When I started piano lessons last spring, my approaching 40th birthday was a big motivator. Something about a milestone birthday triggered my deadline response, and I thought I’d like to be able to play at least one song by my 40th. Turns out I can do a decent job at several songs, including Scarborough Fair and My Cherie Amour. Not…
I’m a little kid about birthdays — I enjoy making a fuss about other people’s birthdays and I love celebrating mine. Yes, even as a suit-wearing executive with an MBA, I have been known to take a box of cupcakes to work on my birthday, just like you might have in elementary school. As part of that, we don’t just…
We took our Christmas tree down last weekend, and I think that’s got to be one of the saddest rituals of the year. When we decorate the tree in December, we’re preparing for a fun-filled season of celebrations. Taking the tree down is not only a less fun chore, it’s also the physical reminder that all that socializing and holiday…
Preservation Hall Jazz Band plays New York tonight and I’m such a geeky fan girl that I’m going even though I think I’ve seen them five times already this year. Traditional jazz is my soul music. It never fails to make me happy. Whether I am covered in mud on a rainy day at New Orleans Jazz Fest or packed…
If you’re looking for some good beach reading in the dog days of August, look no further, my friend. Three posts in the works you won’t want to miss: A profile of multi-instrumentalist Clint Maedgen, front man for New Orleans Bingo Show and sax player for Preservation Hall Jazz Band A Q&A with Jim Ottaviani, the second installment in a…
The Village Voice this week has a wonderful, sprawling piece on Woody Allen and his love of traditional jazz. Yes, the same Woody Allen, he of the artsy movies that define the neurotic New York archetype, also happens to have a standing weekly gig at the Carlyle. If you’re wondering if they’re any good, it might be worth noting that…
Last night, John and I went to see Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Blind Boys of Alabama — a phenomenal show full of joyous, uplifting music that makes my soul feel good. One of my favorite numbers of the night was Blind Boys singing the traditional spiritual Free At Last. Though it’s a powerful anthem of the Civil Rights movement,…
Just in time for Halloween, Preservation Hall debuts this beautiful animated video which includes a graveyard romp with Marie Laveau: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDYGIeZDMyg&feature=player_embedded] The video is part of a package from Preservation Hall Recordings featuring four small-group arrangements from the Preservation Hall Hot 4, the King Britt remix of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s “St. James Infirmary,” and three music videos. It’s…
Editor’s note: This is a fairly lengthy post. I suggest you fire up Preservation Hall’s live performance on World Cafe, maybe mix yourself a hurricane, and settle in. Ben Jaffe grew up with dreams of becoming a modern jazz musician, “really hell bent on moving to New York.” Family responsibility and appreciation of where he’d come from put him on…
Some people don’t pursue their dreams for very practical reasons — they have to pay the rent and they worry that being a musician, artist, filmmaker or writer won’t make any money. A story in the New York Times this week introduced me to Kickstarter, based in our back yard here in Brooklyn. Earl Scioneaux III is not a famous music…
For anyone waiting to hear the story of Ben Jaffe, director of Preservation Hall, apologies but you’ll need to wait a bit longer. Ben and I got started on a fantastic interview but technology was not cooperating. He was on his cell phone at a French Quarter theater, preparing to shoot video of a Terence Blanchard show the next night,…
Preservation Hall Jazz Band is making an East Coast swing this weekend — Kent, Conn. on Saturday and Lancaster, Pa. on Sunday. Just ahead of the band’s journey up here, I plan to interview Ben Jaffe, who took over the jazz institution his parents started in New Orleans and has balanced a reverence for tradition with an infusion of new ideas. Ben serves…
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival starts today. Jazz Fest runs the last weekend of April and first weekend of May, and we’re excitedly looking forward to being there for the second weekend. I didn’t expect to like Jazz Fest. Several years ago when our friend, Rachel, invited us to join her in a large rental house for the…
