Thursday, March 31, 2011

ALBUM REVIEW: 'American Legacies' in Offbeat Magazine

PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND AND DEL McCOURY BAND
AMERICAN LEGACIES
(McCoury Music)


The evolution of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band into a conveyer of hip is one of the musical successes of post-K culture. We can no longer point to the band (or the hall) as simply a bastion of tradition; we must recognize it as an innovator of tradition. As invaluable as his father’s contributions were to our culture, Ben Jaffe is quite important to the now.

On their new collaboration with the Del McCoury Band, we find the band swinging with and around McCoury’s silky tenor. Though it’s doubtful anyone in the world was losing sleep over the dangers of mixing bluegrass with trad, this isn’t a simple suture job. Wicked mandolin runs, clarinets in skyward races with fiddles, percussive banjoes and snares—this is one mean band. Check out “Banjo Frisco” for some very new/old music.

McCoury and family have shared the stage with Phish and recorded with Steve Earle, making them as accustomed to crossover as the current Pres Hall. More importantly, we’re listening to two types of traditional music that blossomed alongside each other in the first half of the 20th Century, nurtured by two different sets of poor folks—urban African Americans and rural whites—who shared a talent to swing and a fondness for celebration and mourning. Everything comes down to blues and banjoes, after all.

The wise move here was to allow Mark Braud and Clint Maedgen to sing lead almost as often as McCoury, and thus really test out the conflagration. “The Sugar Blues” hands you a what-if question involving Bob Wills and Fats Waller, Grand Ole Opry and Preservation Hall, 1931 and 2011. Good answers abound.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Available Next Week from LSU Press - "Preservation Hall" photographs by Shannon Brinkman & Interviews by Eve Abrams

AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK!
“PRESERVATION HALL”
A Book Of New Orleans Jazz Portraits By Shannon Brinkman
With Interviews by Eve Abrams
Available March 29, 2011

In honor of the Golden Anniversary year of one of America’s greatest musical institutions, LSU Press will release the book Preservation Hall  on March 29, 2011.  Featuring live and behind-the-scenes photographs by award-winning New Orleans art photographer Shannon Brinkman and in-depth interviews with Preservation Hall Musicians by Eve Abrams, Preservation Hall documents the present day of this legendary, multi-generational group of jazz musicians and the small room in New Orleans’ French Quarter that they’ve continued to play in for the last 50 years.
About Shannon Brinkman:
Shannon Brinkman is a sought after fine art photographer.   She has won International awards such as the Annual Photographer's Forum contest and been included in many exhibitions in National galleries and museums like the New Orleans Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts (Tallahassee, FL), Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Albany Museum of Art as well as the Alexandria Museum of Art.  Her work on Preservation Hall was also chosen and exhibited in the Fotofest biennial in 2010.  In November 2011 the Lousiana State Museum will present an exhibition on Preservation Hall with a feature on Brinkman's imagery.
Brinkman is also an International Sport Horse photographer and has represented the United State Equestrian Federation at the 2010 World Equestrian Games and for USEA at the Olympics and Pan American Games. Her images capture not only the action but have an artistic, and keen eye for the height of the moment.
Her work has been collected by the Tarragona Music Festival in Spain, Albany Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans Superbowl as well as many private collectors.

About Eve Abrams:

Eve Abrams is a radio producer, writer, audio documentarian, and educator who stitches stories together from her home in New Orleans.
Eve’s stories regularly air on WWNO, New Orleans’ Public Radio and NPR station, as well as on WWOZ, New Orleans’ Jazz and Heritage Community Radio Station.  Eve’s work airs nationally on National Public Radio, The Tavis Smiley Show, The Story, This American Life, World Vision Report, Studio 360, The World, and Voice of America.

Her writing has appeared in Fourth Genre, offBeat Magazine, Wesleyan Magazine, Post Road Magazine, and Where We Know: New Orleans as Home, published by Chin Press, 2010.

Aurora Nealand and The Royal Roses at Preservation Hall - April 7!


Please join us for a new series of late-night performances featuring some of the crescent city’s truly up-and-coming emissaries of Traditional New Orleans Jazz. Aurora Nealand is a saxophonist and composer who has been based in New Orleans, LA since 2004. She currently plays saxophones/accordion with the bands The Royal Roses, Panorama Jazz/Brass Band, Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship, The Brian Coogan Band, and Stagger Back Brass Band. In the past 4 years she has performed extensively in the local New Orleans music scene as well as at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the French Quarter Festival.

