PHJB in Thailand: Royal New Orleans Jazz Celebration!

Last month, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band traveled to Thailand to unveil and celebrate the release of a brand new recording for His Majesty the King.  Featuring 14 of His Royal Majesty's compositions and performances on vibraphone by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.  Check out some of these fascinating articles, videos and photos from a tremendous visit!

Jazz Fit For A King
Bangkok Post - 12/01/2010
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band tells 'Outlook' about its new album in celebration of the King's 84th birthday

If the King loves music, it is well with the land, said Chinese philosopher Mencius (Mengzi) around 400 BC. This is true for Thailand today, over 2,400 years later. His Majesty the King loves, composes and plays music and is devoted to his country and people. His more than 30 musical compositions have long brought happiness to Thais.


As the musical king turns 84 next year, his favourite band, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, has joined the Thai people's celebrations with a special album featuring 14 royal compositions and a new song in the New Orleans Jazz style. What is extraordinary about the album is Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn's role in playing the vibraphone with the band on two songs.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band was founded in New Orleans by Allan and Sandra Jaffe in 1961. Many of the band's founding members performed with jazz pioneers, including Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton. They include Billie and De De Pierce, famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, and Wille and Percy Humphrey. The current band members follow in their footsteps.

The band's new album entitled, Royal New Orleans Jazz Celebration, features Thai composer and saxophonist Pathorn Srikaranonda, and the first album to feature His Majesty's 14 royal compositions played in the New Orleans jazz style. The 14 songs are Royal Marines March, Lay Kram Goes New Orleans, Smiles, Candlelight Blues, Lullaby, Love at Sundown, Can't You Ever See, Near Dawn, H.M. Blues, Never Mind the Hungry Men's Blues, Love in Spring, Friday Night Rag, New Year Greeting and When. A highlight is a new song, Royal Celebration 2011, co-written by Pathorn and the band's creative director and tuba player Benjamin Jaffe.

Pathorn, who is also a member of His Majesty the King's Or Sor Wan Sook Band, and Jaffe, who represented the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, recently talked to 'Outlook' about the new album and also His Majesty's penchant for jazz.

click here for full interview!

 

PHJB in Thailand!

PHJB and The Del McCoury Band On The Road: American Legacies Tour, 2010-2011

Preservation Hall Jazz Band and
The Del McCoury Band announce
The American Legacies Tour, 2010-2011

With a combined 100 years of musical influence in the genres of American Bluegrass and Traditional New Orleans Jazz, The Del McCoury Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band are true legacies of roots Americana.  Independently, they represent the very best of their respective formats.  Together on stage, the parallel evolution of these two purely American art forms becomes immediately and joyously evident.  With mutual roots in blues and spiritual music and a thematic focus on the trials and tribulations of the American everyman, the live marriage of the high lonesome sound of the Appalachians and the hot and lively music native to the Crescent City create a seamless blend of soul-lifting traditional harmonies guaranteed to bring audiences dancing into the aisles.

Back in 2009, Del McCoury was the first guest vocalist to record a track with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for their critically-acclaimed 2010 release Preservation: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program, which also featured guest artists Merle Haggard, Tom Waits, Yim Yames, Andrew Bird and over a dozen more.  In the year and a half since that first meeting, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and The Del McCoury Band have forged an artistically fruitful creative partnership that has yielded not only a host of exciting performances, but a fully collaborative album as well.  Recorded in San Francisco this past July, this exciting new recording will feature the two groups performing together through a selection of traditional jazz and bluegrass standards along with original material by both the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and The Del McCoury Band.

Saturday, October 23, 2010  /  The Family Arena  /  St. Charles, MO (POSTPONED)

Thursday, October 28, 2010  /  Jefferson Center  /  Roanoke, VA

Friday, October 29, 2010  /  Appalachian State University  /  Boone, NC

Saturday, October 30, 2010  /  Duke University  /  Durham, NC

Sunday, November 21, 2010  /  Philharmonic Center for the Arts  /  Naples, FL

More dates to be announced soon!

Pictures from Last Night's PHJB Show @ The Jazz Kitchen (Indianapolis)

Check out this great photoset at Metromix Indianapolis!

Preservation Hall Jazz Band at The Jazz Kitchen, 09/14/10

PHJB On The Road: In-Studio Performance, IndyStyle.tv, Channel 8, Indianapolis!

 

A nice interview with Ben, followed by Bourbon Street Parade

and When The Saints Go Marching In... enjoy!