Preservation Hall

145 Pages·2011·16.77 MB·English

by  Shannon Brinkman

PPRREESSEERRVVVAAATTTIIIOOONNN HHHAAALLLLLL
ii
PPRREESSEERRRVVVVAAATTTIIIOOONNN HHHAAALLLLLL
Photographs by
SHANNON BRINKMAN
Interviews with Preservation Hall Band Members by
EVE ABRAMS
Louisiana State University Press
Baton Rouge
Published by Louisiana State University Press
Copyright © 2011 by Louisiana State University Press
Photographs copyright © 2011 by Shannon Brinkman
All rights reserved
Manufactured in China
LSU Press Paperback Original
FIRSTPRINTING
Designer: AMS
Typeface: Helvetica Neue
Printer and binder: Everbest Printing Co., through Four Colour Imports, Ltd., Louisville, Kentucky
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brinkman, Shannon, 1965–
Preservation Hall / photographs by Shannon Brinkman ; interviews with Preservation Hall Band
members by Eve Abrams.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8071-3726-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Jazz musicians—Louisiana—New Orleans—Interviews. 2. Jazz musicians—Louisiana—New
Orleans—Portraits. 3. Jazz—Louisiana—New Orleans—Pictorial works. 4. Preservation Hall Jazz
Band—Pictorial works. I. Abrams, Eve, 1971– II. Title.
ML3508.8.N48B75 2011
781.6509763’35—dc22
2010037994
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. (cid:146)
To John Brunious, Walter Payton, Ralph Johnson,
Ernest “Doc” Watson, and Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen
I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
—gospel hymn by Civilla D. Martin and Charles H. Gabriel
Looking forward to meeting you all again one day . . .

Contents
Foreword, by Tom Sancton ix
Acknowledgments xi
Preservation Hall 1
Introduction, by Ben Jaffe 3
The Players 111

Foreword
All of us who were present in the early days knew that Preserva-
tion Hall was a special place. We had a sense that the Hall was
more than a musical venue; it was an important force for reviving
traditional jazz—not just the music as an art form, but the lives
and culture of the musicians themselves. A lot of the older musi-
cians had quit playing. Allan Jaffe went around town on his Vespa,
and every time he would hear about a musician who wasn’t play-
ing anymore, he would try to get them on their feet and working
at the Hall. It was almost like a religious revival—a phoenix-like
resurrection from the ashes. It was a sense that we are blowing on
the embers of something that was dying and now may no longer
be dying. We can help it live again.
Apart from that revival aspect, there was the infectious joy
and warmth and humanity of the musicians that really communi-
cated at a time when whites and blacks could not socialize legally.
The Hall was a place where we did share something. First of all,
the music. But we would also talk and laugh together and get to
know each other. We would visit the musicians in their homes,
and they would visit us. We felt a great sense of curiosity about
these people, the way they lived, their neighborhoods, the way
they talked, the way they made a living, the way they dressed.
It wasn’t a completely foreign culture, but it was very different
from what I had grown up with in my white middle-class world.
We were reaching out over all these age barriers and race and
economic barriers and class barriers, and just coming together on
the basis of our common humanity.
Those experiences made the Hall something very special, and
everybody who came down there regularly, I think, felt that we
belonged to a big family—almost a movement, a cause. That was
very important to us, even if we didn’t articulate it in those terms.
I think everybody sensed that this was not just a club where you
went to hear music. It was much, much more than that.
Tom Sancton

ix