Preservation Hall Jazz Band celebrates an anniversary

Preservation Hall Jazz Band creative director Ben Jaffe (the son of the co-founders of Pres Hall, Allan and Sandra Jaffe) has helped lead the way these past several years in what has been perhaps the most successful period of international growth and widespread publicity the band and hallowed Hall has ever experienced in its 50 years of existence.

The group travels the globe preaching the gospel of New Orleans jazz. Along the way, they have brought in collaborators of all musical stripes to play, honor, and reinterpret America’s first true art form. The PHJB have played and recorded with artists like Tom Waits, Pete Seeger, Ani DiFranco and My Morning Jacket. Their most recent collaboration has been with the Grammy-winning bluegrass outfit, the Del McCoury Band, with whom they released a joint album earlier this year titled American Legacies.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the band will be joined in a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York by many of its most famous past special guests for what should be one of the most special concert events of 2012 (anywhere).

Continue on for details on this wonderful celebration of one of New Orleans’ most treasured institutions.

The event: 8 p.m., January 7, 2012

Where: Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, NYC

Guests Include: My Morning Jacket, Del McCoury Band, Trombone Shorty, GIVERS, Allen Toussaint, Blind Boys Of Alabama, Tao Seeger, & Mos Def

Tickets: Go on sale December 2 and are available at www.carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th street and 7th avenue.

http://youtu.be/YFvBZhw6yKk

The Louisiana State Museum also just launched a major exhibition celebrating Preservation Hall’s 50th anniversary at the Old U.S. Mint. Co-curated by Preservation Hall and the Museum, Preservation Hall at 5, tells the story of the venue’s history through artifacts, photographs, film and audio clips, as well as interviews and oral histories. The exhibit is open now and will run through 2012.

Wesley Hodges writes about music for Live Music Blog: NOLA and NolaVie.