How many musical entities remember when JFK was president? Well, the Preservation Jazz Hall Band, which has been recording for Columbia/Legacy since those halcyon days, shows why their music, still eternally out of date, but eternally relevant, stands up so well while other trends like fusion, world, funk and avant garde have come and gone the way of the dodo bird.
These 4 discs contain almost 60 songs, and feature some of the most famous names of “traditional” jazz. You’ve got guys that never went to Berklee or Manhattan School, but can play circles around the posers that did. Artists like George Lewis, Percy & Humphrey, Punch Miller, Dee Dee & Billie Pierce dot the first part of the collection, while more modern artists jump on the bandwagon during the later years. Pop stars and undercover artists like Tom Waits make cameo appearances, and old timers like folkie Pete Seeger and bluegrass legend Del McCoury add extra texture to the Crescent City sounds.
The thing that keeps you coming back to this music is that not only do these guys play like they mean it, but they play themselves. In other words, they have that quality that is missing in so much of today’s music. While about half of these songs are known by all of us by heart, the presentations of the trumpet, ‘bone, sax and clarinet are delivered like individual voices. It’s the sound of someone honing his craft, untethered by the confines of style, ivory tower educaton or by listening to a Play-Along cd set. These guys (and gals) play like they live it, as well as love it.
Sony Legacy