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Preservation Hall

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“ Being that my cousin is a musician, I wanted make sure he was able to enjoy some JAZZ while he was in town. ” in 20 reviews

“ Different venues, best to buy the ticket several day before the show, spend more and seat in the front row . ” in 52 reviews

“ Just show up 40 minutes early, have someone in your group grab drinks at Pat O'Brien 's and hang out in line. ” in 34 reviews

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726 Saint Peter St

New Orleans, LA 70116

French Quarter

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Is the venue handicap/wherkchair accessible? If so, what type of tickets should be purchased; seat or standing?

Yes, definitely. I'd contact Preservation Hall directly but have been there when other guests were using wheelchair

How many people?

It's tight, maybe 50? Definitely need to have tickets ahead of time. It's a small space. Seats are benches, flat room so if you're back you don't see a lot, but you're there for the music, which is great.

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ARTS & CULTURE

How preservation hall has kept new orleans’ iconic jazz alive.

The plucky institution staged a brassy comeback for America’s signature music

By Jeanie Riess

The seats are simple benches. The space is small. To stand at the back of the hall is to be only 20 or so feet from the band. The wooden walls are washed out. Even the instruments used by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, founded with the hall in 1961, feel a bit old: It’s been a while since clarinets and tubas were central to popular music. And then, of course, there’s the traditional repertoire, comprising standards that reach back to the first decades of the 20th century, like “Little Liza Jane” and “St. James Infirmary.” Unlike other famous jazz venues that have changed their décor and ethos with the times, Preservation Hall remains the most authentic, with a pure emphasis on the music.

In some ways, the antiquity of the scene is the point: It feels like going back in time. The hall, which didn’t even have air conditioning until 2019, has persisted against steep odds, much like the city of New Orleans. And at the time of the hall’s founding, New Orleans jazz was in need of preservation: Traditional jazz had enjoyed a resurgence in the 1940s, but just a decade later, rhythm and blues, bebop and rock ’n’ roll were dominating American airwaves and venues, and traditional jazz halls closed around the city.

To some degree those hot new genres of popular music were largely drawn from the traditional jazz that had been born in New Orleans. Joel Dinerstein, a professor of English at Tulane University and author of the 2020 book Jazz: A Quick Immersion , says these new forms of pop were in fact “different idioms of jazz.” Yet despite having provided the roots of this new music, jazz itself was taking a back seat.

Recognizing the need to keep traditional jazz alive, New Orleans art dealer Larry Borenstein invited his favorite musicians to rehearse in the garden of his gallery in the French Quarter. A crowd started to form, and over time, people from around the world visited what was then called the New Orleans Society for the Preservation of Traditional Jazz, where they heard the greats of the 20th century, including George Lewis, Punch Miller, Sweet Emma Barrett and the Humphrey Brothers.

Around the same time, in Philadelphia, a young couple named Allan and Sandra Jaffe were falling in love with jazz. Returning from a honeymoon in Mexico, they stopped in New Orleans in 1961. They decided to stick around. That same year, Borenstein handed his performance space over to the Jaffes, who rented the gallery at 726 Saint Peter Street, for $400 a month, and moved the music inside, and the venue soon became known as Preservation Hall. Allan managed the artists and occasionally picked up his sousaphone and played with the band. Sandra assisted her husband with the books and worked the door. Trained as a journalist, Sandra helped advertise the bands and organized a weekly schedule. Originally, the shows were free, with a request that visitors make a donation, but eventually the pair started charging a dollar to hear the music. Still, the hall wasn’t profitable until at least a decade into their ownership.

In 1963, the Jaffes created a touring ensemble to spread the traditional jazz that was enjoying a renaissance in New Orleans. The band’s first tour, through the Midwest, was a success, and by the end of the year the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was playing to fans around the globe. The group has performed everywhere from the Fillmore West in San Francisco to Thailand’s royal palace.

New Orleans police cited the Jaffes more than once for providing a space for mixed crowds, in violation of the city’s segregation laws. After Sandra got arrested one day, according to her son Ben, the judge said: “In New Orleans, we don’t like to mix our coffee and cream.”  Ben says Sandra “burst out laughing and said, ‘That’s funny—the most popular thing in New Orleans is café au lait.’”

While rejuvenating the city’s jazz scene, the Jaffes also materially improved the lives of the artists who performed in their space. “A lot of [the musicians] were older, and they didn’t have any money,” Dinerstein says. “Some of them were ill. And they were revived by this. They were great musicians.”

