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It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact time that a band becomes an institution, but it seems safe to say that once you reach your 50th anniversary, you’ve crossed that threshold. And for the Preservation Hall Jazz Band — which is celebrating the half-century mark with a new tour and a bevy of upcoming projects -- institutions are never taken lightly.
“I was raised with a sense of tradition. I was surrounded by it,” says tuba and bass player Ben Jaffe, whose parents, Allan and Sandra, founded the band — and the New Orleans venue from which it takes its name — in 1961. “It’s incredibly important, because of the nature of what we do, to have a respect for those traditions and know where we came from.”
Those traditions reach deeper than the band’s history and into the fabric of the city itself, and include musicians who have achieved widespread fame (Louis Armstrong, Dr. John, Fats Domino) and some whose influence is just as deeply felt, if not as often acknowledged (Buddy Bolden and Bunk Johnson, to name just two). “We’ve had African-American brass bands here since before the Civil War,” Jaffe points out. “Our trumpet player is fifth generation. Our clarinet player, who’s 58 years old, is fourth generation. I’m second generation. That’s a beautiful thing,” he says. “I do believe that some things are meant to go on forever.”
That may be an uncommon sentiment in these days of planned obsolescence and disposable goods, but they’ve always rung clear in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s music, which mixes well-known standards with vibrant original numbers to present what Jaffe calls a reflection of “the real New Orleans” -- something beyond the stereotype of Bourbon Street, booze and beads.
“That’s always been what I’ve believed in,” says Jaffe, “I want to give people the opportunity to hear that music. Once they do, my experience is been that they’re fans for life. There’s just something infectious about New Orleans music — you’ll find people who’ve never heard it that start to move involuntarily.”
If there’s a silver lining to be found in New Orleans’ recent troubles, it’s a heightened awareness of the city’s impossibly rich culture, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band has maintained its ambassador status with recording projects (including last year’s starstudded “Preservation” album and an upcoming release with bluegrass legend Del McCoury) and its dogged touring schedule, which brings the band to the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina on March 28. But while concertgoers can expect to hear an evening of music steeped in tradition, that doesn’t mean it’ll feel like an education.
“It’s not the kind of show where you’re expected to sit on your hands and be polite,” says Jaffe. “Ours are shows where people have gotten up and danced in the aisles. At the end of the day, what any artist wants to do is take people on a journey for the short period of time that we get to spend together. To forget about all of their burdens and worries -- that’s a recurring theme in New Orleans music, laying your burden down. I think that’s what our music does — I think it captures that spirit and takes people on a little trip for a couple of hours.”
Shake that thing: An introduction to THE PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND
The Essential Preservation Hall Jazz Band (2007): A two-disc, 24-track overview of the band’s early years. Far from comprehensive, but a generous and solid start for the newcomer.
Shake That Thing (2004):
A more recent incarnation of the band hits the studio for a standards-heavy set; if you’re not dancing along by its end, please check pulse.
Preservation (2010): An all-star benefit for the Katrina-ravaged Preservation Hall, with guest appearances from Tom Waits, Pete Seeger, Steve Earle, Ani DiFranco and many, many more.
