Preservation Hall Jazz Band New Orleans Volume I

From its humble beginnings as an art gallery in the 1950s,
Preservation Hall has become an indelible landmark
of New Orleans thanks to a choice meeting in 1961.
Philadelphia business school graduate and tuba-player
Allan Jaffe had been honeymooning in New Orleans with
his wife when he discovered the French Quarter, where
Preservation Hall resided. The couple grew to love the
French Quarter and the concerts that the hall had been
hosting to drum up interest in the art gallery.
Allan Jaffe ended up staying in New Orleans, and even
took on the job of managing Preservation Hall, and
hosting a cavalcade of local Louisiana musicians, whose
ages ranged from 60 to 90, and had been dealing with
poverty and local racism. These musicians, along
with Jaffe himself, would become the rotating lineup
of Preservation Hall's house jazz band, and attract
audiences for miles to come to the French Quarter to hear
their traditional take on jazz music, eventually branching
out to tour the United States, and put out records.
One of their most celebrated is their first album with
Columbia Records, the 1977 album New Orleans (Vol. 1),
which with a title like that it's no surprise that it wears its
love for the Louisiana city on its sleeve. The 7-piece band
joyously shares its take on a vareity of Dixieland
standards, spirituals, and a few blues numbers. The
music is simplistic and light on technical or virtuostic flair,
but none of that matters to the album's players, whose
infectious and revelrous spirit, and genuine love of
traditional jazz can be felt through the speakers.