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

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Del McCoury Band combined efforts Saturday at Symphony Hall.
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.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Review: "Louisiana Fairytale: Live at Preservation Hall" at SXSW by Magnet Magazine

March 18, 2011
 
MAGNET's Mitch Myers files his sixth round of notes from SXSW

SXSW is reigning down with full force now. The crowds are massive, and the density of party action is almost beyond reason. So, what else is there to do in Texas but celebrate New Orleans-style? Director Danny Clinch ensured a little bit of the French Quarter was delivered to Austin on Thursday with the screening of his new documentary film Live At Preservation Hall: Louisiana Fairytale. Clinch’s movie focuses on New Orleans jazz traditions, specifically the guys in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, who have been playing music at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter since the early ’60s.

Part of the New Orleans jazz tradition is to collaborate while moving forward; in this case, it meant the Preservation Hall group joined forces with Jim James and his band, My Morning Jacket. This pairing isn’t as unlikely as it first sounds, and Clinch did an expert job capturing the meeting of the two ensembles and their exciting, intimate performance down on St Peter Street. We also learn the history of the Preservation Hall and its members, gain insights into their musical lifestyle and watch the visiting members of My Morning Jacket absorb some of their enchantment.

To set the tone just before the film’s screening, Clinch wisely summoned the spirit of New Orleans down in Austin as the Preservation Hall Jazz Band suddenly appeared and circled the street in front of the Paramount Theater, playing a moving, grooving second-line parade for the waiting moviegoers and passers-by. The parade then continued inside the theater, which led to a dynamic performance of “St James Infirmary,” with a suit-clad James singing and moaning and throwing himself up against the theater seats and along the front of the stage. It’s clear that the musicians from the two groups had a great deal of respect for one another, and this movie is more of a celebration of the summit than anything else. Photographer Clinch is certainly growing as a director—he’s made concert films showcasing bands like Pearl Jam and John Mayer—and this might be his best yet...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

PREMIERE OF "LIVE AT PRESERVATION HALL: LOUISIANA FAIRYTALE" AT SXSW featuring PHJB and My Morning Jacket


If you find yourself in Austin this Thursday, we are screening Danny Clinch's latest film ''Louisiana Fairytale'' at SXSW!

And for those who can make it, you will be treated to a pre-screening set of music by The Preservation Hall Jazz Band!

Thursday, March 17th 2:30pm 
@ Paramount  Theater
713 Congress Ave.
Austin, TX 78701

For music, film or press guests of the festival, those credentials will get you right in!  Otherwise, tickets are $10 at the door.
 
From My Morning Jacket
"my morning jacket is thrilled to play alongside the one and only
preservation hall jazz band in this beautiful new film from danny
clinch. the film details a magically collaborative performance between
the pres hall jazz band and mmj- late one night down in the french
quarter at the legendary preservation hall itself, along with
documentary footage and interviews about the preservation hall and its
rich new orleans heritage. please come down and check it out!" 

Monday, March 14, 2011

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.)

Friday, March 11, 2011

Performance Preview: Trey McIntyre Project and PHJB bring "Ma Maison" and "The Sweeter End" to Boise - BoiseWeekly.com

TMP Celebrates Mardi Gras With "Ma Maison" and "The Sweeter End"
And New Orleans' Preservation Hall Jazz Band joins TMP live
BoiseWeekly.com - March 09, 2011
by James Ady

PHOTO BY KURT GERBER
Just days after 2011's Mardi Gras celebrations quiet down, Boise-based dance company Trey McIntyre Project and the famed New Orleans Preservation Hall Jazz Band will rev the festivities back up. The two performance powerhouses will join forces in an exuberant mix of artistry, energy and visceral spirit on Saturday, March 12, at the Morrison Center.

This collaboration has been in the subconscious making for years. New Orleans is a beloved stomping ground for TMP Artistic Director Trey McIntyre, who for years enjoyed the city's easily accessible proximity to his dance alma mater, the Houston Ballet. During his years as a regular visitor to the city, McIntyre established long-lasting friendships and an affinity for the city's saturated culture.

"New Orleans is so welcoming, and the people are very similar to Boiseans in the sense that no matter where you are, you always feel like you belong," said McIntyre.

That affection led to the creation of 2008's Ma Maison and the brand-new The Sweeter End, both of which will be on the Morrison Center stage on Saturday for a matinee and an evening performance.

The idea for the two ballets first emerged in 2008 while TMP was performing at New York's Association of Performing Arts Presenters. Friends of McIntyre's from the New Orleans Ballet suggested some kind of collaboration between his company and one of the jazz groups from the Big Easy, spurring McIntyre to search out the right music for his dancers.

After spending just one night at the world-renowned Preservation Hall and hearing PHJB live, McIntyre's decision was made.

