Preservation Hall Jazz Band Inducted into the National Recording Registry

It is our great pleasure and honor to share the news that The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been officially inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. The Preservation Hall Recordings album New Orleans' Sweet Emma and her Preservation Hall Jazz Band was selected as an official inductee in the 2014 annual list of 25 recordings that are deemed "culturally, historically, aesthetically significant."

About the album the registry said, "This 1964 offering by seven veterans of New Orleans jazz, before a live Minneapolis audience, well illustrates the credo of music spoken simply-play the melody from the heart and elaborate with care." They also described the band's music as "simple, direct and majestic."

Other selections this year include Radiohead, The Doors, and Joan Baez among others. These additions bring the total number of recordings on the registry to 425.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band derives its name from Preservation Hall, the venerable music venue located in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter, founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe. The band has traveled worldwide spreading their mission to nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans Jazz. Whether performing at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center, for British Royalty or the King of Thailand, this music embodies a joyful, timeless spirit. Under the auspices of current director, Ben Jaffe, the son of founders Allan and Sandra, Preservation Hall continues with a deep reverence and consciousness of its greatest attributes in the modern day as a venue, band, and record label.

The PHJB began touring in 1963 and for many years there were several bands successfully touring under the name Preservation Hall. Many of the band's charter members performed with the pioneers who invented jazz in the early twentieth century including Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Bunk Johnson. Band leaders over the band's history include the brothers Willie and Percy Humphrey, husband and wife Billie and De De Pierce, famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, and in the modern day Wendell and John Brunious.

These founding artists and dozens of others passed on the lessons of their music to a younger generation who now follow in their footsteps like the current lineup. With a live show that is nothing short of an absolutely must-see, be sure to check out the Preservation Hall Jazz Band as they make their way across the United States this spring and summer. A full list of tour dates can be found below.

Current Lineup:
Ben Jaffe - Creative Director and Tuba
Mark Braud - Trumpet and Vocals
Charlie Gabriel - Clarinet and Vocals
Clint Maedgen - Saxophone and Vocals
Joe Lastie, Jr. - Drums
Rickie Monie - Piano
Ronell Johnson - Tuba, Trombone, and Vocals

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band is a New Orleans Jazz Band, NOT a Dixieland Jazz Band. While both music styles originated in New Orleans in and around the same time, the connotations and history are radically different. "Dixie's Land" and "Dixie" were songs to come out of the late 19th Century, and were popular folk songs that came out of the blackface minstrelsy. The words were written in comic, and exaggerated versions of the African American Vernacular, and tell the story of a freed black slave pining for the plantation of his birth. It is because of these significantly hateful, and racist roots, that the Preservation Hall Jazz Band is opposed to any reference to "Dixie" in describing their music, and heritage.

Tour Dates
March 27 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, MN
March 28 at North Shore Performing Arts Center in Skokie, IL
March 29 at Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville, KY
March 31 at World Café Live in Wilmington, DE
April 1 at The Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, CT
April 2 at Montreal Chamber Music Festival in Montreal, QC
April 3 at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH
April 4 at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY
April 10 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, WA
April 11 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, WA
April 12 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, WA
May 8 at Pfeiffer Hall in Naperville, IL
May 10 at Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta, GA
May 15-17 at Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, AL
May 30 at Bottlerock Festival in Napa, CA
May 31 at Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, CA
June 1 at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, CA
June 7 at Music Theater in Phoenix, AZ
June 9 at Sheridan Opera House in Telluride, CO
June 10 at The States Room in Salt Lake City, UT
June 11 at Brooklyn Bowl LV in Las Vegas, NV
June 12 at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA
June 13 at Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, CA
June 14 at Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, CA
June 25 at Evans Amphitheater in Cleveland Heights, OH
June 26 at Electric Forest in Rothbury, MI
June 27 at Electric Forest in Rothbury, MI
June 28 at Electric Forest in Rothbury, MI
July 30 - August 2 at Gathering of the Vibes in Bridgeport, CT
August 4 at Celebrate Brooklyn in Brooklyn, NY
August 13 - 16 at The Peach Music Festival in Scranton, PA

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