Preservation Hall Jazz Band At Edmond Town Hall, October 6; Concert Will Be Celebration Of ETH & Fundraiser For Salvation Army

Despite hardships endured after evacuation from the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, at once both iconic and contemporary, continues with previously arranged fall tour plans including a performance at Edmond Town Hall Theatre on Thursday, October 6. Showtime is 8 pm.

The concert will coincide with the 75th anniversary of the town hall’s construction.

The band derives its name from Preservation Hall, the venerable music venue located in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter. Founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe, the band travels worldwide spreading its mission to nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans jazz.

Whether performing at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, or the Playboy Jazz Festival for British Royalty or the King of Thailand, this music embodies a joyful, timeless spirit. Under the auspices of the current director, Ben Jaffe, the son of founders Allan and Sandra, Preservation Hall continues with a deep reverence and consciousness of its greatest attributes in the modern day as a venue, band, and record label.

The building that houses Preservation Hall has housed many businesses over the years including a tavern during the war of 1812, a photo studio, and an art gallery. It was during the years of the art gallery that the then-current owner, Larry Bornstein, began holding informal jam sessions for his close friends. Out of these sessions grew the concept of Preservation Hall.

The intimate venue, whose weathered exterior has been untouched over its history, is a living embodiment of its original vision. To this day, Preservation Hall has no drinks, air conditioning, or other typical accoutrements, strictly welcoming people of all ages interested in having one of the last pure music experiences left on the earth.

While the band was founded by Allan and Sandra Jaffe two years earlier, it was not until 1963 that PHJB began touring. For many years there were several bands successfully touring under the name Preservation Hall. Many of the band’s charter members performed with the pioneers who invented jazz in the early 20th Century including Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Bunk Johnson.

Band leaders over the band’s history include the brothers Willie and Percy Humphrey, husband and wife Billie and De De Pierce, and famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett. These founding artists and dozens of others passed on the lessons of their music to a younger generation who now follow in their footsteps like current band leader and trumpeter John Brunious.

The lineup today includes Ralph Johnson on clarinet, drummer Joseph Lastie, Jr, pianist Rickie Monie, trombone players Frank Demond and Lucien Barbarin, Carl Le Blanc on banjo, and band director Ben Jaffe, who also plays bass.

“The outpouring of support has been nonstop since the band members left New Orleans,” Mr Jaffe told The Newtown Bee this week. In speaking of other benefits and initiatives that have been taken up by musicians around the world, Mr Jaffe said: “It’s one thing to be a musician who is directly unaffected, and it’s another thing when our fellow band members lost their homes, clothes, personal possessions, and even their instruments.

“As we speak, I’m wearing some of the clothing that I was evacuated in,” he added. “Other members of the band are in the same position, or they’re wearing clothing that was donated to them. The clothing that they were wearing was torn up and so fouled by the conditions there that they couldn’t possibly keep the clothes on their back in which they were evacuated.”

Tickets for the Newtown concert are $30 and are on sale at the town hall’s box office and the Board of Managers office. They are also being sold at C.H. Booth Library and Newtown Savings Bank.

Edmond Town Hall’s Board of Managers, in acknowledging that this concert is the premiere event of the town hall’s 75th anniversary celebration, has taken into consideration the important place that The Preservation Hall Jazz Band holds in the New Orleans musical and historical culture. Mr Jaffe calls the band “an international cultural treasure.”

Recognizing that more than half the active members of the PHJB contingent have lost their homes, possessions, and family members because of Hurricane Katrina, the Edmond Town Hall board has voted unanimously to allocate all of the concert’s proceeds — after figuring out the cost of the event — to the Salvation Army’s relief initiative in New Orleans.

The expectation is that through this process, and through additional money being collected that evening through donations, the board of directors are hoping to realize — and announce before the end of the concert – in excess of $2,000.

The opportunity for patrons of the event to make supplemental donations toward the Salvation Army hurricane relief will be available on Thursday evening.

Mr Jaffe lived in one of the highest geographical parts of the city, just outside the French Quarter. He was forced, after the hurricane, to leave with his family and his pets, and nothing else.

“For people to understand what our band members are going through, they have to understand the spirit of New Orleans,” he said. “We’ve been survivors long before Katrina destroyed the city. Spiritually and physically, the music that we’re able to carry on is our sanctuary.”

“[With this band alone] the lives of 75 musicians, along with their families and our support staff, are directly affected but there are hundreds of other musicians who have lost their livelihood. Musicians born and raised in New Orleans have now been thrown to all corners of the country with nothing more than the clothes they left with.”

The band’s home site, The Preservation Hall, has been closed since Katrina’s arrival and aftermath. A note on the band’s website (www.PreservationHall.com) says simply that “due to the recent hurricane, Preservation Hall will be closed indefinitely.”

Tickets for the October 6 concert at Edmond Town Hall began selling briskly as soon as the show was announced just a few weeks ago. The tour itself has been worked on by the band for more than 12 months, and has included dates across the country and overseas. Gigs coming up in the next three months will have the band playing five nights in London, shows in Vienna, Austria, and Gateshead, England; and back in the United States everywhere from Notre Dame, Ind., and Wilmington, Del., to Naples, Fla., and a pair of shows in Buffalo, N.Y.

“It’s a coincidence that the fall tour which brings us to Newtown was scheduled almost a year ago, but today we’re thankful that these musical appearances keep us busy and working,” Mr Jaffe said. “It takes our mind off the fact that so many of us in the band have nothing to go home to and we’re at least thankful that we have a comfortable place to live while we’re out on the road.

“None of us really know what we’ll have in store when we return home after the tour.”

For additional information call the  Board of Manager’s office at Edmond Town Hall, 270-4285.