with our audiences. I don't know exactly what it is, but people universally can't sit still when we play. They have to move or dance or bounce or sing. That's something you still find in New Orleans today, people dance to jazz."

The Hall's brand of rice and beans has proven to be quiet durable and beloved.

For the Carnegie performance the Band will be joined by a wide spectrum of guests including My Morning Jacket, Mos Def,  Allen Toussaint, Trey McIntyre Project, Steve Earle, Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, Del McCoury Band, Trombone Shorty, GIVERS,  Blind Boys of Alabama, Tao Seeger and even actor Ed Helms.

"We have lots of friends who play lots of styles of music, the whole spectrum. I think that's one of the amazing about what we do.  We all share a love, respect and deep appreciation for New Orleans music and culture," says Jaffe. "To me, it doesn't seem that strange. If Mos Def were alive 100 years ago, he'd be singing with Jelly Roll Morton! Artists have an honest respect for Preservation Hall.  There aren't that many, if any, institutions to compare Preservation Hall to. We are directly connected to the first days of jazz."

The "Golden" 50th Anniversary show (taking place in their 51st year, technically, but let's not pick nits) is a big undertaking for Jaffe, but he says it's only the start of a year-long celebration.

"We have a whole year's worth of projects on the table. We recently opened a retrospective exhibit in New Orleans titled 'Preservation Hall at 50.' We are going to be recording this year as well as touring the country and the world," he says.

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

Preservation Hall Adds Special Guests to 50th Anniversary Show at Carnegie Hall including My Morning Jacket, Del McCoury Band, Trombone Shorty, GIVERS, Allen Toussaint, Blind Boys of Alabama, Tao Seeger, and Mos Def

Preservation Hall Jazz Band is pleased to announce the special guests that will join them on stage for their 50th anniversary performance.  On January 7^th, 2012 at 8:00pm they will grace the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, with special guests My Morning Jacket, Del McCoury Band, Trombone Shorty, GIVERS, Allen Toussaint, Blind Boys of Alabama, Tao Seeger, & Mos Def. 

Tickets for what is bound to be an unforgettable night go on sale December 2^nd and are available at www.carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57^th street and 7^th avenue.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been carrying the distinctive sound of New Orleans jazz around the world on behalf of Preservation Hall, a unique venue that embodies the city’s musical legacy.  With a cast of musicians schooled through first-hand experience and apprenticeship into the music’s historic traditions, the PHJB has served as an irreplaceable, vital link to the earliest days of one of America’s most beloved forms of popular music. 

The group manages to evoke the spirits of times past in an ever-evolving modern context that has found them traveling around the world.  Along the way, they have brought in collaborators of all musical stripes to play, honor, and reinterpret America’s first true art form.  The PHJB have played and recorded with artists like Tom Waits, Pete Seeger, Ani DiFranco and My Morning Jacket.  Their most recent collaboration has been with the Grammy-winning bluegrass outfit, the Del McCoury Band, with whom they released a joint album earlier this year titled American Legacies.

The Louisiana State Museum also just launched a major exhibition celebrating Preservation Hall’s 50^th anniversary at the Old U.S. Mint.  Co-curated by Preservation Hall and the Museum, Preservation Hall at 50, tells the story of the venue’s history through artifacts, photographs, film and audio clips, as well as interviews and oral histories.  The exhibit is open now and will run through 2012.

This concert is presented by The Bowery Presents.