This is what it says on its site:
New Orleans’ Preservation Hall was established in 1961 to honor one of America’s truest art forms – Traditional New Orleans Jazz. Operating as a music venue, a touring band, and a non-profit organization, Preservation Hall continues its mission today as a cornerstone of New Orleans music and culture.
Situated in the heart of the French Quarter on St. Peter Street, the Preservation Hall venue presents intimate, acoustic New Orleans Jazz concerts over 350 nights a year featuring ensembles from a current collective of 100+ local master practitioners. On any given night, audiences bear joyful witness to the evolution of this venerable and living tradition.
I've known about this place since like, forever. I've never visited New Orleans, but our dad was a huge fan. Knew the names of the famous people who played there, loved the music. It was a place he spoke of in that whispered excited voice of his, whenever he discussed music of his heart. I'm not sure, but it seems like he owned one recording of the band as he knew it. I don't recall listening to it, just knowing about it or seeing the cover, something in sepia tones and old, black guys on the cover. It was just another kind of music he listened to. I appreciated that jazz was a music he liked. But scat and some other forms just weren't my thing, so I guess I sort of dismissed it.
Fast forward to today. Our son, a music lover, composer, joyful participant in all things melodious and not so much had ventured to New Orleans as part of one of those "new-fangled" bachelor destination parties. He is a member of the bridal party and so he went. When he called to speak of various and sundry things, we asked how the "bachelor party" way down south went. He spoke of the food and the drink and the camaraderie of young men enjoying themselves together in a new place. But he then began to speak of the vibe of New Orleans. "There's music everywhere," he said. "I've never been in a place where music happened all over, it was part of the fabric of the place." And then he told us of visiting St. Peter Street. The temperature was hot and steamy. But it was like no other place he had ever been. It was called Preservation Hall. I hadn't heard those words together in a very, very long time. And my throat closed up and my eyes watered. And I knew my dad was thrilled beyond anything that his grandson had visited the land of clarinets, drums and trumpets slowly ambling across a melody while bodies swayed and feet thumped to the rhythms of the players. How could I explain the thrill of hearing him say he was there? Well, his birthday is coming up, but he just gave me the best present I ever got this year. He walked in the steps of Dixieland and heard the blues and jazz the way they were meant to be played by the band that knows how to play them. His granddad in heaven is smiling to beat the band...any band...anywhere.
4 comments:
Whoa. What goes around, comes around, hmmm?
All the times Toni and I visited New Orleans over the last several years, not once did I/we go to Preservation Hall. (She'd be busy with her conference, of course, and in the fairly brief hours we spent together at night, we concentrated on doing things that we BOTH wanted to do. Jazz isn't really on her radar, which is fine.)
But boy, I knew it was out there somewhere.
So good to know that The Left-Coast Nephew found it -- especially if (as this makes it sound) Gom had not put him up to it, or maybe even told him anything about Preservation Hall at all, ever.
He's right about the musical spirit of the place, too. In NYC, say, you can hear steel bands on street corners, violinists and sax players in subway stops (and on the trains, for that matter)... But it's not the same "feel" as New Orleans. In NYC, there's always the sense that the street music is perfunctory -- an easy (?) way to score some cash, just drop it in the hat there. In N.O., though, even if the hat is present, it's there almost as an afterthought. The music drew the musicians -- and the bystanders.
(You may or may not remember one of the first RAMH music posts I did, was about a project called "Stand by Me Worldwide." (It's here.) Of course the whole point of that video was to demonstrate that people everywhere, no matter in which cities anywhere on Earth, shared not just the same music but also the same values, and to the same degree of commitment. Even so, in my memory, the heart of the video comes from the New Orleans performers.)
Great post, Cindy. Brought tears to my eyes.
Great post, Cindy. Brought tears to my eyes.
Fabulous stuff! Reminder that my bucket list includes this trip, too. We went to see Preservation Hall Jazz Band at the Count Basie last year with Allen Toussaint. A really tremendous performance and one that brought out the memories of Bud, several times. Maybe a good location for a future "Sibfest"?
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