When Alan Jaffe and his wife, Sandra, founded The Preservation Hall Jazz Band in 1961, their intent was clear ? the perpetuation of the traditional jazz music of New Orleans. The name was taken from the revered music fortress The Preservation Hall, enthroned in the heart of the city?s French Quarter.
Forty-six years later and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the need to celebrate and hang on to this distinctly American art form has never been more acute.
“Traveling with the band, we are welcomed with open arms everywhere in the world,” said Michael Paz, the band?s tour manager.
Baltimore audiences will be on that roster of admirers when the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, along with vocalist Banu Gibson and The New Orleans Hot Jazz band, rings out the traditional music of the Big Easy on stage at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
“New Orleans jazz is the root to all jazz and other forms of music that we know today,” Paz said. Everyone can trace their influences back to New Orleans [and] this is the chance to come and see the … real thing right in your own backyard.”
The “real thing” includes The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, along with the BSO SuperPops performing the songs for which they are most famous, such as “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and “St. Louis Blues.”
Tin Pan Alley favorites are performed by award-winning vocalist Banu Gibson and The New Orleans Hot Jazz, and include George Gershwin?s “Swanee” along with Harry Warren?s immortal “The Lullaby of Broadway.”
For the Jaffes, “preservation” will never be merely a word in their band title. After Katrina, the couple founded the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund, which provides financial assistance to musicians and businesses with the goal of rebuilding the cultural economy of New Orleans. In November 2006, President Bush awarded Preservation Hall Jazz Band the National Medal of Arts, the nation?s highest honor for artistic excellence.
“The famed, one-of-a-kind Preservation Hall Jazz Band will bring us the true feeling of New Orleans,” said Miryam Yardumian, the BSO?s director of artists and special projects.
IF YOU GO
BSO SuperPops Mardi Gras Celebration with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Banu Gibson and The New Orleans Hot Jazz
» Venue: Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St., Baltimore
» Times: 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday
» Tickets: $25 to $78
» More info: 410-783-8000, www.baltimoresymphony.org
