American Legacies: Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Del McCoury Band
Recorded in 1964:
Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band (2CD)
Released in 2009:
New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1 - Buy It HERE!
PHJB on NPR!
PRESERVATION Preview on All Songs Considered!
PHJB on WNYC!
Welcome to Made In New Orleans!
Hello everyone and welcome to the Preservation Hall Made in New Orleans Blog! We put this up with the intentions of creating a dialogue with you about New Orleans Music & Culture and latest happenings of Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Each week, we will post on a variety of topics; everything from what’s been happening here at the Hall, features on Preservation Hall musicians of the past/present, responses to your questions/comments, and personal accounts of life in our fair city of New Orleans. We’d like for you to contribute your stories and memoirs as well. Tell us about that time you stumbled off Bourbon Street and into the Hall and saw Billie & Dede Pierce in 1963. Or maybe that time when the Preservation Hall Band played in your hometown. Tell us your New Orleans story. We welcome it.
Have a lovely day. We look forward to hearing from you.
Bluegrass connection - The Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans forged a creative partnership with Del McCoury's bluegrass band. Ben Jaffe of Preservation Hall told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that McCoury traces many influences on bluegrass music back to New Orleans, and that McCoury's band faces "a lot of the same challenges we do" in terms of honoring their musical tradition while also trying to produce something new. Jaffe brought his tuba and sat in with McCoury's band and at the afternoon all-hands-on-deck finales at the Newport Folk Festival in August...
February 16, 2010 - PRESERVATION: an album benefitting Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program hits the streets! (Best Mardi Gras Ever?) While we wait with baited breath, we share with you these previews of the 19 amazing tracks and special guests that make this latest offering from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band so very special. In this installment...
While Amy LaVere's voice may have the high, breathy tone of a young girl, she brings to her music the emotional peaks and valleys of a grown woman who has certainly seen her share of the world, and it's hard not to believe that her adventurous life has informed her work. LaVere was born in a small town near the border of Texas and Louisiana to parents who were part-time musicians. Her family's nomadic life led LaVere to live in 13 different places before she finished high school, and when her folks finally settled in Detroit, she rejected the classic country sounds they doted on -- Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Willie Nelson were their favorites -- in favor of punk rock. LaVere played drums and sang in a Motor City punk band called Last Minute, but after graduating she grew restless and headed back to Louisiana, which turned out to be a brief stop on the way to a job in Nashville, working for a music management company. After settling in Nashville, LaVere met Gabe Kudela, who played with the barnstorming country-punk band the Legendary Shack Shakers. After a brief romance, LaVere and Kudela wed, and after she learned to play upright bass, the couple began playing nightclubs on Nashville's Lower Broadway as part of a group they called the Gabe & Amy Show; the band developed a loyal following in Nashville, and spawned another when they pulled up stakes and relocated to Memphis in 1999.
Although LaVere and Kudela's marriage broke up in 2003, LaVere's love of singing was stronger than ever, and she had developed a belated appreciation for classic country, blues, and jazz sounds that influenced her performing style. With the help of friends Paul Buchignani and Jason Freeman, LaVere began performing as a solo act, and after extensive gigging in the South LaVere caught the attention of Memphis-based independent label Archer Records, which released her striking debut album, This World Is Not My Home, in April of 2006. A little over a year later, LaVere's second long-player, Anchors & Anvils (produced by legendary Memphis musician and studio hand Jim Dickinson), arrived in stores. When not busy with her musical career, LaVere also dabbles in acting; she played pioneering rockabilly filly Wanda Jackson in the film Walk the Line, and later appeared in Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan.PHOTOS OF AMY LAVERE @ PRESERVATION HALL BY ERIKA GOLDRING
The Song: "Baby Won't You Please Come Home" Amy LaVere & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Charles Warfield/Clarence Williams) public domain
Amy LaVere - vocals Mark Braud - trumpet Clint Maedgen - clarinet Lucien Barbarin - trombone Carl LeBlanc - banjo Rickie Monie - piano Ben Jaffe - string bass Joe Lastie - drums
If you haven't caught the Down The Riverside Tour featuring The Blind Boys of Alabama with PHJB, you've got a few chances in January: Jan. 7th at Tarrytown, NY - Tarrytown Music Hall Jan. 8th at Washington, DC - Warner Theatre Jan. 10th at Chapel Hill, NC - Univ. of North Carolina Jan. 29th at Morristown, NJ - Community Theatre of Morristown
Born on this day in 1900, Willie Humphrey was a singular performer who lent his unique blend of clarinet and charisma to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for many, many years. Together with his brother Percy on trumpet, his playing is still held as representative of the New Orleans sound and can be heard on the seminal 1964 live recording of Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Here's a brief biography from Allmusic.com:
Willie Humphrey, Jr. by Scott Yanow for Allmusic.com Since he was the grandson of trumpeter and music teacher Jim Humphrey, the son of clarinetist Willie Humphrey, Sr., and the brother of both trumpeter Percy and trombonist Earl Humphrey, it is not surprising that Willie Humphrey, Jr. became a musician. After some violin lessons, he switched to clarinet when he was 14 and started working locally. Humphrey spent part of 1919-1920 in Chicago, where he played with King Oliver and Freddie Keppard, but then returned home, missing his chance to be recorded early in his career. Humphrey spent 1925-1932 in St. Louis, playing with Fate Marable and Dewey Jackson, and toured with Lucky Millinder (1935-1936), but otherwise lived in New Orleans the remainder of his life. He worked as a music teacher and in a Navy band during World War II, and in the 1950s, he spent a period working with Paul Barbarin. Willie Humphrey and his brother Percy came to fame performing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band starting in the 1960s, touring and spreading the joy of New Orleans jazz around the world. Although far from a virtuoso, Willie Humphrey played his simple ensemble-oriented style with spirit; he recorded as a leader for Smoky Mary and late in his career for GHB.
