Customer Reviews

Preservation: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program (Deluxe Version)

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I could easily run out of superlatives describing the latest effort from the remarkable Preservation Hall Jazz Band. However, if you're reading this review then chances are you're about to pull the trigger and buy the album. Please do. You will not be disappointed. The song choices (and special guests) are outstanding, and the cause it benefits will ensure that this genre of music will be around for years to come. Special note for Tom Waits fans (like myself): Tom clearly loves New Orleans music. You can tell he's having fun on this one.

This 2 Disc Album Cd was released on Fat Tuesday, February 16, 2010. Fat Tuesday is "Mardi Gras Day" in New Orleans, its a day of celebration & fun. And this year, it was also a time to celebrate the New Orleans Saints 1st Ever Victory, in the Superbowl. So this Cd was released on a very significant day, in New Orleans History. The music in this CD just adds to the celebration!!!

Now the CD, over the course of the last year or so, a wide variety of diverse musicians traveled to The Preservation Hall in New Orleans to collaborate, and record with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, performing "Classic" New Orleans Jazz & related songs. Somehow, through modern technology, they even included the late, legendary Jazz Musician, Louis Armstrong on the song "Rocking Chair". The result of all of this, is a "GREAT" CD CELEBRATING THE WONDERFUL MUSIC, OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS!!! I'M VERY CONFIDENT, YOU WILL ENJOY IT, VERY MUCH!!! IT'S FULL OF GREAT, WODERFUL, NEW ORLEANS MUSIC!!!

This deluxe version of this 2 Disc CD contains 25 songs, the track listing is included in the Amazon product description. There are 19 songs one Disc 1, and 6 songs on Disc 2.

The participating artists include: There are 25 songs, and these are the 25 collaborating artists on these songs: 1. Andrew Bird, 2.Paolo Nutini, 3.Tom Watts, 4.Yim Yames, 5.Del McCoury, 6.Ani DiFranco, 7.Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriquez-Seeger, 8.Jason Isabell, 9.Brandi Carlile, 10.Richie Havens, 11.Merle Haggard, 12.The Blind Boys of Alabama & Clint Maedgen, 13.Dr.John, 14.Louis Armstrong, 15.Amy LaVere, 16.Steve Earle, 17.Cory Chisel, 18.Buddy Miller, 19.Angelique Kidjo & Terence Blanchard.

Then on Disc 2: 1.Anita Briem, 2.Yim Yames 3.Tom Watts, 4.Del McCoury, 5.Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, and 6.Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriquez-Seeger.

If you like this double cd, then you might like the DVD of "The Dirty Dozen Brass Band" from New Orleans. It's a great concert dvd.

This is a "Superbowl Champion" of a CD", with diverse artists collaborating with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band from, the Home City of the "Reigning Superbowl Football Champions" , the New Orleans Saints!!!!! Wow, I don't think there'd be a better time to enjoy some great New Orleans Music. This is going to be a "Classic", and I highly recommend it. Thanks, and may God Bless New Orleans!!!

I have always prided myself as being an "eclectic" especially when it comes to music. Jazz, however has never been in any of my playlists....ever. Unitl now. I heard this on NPR in a music interview with the band founder. It simply stopped me in my tracks! Not to metion the impact it had on my 3 year old son, captive in his carseat behind me. I could not wait to come home and find where I could purchase it. The deal was truly sealed when I heard Angelique Kidjo perform "La Vie En Rose" This is a truly hearfelt thanks to some amazing musicians and the love they have for this music.

By now, it should be obvious that this is not your father's Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Under Ben Jaffe's leadership, it has become something more post-modern and conceptual. The name's the thing, even if the cast of players changes from session to session and track to track. It celebrates New Orleans and traditional jazz, but it does so broadly, reaching beyond the obvious canon for lesser known songs or modern songs that owe the city's musical past a debt. The implication is that the band and the songs have something to say today, even if it takes a King Britt remix or two to make that point obvious.

Preservation continues in that vein, this time with guest artists singing with the Hall Band. It's easy to imagine Tom Waits, Del McCoury, Andrew Bird and Richie Havens forcing the band to a subordinate position by the strength of their musical personalities, but like Galactic's last two albums, the sound and concept of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band dominate, and the guests come off as exactly that. The interplay, though, highlights the rightness of Jaffe's central premise. The sound of the band with the rotating roster of singers gives the album a theatrical dimension as they step up one-byone and enter a musical context that feels staged somewhere between antiquity and modernity.

Those who look to the Hall Band for great ensemble playing will find hot moments--the break in "Freight Train," sung by an almost unrecognizable Ani DiFranco comes to mind--but for the most part, Preservation presents the band as an inventive group that swings like mad while pulling folk, blues, Western Swing and 20th Century popular song into a New Orleans idiom. They get rowdy in sympathy when Tom Waits sings Danny Barker's "Tootie Ma Was a Big Fine Thing" and add bounce to Brandi Carlile's mid-tempo take on "The Old Rugged Cross." In one of the album's most powerful performances, they quietly clear space for Havens' soulful "Trouble in Mind."

It's a tribute to the Hall band that they and the singers mesh, regardless of age or aesthetic backgrounds. You'd expect them to be simpatico with the Blind Boys of Alabama and Merle Haggard (who grew up idolizing Western Swing king Bob Wills), but they sound just as natural behind Paulo Nutini and My Morning Jacket's Jim James/Yim Yames (his solo artist name, I gather). James offers up the most stylized performance, masking his voice by singing through a megaphone. It works, though, as it mimics the mute Mark Braud uses on his trumpet and makes the track sound like a lightly worn 78. The effect gives his version of "St. James Infirmary" a ghostly quality--a thought underscored by his muted howls--and perhaps because of it, the band doesn't entirely respect his vocal space, playing as if he's there but not.

Ultimately, those dynamics between the artists and the band give a new generation a way to appreciate the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Whether they recognize or value ensemble playing or not, they hear a band performing with life, imagination, energy and taste regardless of who's singing, and Preservation is ultimately their album. After all, as big as the guests are, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band is a name known worldwide and across generations. It's bigger. With Preservation, they give another generation or two a reason to pay attention to them as music, not just as an institution.--OffBeat Magazine, March 2010 issue

I've always loved Dixieland music - it's always so happy and uplifting. At first I was a little skeptical of the pairing of the PHJB with popular artists -- but it really works. Tom Waits, for example, seems perfectly at home with the sound, tempo, and mood. (And this was a particularly great value when it was offered for $5 a month or two ago! :-))

Having been a fan of PHJB for a while, I was so glad to know their quality of music has not gone down one bit over time. This cd is perfection in every way. I think Ben Jaffe is taking them in a wonderful direction by bringing in modern day musicians to flavor this classic type of music. It is wonderful to see that the tradition is being carried on in such a delightful way. When I hear "St. James Infirmary" and "Louisiana Fairytale" being sung through a megaphone by Yim Yames it is amazing to think he is a folk-rock musician of today. I listen to this cd almost daily and am so glad I got it. It surpassed my expectations in sound and substance. PHJB keep up the great work!!

Some great talent from the past, present, and unknown. A lot of fun for a good cause.

This is a wondereful bit of New Orleans jazz. I have owned it for some time and it has grown on me the more I play it. This release deserves repeated play.

Great tunes, great performers, what more can you ask? This is very authentic American jazz in the Dixieland/blues style. Not to everyone's taste most likely. Sitting in on a session with these musicians would be great. If you can't do that, take a listen to this album.

Great album, lots of different artists, same old-timey jazz the whole time (so be warned)

but I love it!