New Orleans style jazz is alive and well and the torch bearers of this national treasure brought one hell of an impromptu jam session to the stage of the legendary Fillmore last week. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band derives its name from the Preservation Hall venue located in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The band is known for performing traditional New Orleans-style jazz and has been playing together in various incarnations since the 1960s.
Over the years they’ve shared the stage with everyone from a young Harry Connick Jr, back in the day, to recent shows with Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket, and the Foo Fighters just to name a few. This night in particular the band was joined by Meshell Ndegeocello, Lyrics Born, and Beats Antique. Each special guest brought something truly unique to the stage and made this show a once in a lifetime event.
The setlist was a mashup of jazz classics falling somewhere between dixieland, traditional jazz, and old school funk. Since New Orleans is universally considered the birthplace of jazz, the band certainly maintains the spirit, but as the sold out crowd would find out very quickly, the magic happens when the bring along some of their good friends to share the stage.
The highlight of the set for me beyond Beats Antique (who were absolutely brilliant), was the couple of songs from PHJB’s 2013 release That’s It. It’s one of the best jazz albums to come out in the last decade and in my opinion represents the band at it’s finest hour.
The production is stellar, the songs are modern classics, and when you throw this on your turntable it takes you on a journey. That’s what music is supposed to do and if you can’t get to New Orleans to see the real deal, this is the next best thing.
Bottom line: Incredible show from an amazing group of musicians who play their hearts out in the name of preserving that classic New Orleans sound. If you have a chance to see this show, do yourself a favor.
Check out high res photos in the gallery here.
