Sun 10/27 @ 7PM
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band is a New Orleans tradition that doesn’t go as far back as fans of traditional New Orleans-style jazz might think.
The ensemble actually came together in 1961, during a fallow period for the music, when a couple from New York, Sandra and Allan Jaffe, came to town and opened the Preservation Hall venue in the French Quarter, now a major tourist attraction. It provided work for many of the town’s musicians who coalesced into the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
The band has obviously undergone many changes, and many of those early musicians have since passed away as has Allan Jaffe. His son Ben (a 1993 Oberlin grad) has assumed his position as director of Preservation Hall and also plays bass and tuba with the band.
The band began to tour as people rediscovered this jazz motherlode, and has continued to spend some of the year on the road. There are plenty of musicians left in New Orleans to hold down the fort back home in the meantime!
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band will perform at Severance Hall this weekend.
Tickets are $30-$100.
http://www.preservationhalljazzband.com/
Photo by Shannon Brinkman