Preservation Hall Band Delivered A Special Anniversary Gift

By John Voket

Preservation Hall Jazz Band drummer Joseph Laste, Jr. remembers being approached by a young woman on the band’s recent European Tour.

“You play like you’re sharing a gift from God,” he recalled her saying.

But since virtually every active and inactive touring member of this long-celebrated New Orleans musical institution was affected by the back-to-back sucker punches of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, with several members being rescued after losing everything, maybe this time around the entire band feels like they’re on a mission from God.

Any way you look at it, last week’s 75th Anniversary celebration at Edmond Town Hall was a miraculous tribute to the tenacity and spirit of New Orleans embodied in the half-dozen masterful musicians who took the stage for a rousing two-hour show.

Even before the first note sounded on October 6, the trials of each band member who survived through the recent natural disasters were related to audience members by Town Historian Dan Cruson, who read from a prepared statement the band released hours earlier. Following just a few minutes of the tragic and harrowing tales that touched each member of the evening’s ensemble, Mr Cruson related the band’s wishes to not be approached or asked about their experiences.

Then it was time for the music.

The show ramped up, first highlighting piano player Rickie “The Professor” Monie and band leader John Brunious. Mr Brunious, who split his duties between trumpet and vocals, was still a little gravely from the dehydration he suffered following a harrowing post-Katrina stay at the dank and overcrowded New Orleans Convention Center. The second number added bassist Ben Jaffe and banjo player Carl Le Blanc to the mix, stirring the jazzy gumbo to a simmer.

By the end of that number, however, the music coming from the Edmond Town Hall stage had come to a rolling boil with the addition of Mr Laste’s inspired drumming, the brassy bleating of trombonist Frank Demond and the melodious clarinet work of Ralph Johnson, clearly the senior member of the group.

The set continued with members of the band transitioning from song to song seemingly by telepathy – there was no sign of a set list anywhere on stage. The 250-plus crowd was treated to numbers including “Do It All Over Again,” “Somewhere My Love” and “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone,” featuring vocals by Mr Le Blanc.

Having just returning to the states from a grueling flight from Portugal where they had performed the day before, all of the band members on occasion showed some physical signs of fatigue. But overall, while their collective spirit may have been tired, they were not broken.

And when that seven-cylinder engine was firing on all pistons (like on their first set closer, “Shake That Thang”), it was like the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was meant to be there on the stage at Edmond Town Hall.

After a brief intermission where the T-shirt and CD vendors were swamped with clamoring customers queing up to purchase items benefiting the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund, it was time for the real show to begin.

It’s unfortunate that more than a dozen folks seen heading to their cars during the intermission chose to cut the night short, because all who stayed on will surely agree that set one was a mere soundcheck compared to the performances turned in during the “second show.”

Posing like a rock star, Mr LeBlanc had fellow bandmates hooting in approval as he posed and stomped his way through an extended banjo solo which transitioned nicely into a Bourbon Street-flavored rendition of Lennon and McCartney’s “When I’m 64.” An uptempo “Hold The Tiger” brought Mr Brunios back to the microphone before he was relieved by guest vocalist Clint Maedgen, who wowed the crowd despite his limited exposure.

Mr Maedgen brought an appropriately stylized and surprisingly mature command to his numbers “New Orleans in the Fall” and a bittersweet rendition of “You are my Sunshine.” The Professor took his turn at the mike lending soulful vocals to his piano expertise and showing all of his gospel roots on a spiritually-charged “Let It Be.”

Ben Jaffe traded a whistling solo with Mr LeBlanc’s lead work on “When You Go To New Orleans,” which the banjo-toting LeBlanc preceded with an exuberant shout out to the crowd: “…we want to see you all at Mardi Gras in 2006!”

The Edmond theater was suddenly transformed into its own Mardi Gras parade as the Preservation Hall band swung into their trademark number, “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Moments into the tune, Mr Brunious and Mr Demond left the stage and began leading several dozen hankie twirling and side-stepping audience members around the perimeter of the theater, ending up on stage with 30 or 40 members of the throng that became an impromptu backing chorus as the show drew to a close.

Even a week after that memorable show, members of the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers remained excited by the magic of New Orleans that graced the stage here in Newtown that chilly fall evening.

Trustee Jay Gill commented that the Preservation Hall band’s appearance had to be one of the best shows ever at the venue, and called for the panel to consider hosting more shows in the future. The board also took time to recognize the Town Hall staff members who all went above and beyond the call to make every aspect of the show — from ticket sales and the immaculately clean and polished lobby area to the temporarily constructed “green room” for the band — a five-star experience for everyone who came out to the Dixieland anniversary party that evening.