Allan Jaffe died in 1987; a few years later, Sandra moved to Florida, and Ben took over the family business. But she visited New Orleans often. Each time, she stopped at Preservation Hall before even going to her hotel. “She would stand in the carriageway and listen to the bands play,” says Ron Rona, the hall’s current artistic director. Today, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band still travels the world as a rotating collective of more than 60 musicians, led by Ben Jaffe, a fine tubist and bassist in his own right. In recent decades, the band has broadened its audience through collaborations with pop artists like Tom Waits , Ani DiFranco and Arcade Fire . And though the band plays many of the same tunes as the original lineup in the 1960s, Rona says the word “preservation” can be misleading. “Jazz is an evolution,” he says. “The melodies might be the same, the forms might be the same. But the musicians put themselves into it.” In that sense, he says, “these are brand-new tunes.”

Sax and the City

The best and the brightest once took the stage at these erstwhile New Orleans hot spots

Iroquois Theater, 413 S. Rampart St.

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Jeanie Riess | READ MORE

Jeanie Riess is a writer from New Orleans. Her reporting and essays have appeared in The New Yorker , The New York Times,  and the Oxford American , among others.

Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall is a French Quarter concert hall with nightly performances by esteemed local jazz musicians.

Established in 1962 by young Philadelphia natives Alan and Sandra Jaffe, the space provided a safe place for older jazz musicians to perform in New Orleans at a time when state laws prohibited inter-racial performances.

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Preservation Hall became widely known as a family-friendly concert hall in which New Orleans-style jazz is performed nightly. Through recordings, tours, and film the Preservation Hall band gained international recognition, and continues to present New Orleans music traditions to the world today..

Still family run for over 50 years, Preservation Hall hosts performances 350 nights a year, and includes educational programs aimed at preserving the legacy of Jazz in New Orleans.

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Hall That Jazz

By Tom Sancton

Just a single room with worn floorboards, some rough wooden benches, and threadbare cushions. Dust and time and the steamy air of New Orleans have given the place a golden patina, and the peeling walls are covered with smoky paintings of musicians now long gone. Over the two centuries since it was built, this 31-by-20-foot chamber has been a private drawing room, a tavern, a tinsmith’s shop, and an art gallery. For the past 50 years, however, it has been known by the name written in brass letters on two battered instrument cases that hang over the wrought-iron entrance gate: Preservation Hall.

Since its opening day, June 10, 1961, more than two million people have walked through that gate, including presidents, prime ministers, movie stars, and rock idols. Paul Newman and Steve McQueen filmed scenes at the hall. Singer Tom Waits, who recorded there last year, called it “sacred, hallowed ground,” and bluesman Charlie Musselwhite says it is “the holy grail of clubs.” Louis Armstrong, at his 70th-birthday tribute, in Newport in July 1970, said of Preservation Hall, “That’s where you’ll find all the greats.”

Before it even had a name, this little room was the site of a remarkable, phoenix-like revival of traditional New Orleans jazz. Started as a kitty hall, where musicians played for tips thrown into a wicker basket, it gave work to the city’s aging, downtrodden jazzmen and injected new life into their dying art form. “There is no question that Preservation Hall saved New Orleans jazz,” says impresario George Wein, founder of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival. “When it became an institution in New Orleans, everybody who went down there went to the hall. They paid a dollar to go hear people like George Lewis or Sweet Emma Barrett and made them national figures.”

On hot summer nights the crowds still form long lines down St. Peter Street to hear authentic New Orleans jazz. Few of them are locals, and even fewer seem to know what to expect when they get inside. They have been drawn there by tour guides, travel books, or word of mouth. Once past the gates and the kitty basket—the entrance fee is now $12—they settle onto the benches or stand in the back of the un-air-conditioned room waiting for the show to start. At eight p.m., a member of the hall’s staff welcomes the crowd, warns them not to smoke or record the music, then introduces the band. Waving and smiling, six musicians wearing black suits, white shirts, and Preservation Hall ties amble onto the bandstand, sit on straight-backed chairs, and stomp off the first number. For the next three hours, with two breaks, they will serve up some of the traditional repertoire—“Bourbon Street Parade,” “Original Dixieland One-Step,” “Clarinet Marmalade,” “The Saints.”

The routine is exactly as it was in the 60s, but some things have changed: what were once all-black bands are now racially mixed; the average age of the players is considerably younger; the crowds are much bigger. The quality of the music varies—a different band performs each night—but on a good night customers can count on hearing some of the most spirited traditional-style jazz they’ll find anywhere. The amazing thing is that this music—rooted in blues, ragtime, and marches from the turn of the 20th century—is still being played at all. If it were not for Preservation Hall, it might have disappeared as a living art form.