"It's almost a religious experience to just be in that historic space and hear them perform. You can actually see the grooves in the wood floor where the musicians have stood for decades," said McIntyre, a self-proclaimed dance anthropologist.

PHJB is a veritable Southern institution, which has counted some of world's most talented jazz musicians and pioneers as members, including Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden, Bunk Johnson and Jelly Roll Morton. Led by creative director and PHJB tuba player Benjamin Jaffe, the musical tour de force was founded in 1961 by Jaffe's parents, Allan and Sandra, who named the band after its French Quarter home.

"The first time I met Trey, he was with some of the dancers from New Orleans Ballet, and although I don't really know exactly what I expected from meeting a choreographer, I was surprised by his gentle and calm demeanor ... he was very laid-back," said Jaffe.

After that initial meeting with McIntyre, Jaffe expressed immediate interest and commitment to an artistic merger, and the two respective directors began brainstorming. McIntyre commissioned PHJB to write the music to which he would choreograph both Ma Maison and The Sweeter End. McIntyre was even present in the studio as PHJB recorded the music that he would later take back to his home studio on Fulton Street for rehearsals.

The brightly colored Ma Maison costumes, developed by acclaimed New York-based designer Jeanne Button, are accentuated by skeleton masks, adding quirky elements of androgyny, anonymity, humor and fright. Costumes for The Sweeter End were imagined and constructed by New York-based designer Andrea Lauer with denim donated by Levi's--Lauer's designs in the familiar material are at once urban and country.

Inspired by ritual, the celebration of death and the respectfully feared afterlife, both Ma Maison and The Sweeter End are fueled by themes of life's pleasures and expressions of primal joy. Both received fantastic audience response and critical praise after the sold-out Feb. 7 performance in New Orleans in the 2,300-seat Mahalia Jackson Theater. That night was the world premiere of The Sweeter End, which ended in a standing ovation and was a jubilant and fitting close to a powerful evening.

"We have been doing Ma Maison since 2008, and the piece takes on a whole new feeling when we dance it with the musicians live," said the energetic Chanel DaSilva, who has been with TMP since it was founded in 2008.

As satisfying as the partnership has been, introducing a live seven-piece jazz band into a dance performance posed a few artistic challenges.
"It just takes some time to feel each other out, getting the tempos correct and making sure no one feels artistically compromised," said McIntyre.

TMP spent a full week in New Orleans prior to the Mahalia Jackson Theater performance, rehearsing with PHJB to iron out all the little nuances that make a good performance great. Now Boise audiences will get to experience the culmination of this incredible collaboration. Jaffe said he and the rest of the band are looking forward to being here, too.

"We have actually been to Boise and Sun Valley before, and the thing that never gets old is seeing just how majestic the natural environment is," Jaffe said. "You know, New Orleans is pretty flat, and we don't get to see the mountains unless we're traveling, so Idaho is pretty cool for us."

When asked what the future holds for TMP, McIntyre wasn't ready to divulge his plans.

"I am working on a few ideas, but nothing I'm ready to talk about," he said.

McIntyre did, however, admit to an ongoing desire to integrate the latest technologies for his multi-media enhanced shows. He enjoys remaining as flexible in his work as his dancers' rubber band-like hamstrings.

Jaffe has some personal and professional expectations of his own that he hopes to express during the show.

"[I] always want the audience to leave having had a fantastic experience," he said. "This is at the core of New Orleans music; it's emotional and allows people the chance to celebrate."

Thursday, March 10, 2011

American Legacies on A Blog Supreme / NPR Jazz

Where Bluegrass Meets New Orleans Jazz
March 7, 2011
by Paul Brown
photo by Shannon Brinkman
If you're looking for credibility in either bluegrass or jazz, you'd be hard-pressed to top either the Del McCoury Band or the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. McCoury once joined the band of Bill Monroe, generally acknowledged as bluegrass' founder; he now leads his own acclaimed band. Around the time that McCoury met Monroe, Preservation Hall was founded to "nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans Jazz." Many of the PHJB's charter members played with the early 20th-century pioneers of jazz, and that line of mentorship continues into today.

The Del McCoury Band and the PHJB have recorded a new album together: American Legacies is due out April 12. Bluegrass and jazz may seem odd bedfellows at first, but it's not the first time McCoury and Preservation Hall have collaborated — and there's a lot of history where that comes from. Listening to "One More 'Fore I Die," the last track on the album, it's hard to tell where the bluegrass ends and the jazz begins. We're happy to present an exclusive premiere of the song, as a free stream or download.
So why does this hybrid of American traditions work so well? We asked NPR newscaster Paul Brown, who's also an award-winning bluegrass and old-time string music documentarian, researcher and musician. He kindly sent us this thought. —Ed.


