Preservation Hall Jazz Band is a true New Orleans institution that defines the tradition of Crescent City music. New Orleans has been the point at which sounds and cultures from around the world converge, mingle, and resurface, transformed by the Crescent City’s inimitable spirit and joie de vivre. Nowhere is that idea more vividly embodied than in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which has held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for more than 50 years, all the while carrying it enthusiastically forward as a reminder that the history they were founded to preserve is a vibrantly living history.
Preservation Hall is a humble, much-loved room dedicated to keeping the past and future of jazz alive. It’s a well-worn, well-loved space that’s physically small but spiritually huge. People from around the globe make pilgrimages to it, and this fall, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band is embarking on a pilgrimage of its own: a nationwide tour to celebrate the Hall’s 60th anniversary. The band’s mission remains focused on initiating audiences into the ineffable, almost religious experience of channeling their ancestors through the music and culture they’ve inherited from them.
“Touring is a part of our ritual,” Ben Jaffe, creative director of Preservation Hall, adds. “It’s our tradition. When my parents began touring with the band in the early 60s, they were bringing something that most people didn’t even know existed to stages all over the world. It was this magnificent revelation to people that something so beautiful could even exist. People come to Preservation Hall and have transformative experiences, and that’s part of our mission: to go out in the world and make that experience available to people.”