The hall’s golden-anniversary year has been marked by a spate of special events. The Louisiana State University Press published a lush photo book, Preservation Hall, by Shannon Brinkman and Eve Abrams (with an introduction by me). The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (P.H.J.B.), the hall’s six-man touring group, appeared in concert with the Trey McIntyre Project dance troupe, Del McCoury’s bluegrass band, and the indie-rock group My Morning Jacket. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Old U.S. Mint museum presented major exhibitions of Preservation Hall photos, paintings, and artifacts. In 2010, the P.H.J.B. recorded an album titled Preservation, featuring collaborations with a Who’s Who of popular singers, including Tom Waits, Jim James, Pete Seeger, Richie Havens, Merle Haggard, Dr. John, and—thanks to the magic of digital editing—Louis Armstrong himself. The coming year will see the unveiling of Preservation Hall West, a bar-restaurant-concert-hall complex in San Francisco’s Mission district.

What comes after that is up to Benjamin “Ben” Jaffe, 40, the younger son of the family that has run the hall since 1961. As creative director, he oversees all the hall’s operations and plays sousaphone and string bass with the touring band. The key question he faces is this: with all of the original musicians dead and gone, an aging audience base, and a popular culture more interested in hip-hop than old-time jazz, what are you preserving? And how long can you keep it up? Jaffe’s optimistic answer: “This anniversary is about the next 50 years.”

Preservation Hall started by accident back in the mid-1950s, when an art dealer named E. Lorenz “Larry” Borenstein began hosting informal jazz sessions in his gallery on St. Peter Street. A native of Milwaukee, and allegedly a grandnephew of Leon Trotsky’s, Borenstein was a music-lover with a shrewd business sense. His main motivation for inviting musicians in to play for tips was to lure customers into his gallery. But others saw the potential for turning these informal sessions into an ongoing thing for the city’s aging jazzmen. Chief among them were Ken Mills, a Californian, and Barbara Reid, who had come to the French Quarter from Chicago. Young and idealistic, they launched the short-lived New Orleans Society for the Preservation of Traditional Jazz and persuaded Borenstein to let them hold nightly concerts in his gallery.

Borenstein had little confidence in these naïve enthusiasts, but another couple soon appeared who were more to his liking. The Pennsylvania newlyweds Allan and Sandra Jaffe arrived in town in March 1961, on their way home from an extended honeymoon in Mexico. Allan, a graduate of the Wharton School, and Sandra, who had worked at a Philadelphia ad agency, shared a love of New Orleans jazz recordings. Allan couldn’t wait to show the mythic city to his bride. She was instantly smitten by the French Quarter, and they decided to stay awhile.

“We didn’t come to New Orleans to start a business, or have Preservation Hall, or save the music,” says Sandra. “We just came to hear it.” Once they learned about the informal sessions at Borenstein’s art gallery, they soon became regulars. When Mills and Reid launched the nightly concerts in June 1961, the Jaffes were part of the unofficial group of supporters who helped run the place. And then Borenstein decided to change horses.

In the summer of 1961, Allan Jaffe wrote his parents to say that Mr. Borenstein had offered to rent them the hall for $400 a month and let them run it as a for-profit business. “It is the location that insures the success of the hall,” he informed his father, Harry Jaffe, who ran a wallpaper-and-paint store in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. The Jaffes took over the hall on September 13, 1961, and Allan wrote again to his parents, recapping the first week’s business: income $756.75, expenses $1,000. “I’m sure you are still skeptical, and so am I to some extent,” he said, “but I’m sure that if this place is managed properly, it can become the biggest entertainment thing in this city.... Whether I win or lose, I’m sure I’ll never be sorry for getting involved in this.... Six nights a week, we help make 500 to 1500 people happy.”

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Before Preservation Hall opened its doors, the aging ranks of the city’s black jazz musicians seemed headed for extinction. They lived hardscrabble lives against the constant backdrop of poverty and Jim Crow racial discrimination—Louisiana was still a segregated state when the hall opened. Ranging in age from the 60s to the 90s, many of them were in ill health. Some had lost or hocked their instruments; others had quit playing altogether. While Sandra typed out the nightly schedules, Allan puttered around town on his Vespa looking up musicians he had heard about and offering them jobs. More than that, he befriended them, got them medicine, took them to doctors, and helped them get back on their feet. “Allan cared deeply about the musicians,” says Chris Botsford, who, along with his wife, Janie, was Jaffe’s closest collaborator for 18 years. “He truly cherished them.”

