[Dixielandjazz] PRESERVATION HALL ARTICLE

[Janie McCue Lynch]

Interesting article re: Preservation Hall in today's Offbeat Magazine..

Brief excerpt follows, link to complete article is: 

http://offbeat.com/artman/publish/article_2335.shtml


Preservation, Inc.
By Alex Rawls

A film starts with a hipster walking into Preservation Hall. He wears
horned-rim glasses, thin hair on top and has a postage stamp of a beard. His
sweater is black and so is the one worn by his chic girlfriend, whose long,
straight, blonde hair with straight-cut bangs betrays her bohemian
tendencies.


"New Orleans people are of course aware their jazz heritage is
disappearing," a narrator says. "Some are trying somehow to save the only
art form that is strictly, entirely American. One effort to save it is here
at Preservation Hall."

Since Katrina, it seems like there have been hundreds of documentaries about
life in New Orleans after the hurricane, most worried about what will happen
to jazz. This footage isn't that recent, though; in fact, it's from 1961,
and it's in black and white. The narrator is the late David Brinkley, but
nothing he said sounds wrong today.

Now as then, Preservation Hall comes alive for jazz. The people surrounding
the band in 1961 are into the music, rocking, clapping or nodding, and no
one has the scrutinizing look of someone considering an archeological find.
Today's hipsters may have more tattoos, but the scene is substantially the
same. As in 1961, all walks of life meet in the hall. It remains disarmingly
small-maybe 20 paces from front wall to back and only a little wider-but
that intimacy simply brings people closer to the music.

The black and white footage of Preservation Hall in 1961 is included on a
DVD disc that is part of Made in New Orleans: the Hurricane Sessions, a box
set by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band that celebrates everything
Preservation Hall is and has been-a room, a business, a band and an
institution. It comes with old publicity photos, vinyl discs, memorabilia,
and a CD with tracks from the current and previous incarnations of the
Preservation Hall Jazz Band. "Over in the Gloryland" features current banjo
player Carl LeBlanc singing a vocal that was added last year to an
instrumental version cut in 1976, when Hall legends Percy and Willie
Humphrey were in the band, along with Narvin Kimball, the banjo player
LeBlanc would eventually replace.

Traditionalists might object to such touches, arguing that the recording no
longer documents what the band did on a given day in a given room in a given
moment, but that misses the bigger picture. The oldest track goes back to
1959 and features Sister Gertrude Morgan, who was an unofficial part of the
Hall family, and taken as a whole, the box set argues that Preservation Hall
is more than just a building, the band is more than just a collection of
players, and that they stand for something significant. "Preservation Hall"
isn't just a name; it's a mission.

Jane Lynch

Janie 
janie39 at socal.rr.com