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.)

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

"Historic Preservation at the Dakota" (performance review, Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Historic Preservation at the Dakota
for The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
by Chris Riemenschneider

It’s always a tad disappointing seeing Dixieland kings the Preservation Hall Jazz Band perform anywhere besides their namesake French Quarter venue/hole-in-the-wall, but last night’s third of four gigs at the Dakota still felt closer to the real thing than their usual Orchestra Hall appearances. This week’s shows were (somewhat amazingly) the PHJB’s first stint at the Dakota. As the Dakota’s Lowell Pickett noted in his introduction, “They don’t usually play venues this small … except in their hometown.”

The intimacy certainly added a level of magic to some of the slower, softer numbers, including a bluesy rendition of “My Sweet Substitute” led by clarinetist Charlie Gabriel and a heart-string-pulling instrumental version of “A Closer Walk to Thee.” Other highlights included a slightly Latin-jazzed take on “St. Louis Blues” by trombone player Freddy Lonzo and, best of all, a spirited tear through “Tootie Ma Is a Big Fine Thing,” which Tom Waits sings on the new all-star PHJB charity CD, “Preservation.”

Bassist/sousaphonist Ben Jaffe, whose parents founded the hall/band in 1961, noted the group’s historical ties to Minneapolis during Tuesday's early set: It was the first place they performed outside of Louisiana, and they recorded their first CD, “Sweet Emma,” at the original Guthrie Theater in 1964. Jaffe also told a sweet story about being a kid and taking a call from legendary New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt – whose name he thought was pronounced “Hoyt” – in honor of Hirt’s widow Beverly, a local resident watching from one of the booths. New Orleans and Minneapolis seem to grow closer every year.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE