CD Review: Preservation Hall Jazz Band - St. Peter and 57th St.

Ben Jaffe (Sousa/ldr); Mark Braud (tpt); Frank Desmond (tmb); Charlie Gabriel (clt); Clint Maedgen (ten/vcl); Rickie Monie (pno); Joe Lastie jnr. (dms).

(Review by Lance).

No personnel given on my promo copy - only the guest artists who appeared at this Carnegie Hall concert celebrating the band's 50th anniversary so the above is an educated guess.

This isn't an album that would ever be played on Smooth Jazz Radio - thank goodness! It's earthy and rough around the edges but it comes from the soul and deals in excitement by the gut bucketful!

George Wein introduces Burgundy St. Blues on which he plays classic blues piano alongside Gabriel whose clarinet has a liquidity of tone that was once the exclusive property of New Orleans clarinettists - maybe it still is.

They move over to Bourbon Street for the Parade  with some strident trumpet from Braud (grandson of former Ellington bassist Wellman Braud).

The mood changes when the PHJB are joined by the Bluegrass Del McCoury Band and One More 'Fore I Die. The two bands gel with good solos from both

Classic New Orleans piano by Allen Touissaint and an appropriate vocal - The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (They put pep in your step and pride in your stride - referring to the effect on the Second Line followers.of the street parade.).

Givers, described as an Indie pop group on Wikipedia, play Just a Closer Walk With Thee and the vocal by Tiffany Lamson is one of the most impassioned renditions I've ever heard! Bonjour Cousin has some Latin style trumpet.

Steve Earle, a folksy bluesy singer, guitarist, songwriter and author tells us T'aint Nobody's Business if I Do. One of the delights of this album is that it is so full of surprises! Tao Seeger - grandson of the great American folk legend Pete Seeger plays Peanut Vendor singing it in Spanish although it is titled El Manicero here. Seeger follows this up with a two part version of St. James Infirmary that brings out all the drama and pathos of this ancient old blues. PHJB recorded Tootie Ma a couple of years back with Tom Waits but here the vocal is by saxist Maedgen.

After Merrill Garbus' Careless Love, It Ain't My Fault sees Mos Def and Trombone Shorty locking slides before the Five Blind Boys of Alabama wrap things up with I'll Fly Away. PHJB are themselves really flying on this one and the prolonged applause at the end was well deserved - I knew exactly how the Carnegie crowd felt - they'd never heard anything quite like this since 1938 when Benny Goodman let Krupa loose on Sing, Sing, Sing!

Preservation Hall Jazz Band - St. Peter and 57th St. (Rounder label) is released on September 25, 2012

Lance.