[Dixielandjazz] Preservation Hall-- WSJ report

[Norman Vickers]

To: Listmates

This report from Wall Street Journal on Preservation  Hall

 

Ringwald suggested I send in two parts as likely too long for the mechanics
of the DJML apparatus.

So. here goes..

 


 

 


Preservation Hall in All Its Forms


By LARRY BLUMENFELD
December 19, 2007

New Orleans

Three distinct groups lined up on St. Peter Street, just off Bourbon Street,
one recent Sunday evening. The first awaited tall cocktails called
"Hurricanes" at Pat O'Brien's bar. The second had signed up for a "ghost
tour" through the French Quarter. The third sought passage through the iron
gates at 726, better known as Preservation Hall. Once inside, that last
group sat in a dusty room on benches and narrow floor cushions, sans food or
beverages, seeking to drink in only traditional jazz and to commune with a
singularly haunted spot.

Around 1960, Larry Borenstein first began inviting musicians to perform in
the art gallery he'd created within a c. 1750 building, once a private home,
in the French Quarter. But when Allan Jaffe, fresh out of Wharton Business
School, and his wife, Sandra, took over the operation in 1961, the place
became a full-time music hall dedicated to a style that was, then as now,
threatened with extinction. Mr. Jaffe hired standard-bearing players and
paid full union scale (a rarity in those days). He began making recordings
and assembled bands that toured under the Preservation Hall name.

Always a strong tourist attraction, the hall has also held special appeal
for some locals, occasionally with life-altering effect. In his book, "Song
for My Fathers: A New Orleans Story in Black and White," Tom Sancton, a New
Orleans native and former Time magazine Paris bureau chief, offered this
2005 reflection upon returning to Preservation Hall:

"I placed my hands on the wrought-iron gates and peered into the
carriageway. It looked just like it had on that hot summer night when my
father first took me there, more than forty years earlier, and opened the
door to the most profound experience of my life. . . . I immediately fell in
love with the music, the people, and the funky atmosphere -- and decided to
become a jazz musician myself." Mr. Sancton, who once studied clarinet at
the feet of one of Preservation Hall's masters, George Lewis, still plays
his instrument. Now a visiting professor at Tulane University, he
occasionally performs at Preservation Hall (billed as "Tommy"), often
sitting in the same chair Mr. Lewis once occupied.

 

                                --end of part 1---