Tonight @ The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis - A Tribute To Sweet Emma Barrett featuring PHJB, Tom Sancton, and Marcia Ball

Hope you're ready, Minneapolis!  It's going to be an amazing show tonight.  

Tickets are still available: CLICK HERE if you need some! 

By Rick Mason Wednesday, Mar 9 2011
New Orleans's iconic Preservation Hall Jazz Band's latest jaunt upriver promises to be extraordinary in every sense. With phenomenal Louisiana-Texas pianist Marcia Ball in tow, this unique, once-only performance at the new Guthrie will commemorate the original PHJB's 1964 concert at the old Guthrie with pianist/singer Sweet Emma Barrett, which was recorded for an album that's still in print. Ball, well-schooled in the pianistic eccentricities of the Crescent City, will re-create the rollicking style of Barrett, who was a charismatic presence on St. Peter Street even after a paralyzing stroke forced her to play one-handed. She would hunch over the keyboard like a vulture, while her music soared. This year is the 50th anniversary of Preservation Hall's founding by Allan Jaffe, and the venerable institution has thrived of late with a fresh, maverick spirit under the leadership of his son Ben. This collaboration with Ball is one example, as is PHJB's upcoming recording with bluegrass master Del McCoury. Ball, incidentally, has a new album of her own, Roadside Attractions, due imminently. This show will include previously unseen footage of the '64 event, plus trad jazz clarinetist Tommy Sancton, who will read passages from his memoir about Barrett and Preservation Hall in the '60s. Mon., March 14, 7:30 p.m., 2011

 Pop music spotlight: Preservation Hall Jazz Band, with Marcia Ball
Marcia Ball brings the 50-year-old New Orleans institution to the Guthrie
by Jon Bream
Monday: The 50-year-old New Orleans institution recorded its landmark album "Sweet Emma Barrett & Her Preservation Hall Band" in 1964 at the old Guthrie Theater. For many years, leader/tuba player Ben Jaffe, son of the the couple who opened Preservation Hall in the Crescent City in 1961, has wanted to pay tribute to that breakthrough album. The time has come. None of the original musicians is alive, but hard-driving Louisiana/Texas piano woman Marcia Ball will be on board to take Barrett's role as PHJB recreates "Sweet Emma Barrett," which was reissued in 2005 as a double CD. (7:30 p.m. Mon. $38-$40. Guthrie, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls. 612-377-2224.)