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Cart(Houston) – Preservation Hall Jazz Band returns to Performing Arts Houston as part of their 60th anniversary celebration tour. The New Orleans jazz ensemble hailing from the iconic music venue in the heart of the French Quarter has been presented by Performing Arts Houston for over 50 years. Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s one night only performance will take place on March 14, 2023, at 7:30 pm in Jones Hall. Tickets start at $29, at performingartshouston.org.
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (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, and famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett. These founding artists and dozens of others passed on the lessons of their music to a younger generation who now follow in their footsteps including current band leader and trumpeter John Brunious.
At a moment when musical streams are crossing with unprecedented frequency, it’s crucial to remember that throughout its history, New Orleans has been the point at which sounds and cultures from around the world converge, mingle, and resurface, transformed by the Crescent City’s inimitable spirit and joie de vivre. Nowhere is that idea more vividly embodied than in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which has held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for more than 50 years, all the while carrying it enthusiastically forward as a reminder that the history they were founded to preserve is a vibrantly living history.
PHJB marches that tradition forward once again on So It Is, the septet’s second release featuring all-new original music. The album redefines what New Orleans music means by tapping into a sonic continuum that stretches back to the city’s Afro-Cuban roots, through its common ancestry with the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti and the Fire Music of Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane, and forward to cutting-edge artists with whom the PHJB have shared festival stages from Coachella to Newport, including legends like Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and the Grateful Dead and modern giants like My Morning Jacket, Arcade Fire and the Black Keys. In 2019, the band released A Tuba to Cuba, a documentary and soundtrack that follows band leader Ben Jaffe as he worked to retrace the connection of New Orleans jazz to indigenous Cuban music, which was a dream of his late father, Preservation Hall founder Allan Jaffe.
Supporting Performing Arts Houston’s commitment to heightening an appreciation of the arts, Preservation Hall Jazz Band will participate in an open rehearsal and talk-back with middle-school music students from the Academy of Arts and Education hosted by the Performing Arts Houston Education and Community Engagement department.
About Performing Arts Houston
Performing Arts Houston (formerly known as Society for the Performing Arts) connects audiences with exceptional artists through diverse performances and learning experiences. We ignite and cultivate passion for the performing arts, exploring the vast landscape of artistic expression to discover new understanding about ourselves, create community, inspire dialogue, and enrich our world. More at performingartshouston.org
Ticket Information
Tickets start at $29. Tickets can be purchased through the Performing Arts Houston website at performingartshouston.org or by calling our box office at (713) 227-4772. To support the arts, save up to 25%, and access exclusive live arts experiences, become a Performing Arts Houston member at performingartshouston.org/memberships.
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PERFORMING ARTS HOUSTON
presents
Preservation Hall Jazz Band:
60th Anniversary Celebration
March 14, 2023
Friday, 7:30 pm
Jones Hall
Tickets start at $29
performingartshouston.org
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Media Contact:
Caroline Senter
csenter@performingartshouston.org
713-632-8105