This song works so well for one simple reason: Bluegrass, at its heart, is white rural jazz. It's old-time country or "hillbilly" music with a jazz structure and jazz motifs.
  This may not be obvious at the first casual listen, but folklorists and documenters have pointed it out many times. Bluegrass utilizes the jazz formula of establishing melodies, infusing them with blues motifs including blues scales with flatted notes, and –- most distinctively –- giving instruments and singers prominent breaks. Older styles of white country music don't feature breaks nearly so prominently, but jazz-inspired solos are an integral part of the bluegrass sound.

Bill Monroe, who had heard jazz as he developed his new band sound with the Blue Grass Boys, knew exactly what he was trying to achieve with traditional rural music. He pushed his musicians hard to realize a jazzy new take on the songs and tunes he'd learned as a kid. And he composed his own tunes and songs to fit his vision. (Bluegrass music wasn't even called by that name until the mid-1950s, well after Monroe had established the genre.)

If bluegrass and jazz have so much in common, what distinguishes them? One thing is the banjo style. The four-string banjo, derived from African instruments, is certainly a familiar sight and sound in early jazz bands. But an element that defines bluegrass specifically is the use of the three-finger five-string banjo style brought to a new level by Earl Scruggs.

Scruggs played with Monroe in the late 1940s before joining up with Lester Flatt to form the Foggy Mountain Boys. The renowned fiddler and banjo player John Hartford once told me that without the Scruggs-style banjo, there would be no bluegrass: The bluegrass bands would simply have been fairly nondescript country jazz bands. And if you listen to early Monroe recordings before Scruggs arrived, the Blue Grass Boys sounded much more like a country, jazz and blues band than what we would now think of as a bluegrass band. It's the banjo style combined with the jazz structure that really creates the bluegrass sound.

So bluegrass, with the 3-finger-style banjo, has its own sound, a mix of white and black musical streams coming out of the mountains and hollows of the Appalachians and the cities. But with this performance, we hear how much the two styles have in common, and we hear Del McCoury bringing bluegrass back to its jazz roots.

In "One More 'Fore I Die," we can also hear remnants of church-song harmonies and phrasing common to jazz and bluegrass. There's a good reason for this: Countless jazz and bluegrass performers started learning music while singing in churches, whether urban or rural. It often doesn't take much to bring bluegrass and jazz singing together.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Preservation Hall presents Tribute to Sweet Emma in Minneapolis on Monday!

PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND of NEW ORLEANS
Celebrates their Golden Anniversary with
Special Concert Performance
and Tribute to Sweet Emma Barrett
Featuring Special Guests
MARCIA BALL AND TOMMY SANCTON
LIVE AT THE GUTHRIE THEATRE,
MONDAY, MARCH 14TH, 2011



Monday, March 14th, 2011 – Minneapolis, MN:
On October 18th, 1964, Sweet Emma Barrett and her Preservation Hall Jazz Band (PHJB) played a legendary show at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under the guidance of original PHJB manager and agent Henry Blackburn, the group had played their first show at the venue the year before. So successful was that first visit that it was decided that the return engagement should be documented for posterity. The resulting recording became Preservation Hall’s first concert album: New Orleans’ Sweet Emma and her Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Still popular today, this live album features iconic members of Preservation Hall’s charter line-up in a rollicking performance that captures not only the soul of Traditional New Orleans Jazz, but the personalities of some of its early practitioners.

On Monday, March 14th, 2011, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (PHJB) will make its first ever visit to the new Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Preservation Hall’s mission to preserve, perpetuate and nurture Traditional New Orleans Jazz, this very special tour date will celebrate the performance that spawned one of Preservation Hall’s most iconic albums and the woman for whom it was named. Featuring readings by musician and author Tommy Sancton from his critically acclaimed memoir Song for My Fathers: A New Orleans Story in Black and White (in which he details his first encounter with Ms. Barrett at Preservation Hall in the 1960s), never-before seen footage from the 1964 production at the old Guthrie Theatre, and renditions of Sweet Emma’s style and songbook by renowned pianist Marcia Ball with today’s PHJB, this one-of-a-kind presentation is not to be missed.
Tickets available at www.guthrietheater.org

PHJB with Robert Pattinson: A Vanity Fair Web Exclusive

Robert Pattinson Sings The Blues
An exlcusive Web extra from Annie Leibovitz's April-issue photo shoot with Twilight's leading man.
By Sarah Ball - Photograph by Annie Leibovitz
WEB EXCLUSIVE March 8, 2011


