Performance Review: 'American Legacies,' PHJB and the Del McCoury Band in Boston

photo by Matthew J. Lee / Globe Staff

Celebrating jazz, country, gospel in a collaborative spirit
By Bill Beuttler
Boston Globe Correspondent / March 22, 2011  
Bluegrass and New Orleans jazz came together at Symphony Hall Saturday as the Celebrity Series of Boston brought the Del McCoury Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to town for a joyous and virtuosic celebration of their joint album due out next month, the aptly titled “American Legacies.’’

Ben Jaffe, whose parents founded Preservation Hall 50 years ago, came onstage with pianist Rickie Monie, who played some gentle stride as Jaffe introduced the other five members of the band, the horn players each blowing a short, personable solo en route to their chairs. Del McCoury (who was playing in Baltimore honky-tonks the year Preservation Hall opened, joining bluegrass titan Bill Monroe’s band in 1963) brought his group out to join them, and everyone finished off “Basin Street Blues.’’ A Jaffe original, “The Band’s in Town,’’ followed, featuring McCoury trading vocal lines with saxophonist Clint Maedgen and solos from Mark Braud on trumpet and McCoury’s son Ronnie on mandolin, and the table was set for an evening of mostly collaborative music.

There were brief separate sets as well. The McCoury band revisited “Rain and Snow,’’ tore through the instrumental “Rawhide,’’ and then slowed down for four-part vocal harmonizing on “Get Down on Your Knees and Pray.’’ The Preservation Hall bunch went it alone on “That’s a Plenty’’ and “Shake It and Break It,’’ with Braud explaining that the latter would feature “my mother’s favorite vocalist’’ filling in for Andrew Bird.

But the show primarily featured the two distinct dialects of indigenous American instrumental music genially feeling each other out on jazz, country, and gospel chestnuts. Some highlights: Maedgen adding his tenor to the McCoury band’s version of Ernest Tubb’s “You Don’t Have to Be a Baby to Cry,’’ Braud’s muted trumpet and vocals on “The Sugar Blues,’’ Charlie Gabriel’s clarinet and gravely vocals on “A Good Gal,’’ and Joe Lastie’s crowd-pleasing drum solo on the ostensible closer, “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.’’ And “Mullensburg Joys’’ effectively displayed its shared pedigree (Bill Monroe himself recorded the Jelly Roll Morton jazz standard as “Milenberg Joy’’) in a series of solos building to Gabriel trading licks with fiddler Jason Carter.

Maedgen sang a spirited “I’ll Fly Away’’ with Del McCoury as a first encore, then everyone trooped out one last time, the audience dancing along to a rousing “When the Saints Go Marching In.’’ American legacies, indeed.

Bill Beuttler can be reached at bill@billbeuttler.com.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE!

Another Nice Performance Review from Minneapolis

From Preservation Hall to the Dakota:
The Saints Are Marchin’ in High Fashion
Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor, Jazz Police
Friday, 23 July 2010

They don’t call it “Preservation Hall” for nothing. The first time I set foot in what might be the world’s tiniest commercial jazz venue in 1981, I recall my wonder that five or six musicians could make such vibrant music night after night for an audience crammed wall to wall. Back then, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was comprised of a handful of septu- and octogenarians, meaning they could have been cohorts of Louis Armstrong in his early days. Now the popularity of the PHJB extends far beyond the early 19th century building on St. Peter Street in the French Quarter, and there are perhaps more than a dozen jazz musicians who rotate playing in the hall or on tour. One of those tours brought the band to the Dakota Jazz Club, a much larger venue than their home base, and a much smaller venue than their usual tour stop. In the Twin Cities, PHJB has appeared at the old Guthrie Theater (where they recorded their first commercial album) and at Orchestra Hall, but this week was their first club gig here. And it was an ideal way to enjoy the band and their deep reverence for the birthplace of jazz—comfortably intimate.

The contrast to Preservation Hall was rather extreme—the Dakota stage is larger than the entire Hall; Dakota patrons sit at tables and order food and drink, while in the Hall, mostly tourists line against the walls or sit on the floor with no amenities beyond the music and the smell of history. But regardless of context, this was purely New Orleans music, and most of the tunes (including “Whenever You’re Lonesome,” “Tiger Rag,” “You Are My Sunshine,” and of course “When The Saints Go Marchin’ In”) have been in the PJHB repertoire since the band first formed in the early 60s. The musicians themselves spread across more generations than the original band, with bassist/tuba player/director Ben Jaffe apparently the youngest (in his late 30s). The son of the Hall’s founders, Jaffe grew up literally on the knee of the PHJB members, and joked that one of his former students is none other than trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, now artistic director for jazz at Orchestra Hall and in the audience for Tuesday night’s final set. Well, he was not in the audience for long, coming on stage to join the band and duke it out with the other horns...

FULL ARTICLE HERE

PHJB Concert Review: June 1 / Orlando, FL (via OrlandoWeekly.com)

Some nice words about last week's show in Orlando:
This Little Underground
By Bao Le-Huu
...The Preservation Hall Jazz Band show (June 1, Plaza Theatre) was an outstandingly immersive occasion. Being in a classic setting pregnant with history while listening to music with even deeper roots makes for a uniquely transporting experience. The live personification of the French Quarter record label and venue (a tradition dating back to the ‘60s), the PHJB are torchbearers of New Orleans jazz. But rather than relics or campy knockoffs, the band plays in a way that captures the fire of youth from which that music was originally forged. All of it culminated in a finale where the band left the stage and led a dance line up and down the theater aisles. And lemme tell you, those blue hairs got up outta their seats and got down faster than you kids normally do.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

A Review: Bonnie "Prince" Billy at Preservation Hall

by Ryan Matteson
for Muzzleofbees.com

Depending on your preference, New Orleans can be laid back or rough and tumble. I’ve experienced both ends of the spectrum on my brief sojourn in the Crescent City. Most of yesterday was spent tracking down recommendations from friends that have previously navigated the Magazine Street and the Garden district, providing ample distraction from the seemingly never ending alcohol free-flowing party the city offers in the tourist areas. I had another distraction that no amount of Cafe Du Monde Beignets could relieve. I had a ticket to see Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and the Cairo Gang at the New Orleans landmark Preservation Hall...

FULL ARTICLE HERE