Check out Willie with this all-star lineup in 1973!
James Olliges, Jr., professionally known as Jim James or Yim Yames, is the singer of Louisville, Kentucky-based rock band, My Morning Jacket. James grew up in the Hikes Point neighborhood of Louisville and graduated from St. Xavier High School in 1995. As the singer, frontman, producer, and lead songwriter for My Morning Jacket, James has been instrumental in defining the sound of the band, in particular on their critically acclaimed Z, which he co-produced with John Leckie.James cites The Muppet Show as one of his biggest musical influences. James was given an "Esky" for best songwriter in Esquire's 2006 Esky Music Awards in the April issue. James typically plays rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, and occasional lead guitar on My Morning Jacket songs. James recently played the role of the band Leader in the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There singing the song "Going to Acapulco", with Calexico as his backing band, which was featured on the soundtrack of the film. Rolling Stone listed James among their "20 New Guitar Gods" along with fellow My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel. He contributed vocals on The Decemberists 2009 album The Hazards of Love.
On July 7, 2009, James released an EP covering George Harrison songs, entitled Tribute To. A portion of the proceeds from the album will go to benefit the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. The EP is available on yimyames.com as both a digital download and a physical CD/LP.
photos of Jim James @ Preservation Hall by Mary Ashley Johnson
The Song: "Louisiana Fairytale" Yim Yames & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Parish, Gillespie, Coots) WB Music Corp, Larry Spier Music LLC, EMI Mills Music Inc.
Yim Yames - vocals Mark Braud - trumpet Clint Maedgen - clarinet Daniel "Weenie" Farrow - tenor sax Carl LeBlanc - banjo "The Professor" Rickie Monie - piano Walter Payton - string bass Joe Lastie - drums
Soulful Americana songwriter, singer, and producer Buddy Miller began his career in the early '60s as an upright bassist is high-school bluegrass combos. Later, he traveled the back roads of America as an acoustic guitarist, eventually landing in New York City, where his Buddy Miller Band included a young Shawn Colvin on vocals and guitar. He also forged an enduring relationship with country-rock iconoclast Jim Lauderdale. Miller eventually landed in Nashville, where he did session guitar and vocal work on albums by Lauderdale, Victoria Williams, and Heather Myles, among others. He self-produced his criminally overlooked solo debut, Your Love and Other Lies (Hightone, 1995), and followed it with 1997's equally superb Poison Love. By this point Miller was the lead guitarist in Emmylou Harris' band, and Harris returned the favor with backing vocals throughout Poison Love. Released in 1999, Cruel Moon continued Miller's string of home-recorded masterpieces; this time around, Steve Earle dropped by for the sessions. A big part of all Miller's recordings was the songwriting and harmonies of his wife, Julie Miller. The 2001 duet album Buddy & Julie Miller brought her contributions to the front of the mix and delivered them with gritty, soulful country arrangements enhanced by the interplay of his scowl and her lilt, while 2002 saw the release of his fifth album for Hightone, Midnight and Lonesome. It again featured contributions from Julie, Harris, and Lauderdale and mixed honky tonk with heartfelt balladry and the occasional soul cover. In 2004 Miller released the roots gospel album Universal United House of Prayer for New West, followed by Written in Chalk in 2009. In addition to his stellar solo career, Miller held down his gig in Harris' backing band; played guitar with Earle; produced albums by his wife Julie, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and the Vigilantes of Love; and wrote songs for the Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack, Lauderdale, and Hank Williams III.
