What comes to your mind when you think of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Right! A small club with a bunch of old guys playing songs from the days of 78 rpms. Well, this latest version of PHJB has its own team of Ben Jaffe/b-banjo, Charlie Gabriel/ts-cl, Rickie Monie/p and Cling Maedgen/sax write their own material, as well as Mark Braud/tp, Freddie Lonzo/tp and Joe Lastie/dr and with the production help from My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Jaffe, as well as getting together with guests Paul Williams, Dan Wilson and Chris Stapleton on some material, you’ve got a sound and a vibe that is more “Nawlins” than New Orleans.
A few tunes, like the title track, have the familiar reference to traditional Crescent City sounds of yesteryear, but the feel hear is more of the world of Dr John and Harry Connick, with the driving drum beat and story telling more akin to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Gospel material such as “Dear Lord” is still part of the Latin Quarter, but modern sounds and grooves abound on “Sugar Plum” and the cute “I Think I Love You.” Most of the tunes have vocals, and Gabriel, Lonzo, Maedgen and Johnson all have well travelled and graveled voices. Their horns servemore as a framework and riff machine and the solos are less George Lewis than Buddy Collette. Intriguing, and definitely not your uncles PHJB!
Legacy Recordings