It!, "Rattlin' Bones" and "I Think I Love You," and the group's hourlong show was enthusiastically "The more I spoke to Jim [James], he was able to give me a lot of perspective that received by the industry crowd. The first TV -related conversation to spring from the gig was the I have never had before because I am so deep inside of our music traditions," Jaffe idea of creating lifestyle programming that captures the musicians awayfrom the stage and focuses The adds. "Sometimes it takes an outsider to give you that perspective." on the richness of the culture. Preservation Jaffe was born into the Preservation Hall. His parents, Allan and Sandra, were Hall The ideas coming across the band's desk these days represent entirely new possibilities: Its first Band, from newlyweds from Philadelphia whose honeymoon in segued into a new concert at Harlem's Apollo Theater on the album's release day, shows with Steve Martin in August left: Ben home and a new job-running the newly opened hall-in 1961. Jaffe started to learn and then at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Meyerhoff Hall at Thanksgiving. Earlier this year Jaffe, Clint different horns while he was in elementary school, following the path of his tuba - Maedgen, it was a performance at the Grammys with the Black Keys and Dr. John, an NAACP Image Award Mark Braud, playing father. He ultimately became a bassist, learning the New Orleans repertoire and the Sasquatch festival in May; late last year were a handful of gigs with Steve Earle. Ronell from Chester Zardis, one of several musicians who had given up on performing "The Preservation project led to us thinking there's something else for us to explore," Jaffe says. Johnson, while in their sos and only returned to music when the hall opened. Freddie "We have a responsibility to further the tradition, take it somewhere else, the same way the origi- Lonzo, Joe He joined the band as its bassist in 1993 after graduating from Oberlin College nators of this music-Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, , even Duke Ellington and Lastie, and two years later took over the operation as music director. (His father died in -kept building on what they inherited and created their own voice and repertoire. Rickie 1986.) By and large, the musicians he worked with initially were his father's associ- Monie and Once you become a repertory band, we've seen it's very easy to become a caricature of yourself if Charlie ates and as they themselves died, he hired mostly third-, fourth -and fifth -generation you're not careful. Gabriel New Orleans musicians to replace them. After Katrina hit in August 2005, the band was forced to tour for a year straight without any hope of returning home. It also forced Jaffe, who lost his bass in the storm and consequently took up the tuba, to reflect on the meaning of Preservation Hall and utilize opportunities being presented to musicians from New Orleans. "We felt like a lost tribe," he says. "It wasn't until 2010 that Preservation Hall was up and operating in a normal way. The hurricane introduced us to a whole new world of artists." The making of Preservation was the crucial conduit for That's It! Besides connect- ing the band with Earle, Waits, McCoury, Pete Seeger, Richie Havens-on one of his last recordings-and Merle Haggard, it was the relationship with My Morning Jacket that has had the greatest effect. Photographer/director Danny Clinch made a documentary, "Louisiana Fairytale," about their collaboration, Flat Iron took over management duties and it was James' encouragement that led to Jaffe writing to of the 11 songs that appear on the new album. "The guys were really engaged with the idea [of writing songs] and also working with songwriters who could help build upon an idea or validate what they had al- ready been working on," Martinovich says. "That could have been tedious, but it expanded a community and relationships and generated music that displays where they come from and what they have established over yo years. They're bringing it into modernity, if you will, without making it feel like reinventing the wheel or de- constructing what they have built. They've added another solid brick." After approaching Block with the idea, which he embraced, Jaffe suggested reach- ing out to James to co -p oduce. The key, Block says, was to make an album "that doesn't sever a single tie to its origins but really takes it to the next place." To Jaffe, "it's important that a project be an evolution of the project before it. I didn't have any preconceived ARTIST: Preservation Hall Jazz Band notion of what these songs would sound like, but when you put your songs in the hands of Charlie and Mark ALBUM TITLE: That's It! [Braud] and Freddie [Lonzo] and Rickie [Monie] and RELEASE DATE: July 9 Joe [Lastie], it's going to end up sounding like Preserva- tion Hall. They're the guys who give it flavor." LABEL: Legacy Prerelease promotions for the album have included a video contest with Genero, a poster contest with Cre- MANAGEMENT: Mike Martinovich, Flat Iron ative Allies and, as Block calls it, "a focused outreach Management into the licensing community." Martinovich has kept PRODUCERS: Jim James, Ben Jaffe the band's calendar relatively open for the fall and win- ter, specifically to take advantage of opportunities that PUBLISHING: Big Deal Music aren't currently apparent. Legacy, Block says, expects to actively work the album for at least 12 months. BOOKING AGENT: Jay Williams, William Morris "When I suggest that the window for this project is a Endeavor very wide open one, it comes back to this very fundamen- TOUR: Apollo Theater, New York (July 9); Hollywood tal idea that this band can satisfy jazz fans every night Bowl, Los Angeles (Aug. 7, with Steve Martin) or play a Bonnaroo as often as those opportunities are available," Block says. "This is still a relatively unknown UPCOMING TV: "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" phenomenon to that second audience, to that younger au- (July 8-9) dience. We're just starting to introduce the Preservation Hall Jazz Band as a band that is as much a rock band or PUBLICITY: Pam Nashel Leto, Girlie Action Media indie band or Americana band as they are a jazz band. We SITE: PreservationHall.com have to continue to be deliberate and thoughtful and tacti- cal as we grow this audience. While, yes, we're investing

TWEETS: gPresHall in the recording, we're investing in the idea ofthe band. It P_ doesn't begin and end withthatrecord."0

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