[Dixielandjazz] Preservation Hall - San Francisco

[David M Richoux]

Just to be perfectly clear - I did not write that - it was from the SF  
Chronic column that I quoted.

Dave Richoux

On Jul 16, 2010, at 12:40 PM, Stephen G Barbone wrote:

> Dave Richoux wrote: (polite snip)
>
> "As it turns out, he's pretty good friends with Ben Jaffe, whose  
> parents founded the New Orleans Music institution in the 1960s."
>
>
> Dear Dave and list mates:
>
> That is a myth having long legs and is believed by many of us. Me  
> too, until I checked it out. Here is the real story of how  
> Preservation Hall got started:
>
> Larry Borenstein owned and ran The Associated Artists Gallery, at  
> the current location of Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Every once  
> in a while a busker, ukulele player Lemon Nash, would stop by for a  
> glass of water, or to use the rest room. Out of gratitude for  
> Borenstein's allowing him to use the facilities, Nash would play or  
> sing a tune or two. The popular music of the day, not necessarily  
> jazz and Nash knew hundreds of pop tunes of the 20s.
>
> The gallery customers would listen, and then tip him. Nash started  
> to make more money at the Art Gallery than he did busking so he  
> started to play longer and longer there. He soon started bring  
> musician friends along like Kid Thomas, Noon Johnson, Sam Rankins  
> and others who started showing up on a regular basis.
>
> An audience for the music , but not the paintings also started to  
> show up on a regular basis. Larry Borenstein, being a good  
> businessman noticed that the musicians were taking in  more money  
> than the art was. And so he got rid of the paintings and made a  
> music space out of the gallery.
>
> Bornstein then asked impresario Al Rose to run the place but Al  
> declined citing a lack of patience, personality and business acumen  
> to make a real success out of the place.
>
> Enter Allan Jaffe. A newly married young man, graduate of the  
> University of Pennsylvania and with a budding career as an  
> efficiency expert at the Holmes Department store in N.O. Rose had  
> met Jaffe the first week the Jaffe's were in New Orleans during 1961  
> and was pleased to recommend him to Borenstein for the job as manager.
>
> There is no question that Allan Jaffe was the perfect fit for  
> Preservation Hall. He is responsible for its worldwide popularity,  
> and gained enormous respect from the musicians. Jaffe marketed it  
> and soon Borenstein sold it to him. Allan Jaffe's turning the hall  
> into an International Shrine and his various help to musicians from  
> financial to a shoulder to lean on, are to be admired.  However,  
> when the hall started, it was Borenstein, Lemon Nash and the other  
> musicians who "founded" it.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Steve Barbone
> www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband