The OH YEAH! Tour Comes to Harris Center Tonight

Jazz fans will have a rare chance to see two celebrated New Orleans jazz icons in the same performance at Harris Center for the Arts in Folsom. The celebrated Preservation Hall Jazz Band and one of New Orleans favorite sons, Allen Toussaint, are touring the United States in a joint tour for the first time ever. Unlike many tour packages, where two artists tour together but perform their own shows, this tour will be a combined show, with lots of interaction between the two legends

"After all these years of playing together in New Orleans and coming to the same festivals here and there around the world, it is amazing that we never hit the road as a package before" said Preservation Hall band leader Ben Jaffe. "It was almost as if we've always just assumed it had already happened, and then one day it was like 'Oh yeah, WE need to do this thing' and the OH YEAH! Tour was born." "I've been playing with the guys in Preservation Hall around New Orleans since the 1960's, so I'm really excited to finally get out on the road and perform together with them every night on a tour," said Mr. Toussaint, "we're going to have a lot of fun, and so will the audience."

The OH YEAH! Tour Featuring Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Allen Toussaint plays tonight, November 19, 2014 at 7 pm. Tickets are priced at $25-$45; Premium $55;

Students with ID $12. Tickets are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from the Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from 10 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. Harris Center is located on the west side of Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street.

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.

Allen Toussaint is a renowned Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted singer, pianist, songwriter, and producer. He is known for penning many New Orleans classics including "Southern Nights" and "Working in a Coal Mine." Toussaint is celebrated for his distinctively deft and funky feel on the piano and is still active after more than fifty years in the business. No fading golden oldie is this piano professor, though many of his successes reach back that far.

The list of those who have benefited in one way or another from the Toussaint's touch is staggering in its historic and stylistic range, stretching from the late 1950s to the present day, with no end in sight. His studio productions have sold millions of discs and downloads. His catalog of songs has generated hits on the pop, R&B, country and dance charts - many remain on heavy rotation in various radio formats. His tunes continue to pop up as TV themes and advertising jingles. He has an ever-growing international circle of fans, and though normally reluctant to tour, he's become a more familiar figure at music festivals and popular nightclubs around the world.

Though Toussaint has begun to travel far and wide as of late, he never stays away from New Orleans for long - and his music never does. In so many ways, his enduring career serves as an ongoing tribute to the city of his birth.

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