 Sing us a song, piano man—let’s start with “Happy Birthday.” New Orleans’s Preservation Hall—where Annie Leibovitz shot young Robert Pattinson, shown tickling the ol’ 88 with the world-famous Preservation Hall band—celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Situated in the French Quarter, the music venue is one of the country’s most hallowed: it was founded in 1961 for the purpose of preserving New Orleans–style jazz, and indigenous American music. On his first-ever visit to the Quarter, Pattinson jammed with the house band and thoroughly held his own—his celebrity perhaps subsumed by that of the musicians, whose legendary status awed everyone on set. “When we first started, none of us knew that Robert really does play piano,” says Ben Jaffe, the tuba player (center, above), the band’s director, and the son of the venue’s founders. “But when he got up there, he started ticking out these notes, and it was obvious he wasn’t just tinkling—he really knew how to play.” Though the musicians were expecting the actor to just pose, Pattinson gamely jammed along with their tunes. After finishing a song, he leaned over to Jaffe “and said, ‘That’s the first time I’ve played with a group of guys like that,’” Jaffe recalls. Not a shabby gig—especially with Jaffe’s homemade red beans and rice waiting as reward.

On the landmark birthday, Jaffe says he and the rest of the band are humbled: “It’s really momentous for us to reach this moment in our history, considering everything New Orleans has been through in the last five years,” he says. “It’s really a testament to the strength of the people of this city.” Preservation Hall endured a several-month hiatus post-Katrina and reopened in May 2006, structure miraculously intact. We say miraculously, because the hall’s charm is that it looks as though it might collapse at any moment—it’s one big happy jalopy of a 350-year-old structure, with all the glorious paint-peel-y, rusty-hinged patina of a Clementine Hunter painting. It strains at the seams with ambiance. And we hope, lack of air conditioning and all, that it never changes.

 ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

Be sure to check out the April issue of Vanity Fair for more portrait shots of Robert Pattinson at Preservation Hall.
 

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Celebrate Lundi Gras with Limited-Edition Vinyl Release & Live Performance by Del McCoury and PHJB



Celebrate Lundi Gras at Preservation Hall
With Del McCoury and
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
March 7, 2011

~Special Afternoon Performance by Del McCoury and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band~

~Limited Edition Mardi Gras themed Vinyl Release
of American Legacies Album for Sale~

Monday, March 7, 2011– Preservation Hall, New Orleans:  Please join Bluegrass Legend Del McCoury and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on Lundi Gras Day as they fill historic Preservation Hall with the joyful blend of two of American Music’s most treasured formats.  This very special performance will take place at 2:00pm at Preservation Hall at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter in celebration of the advance release of a special Mardi Gras themed vinyl edition of their upcoming American Legacies joint recording.  Tickets for this performance will sell for $10, payable at the door; first come, first served.

Manufactured exclusively for Record Store Day (April 16) 2011, this special edition vinyl is green on one side and gold on the other, featuring a purple label.  Limited to 1000 copies, a small number have been made available for sale exclusively at Preservation Hall during this very special event. 

Also join Del McCoury and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band for the annual Preservation Hall Parade on Mardi Gras Day, Tuesday, March 8th .  The parade will gather on the corner of Dauphine and Frenchmen Streets and will commence at 2:00pm.  The parade route will conclude at Preservation Hall. 

About American Legacies:
American music fans have an unprecedented opportunity to hear two masterful groups explore the common ground where bluegrass and jazz meet when the Del McCoury Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band release their collaborative American Legacies project on April 12th via McCoury Music and Preservation Hall Recordings.  Inspired by the success of the Del McCoury’s participation on 2010’s PRESERVATION, a PHJB project made with multiple artists to benefit New Orleans’ unique Preservation Hall venue and its Music Outreach Program, the set offers a dozen songs filled with deep respect and joyful virtuosity.  Complementing the release, the two groups have announced a joint tour that will feature them performing on their own and together in a groundbreaking concert experience.

With common roots in the rich musical gumbo of the American south in the 19th and early 20th centuries, bluegrass and jazz have sat alongside one another with a myriad of common influences and musical vocabularies that have nevertheless remained largely unexplored until now. American Legacies is a no-holds-barred tour of songs and sounds that sum up the simultaneous (and often intersecting) histories of two distinctively American musical forms—the jazz that has drawn music lovers from around the world to New Orleans for more than a century, and the “hillbilly jazz” of bluegrass, created more than 60 years ago by Del McCoury’s one-time employer, Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys.

Available Everywhere on April 12, 2011