The hall lost money at first. The Jaffes, who refused to sell alcohol or advertise, depended on word of mouth and walk-in tourist traffic to fill the benches. As the local and national press began to take notice, however, the sparse crowds grew bigger. What really turned Preservation Hall into a lucrative operation, in the end, was the formation of touring bands, which Jaffe started taking around the country in 1963. The tours eventually took the P.H.J.B. as far as Moscow and Tokyo, and they remain a big part of the operation today.

The touring bands delighted audiences from Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl to Wolf Trap and the Fillmore. Favorite players included: Billie and DeDe Pierce, a blues-shouting pianist and her blind cornetist husband; trumpeter Percy Humphrey and his brother, clarinetist Willie Humphrey; Sweet Emma Barrett, a pianist who wore a red beanie and sported bells on her garters; and Kid Thomas Valentine, a trumpeter with a bag of funny hats and wigs and the drive of a freight train. The biggest star of all was a slender, frail-looking man who had been well known even before the hall opened: clarinetist George Lewis, whose angelic, lyrical tone gave him an almost God-like status in Europe and Japan, where scores of young men tried to copy his records and clone his style. Soon dozens of young foreign musicians flocked to New Orleans to learn jazz at the source. Preservation Hall became Mecca to these jazz pilgrims.

Sandra Jaffe told me that they had initially wanted to spruce up the old hall, but that they ultimately decided to leave it in a state of noble decadence, with its moldy façade, crumbling plaster walls, and creaky door hinges. It gave an impression of authenticity that matched the music they were offering. Along with their no-alcohol and no-amplification policies, it underscored the contrast between the wholesome simplicity of the hall and the earsplitting, over-air-conditioned clubs on neighboring Bourbon Street.

Ben Jaffe carries on that tradition of benign neglect. Though he is eager to incorporate new musical styles and embrace new media—such as his video of the P.H.J.B. covering the Kinks’ “Complicated Life,” or the sassy YouTube animation of the band’s “Saint James Infirmary,” by TancoToons and Philadelphia D.J. King Britt—he refuses to modernize the physical plant. “My dad left some very big shoes to fill,” he says.

What started as a youthful husband-and-wife team running a nickel-and-dime operation eventually evolved into a thriving enterprise. Meanwhile, Allan Jaffe prospered from real-estate dealings under the tutelage of Borenstein—who bought six French Quarter buildings with him—and lucrative financial investments guided by stock tips from his former Wharton classmates. By the mid-1980s he was a wealthy man, though the bulk of his income did not come from the hall. On the contrary, says Ben, his other investments allowed him to keep the hall running and subsidize it during lean times. It was the hall and its people, however, that remained the emotional core of Allan Jaffe’s world.

Sandra Jaffe stopped working when her first son, Russell, was born, in 1969, followed two years later by Ben. Allan continued to spend much of his time, however, hanging out with the musicians, playing regular gigs on sousaphone with Harold Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band, and traveling with the touring bands. “He lived the life of Riley,” says Ben, who claims he can’t recall ever having had a real conversation with his father. But they had music in common: even as a child, Ben sat in on baritone horn with the Olympia, later graduating to sousaphone and string bass. Russell seems not to have shared that musical interest. Ben describes him as a “brilliant student” who could “get absorbed in a book like he was in a meditative state.” The brothers, divided by temperament, leaned in opposite directions.

No one knows what plans Allan Jaffe had about the future of the hall or who would succeed him at the helm. “Allan and I never talked about a succession,” Sandra Jaffe told me. As it turned out, Allan didn’t have much time to plan for the future. Diagnosed with melanoma in 1985, he died on March 9, 1987, at the age of 51. His jazz funeral was one of the biggest the city had ever seen. With Russell about to leave for college, and Ben still in high school, Sandra returned to the hall and assumed a hands-on role for the first time in 18 years. Her sister, Resa Lambert, who with her husband, Alvin, had been involved with the hall since 1967, took over the day-to-day operations.

That’s how things stood until Ben graduated from Oberlin, in 1993, and returned to take on an increasingly important management role. Meanwhile Russell, who finished law school in 1995, began looking after the family’s real-estate interests. Somehow the younger brother wound up in charge of the family jewel. “My father never made it clear that’s what he wanted,” says Ben. “When I got back to the hall in 1993, I had to figure out what the hell I was doing. I had a B.A. in music, but I had to become an entrepreneur.” Russell, who moved to St. Louis after Hurricane Katrina and now works as a speech therapist, declines to discuss the subject.

Ben Jaffe greets me in his office behind the hall. This is the building’s former slave quarters, the high-ceilinged studio apartment his parents lived in when I met them as a teenager, in 1962. My father and mother brought me to the hall one summer night, and we soon became friends of the Jaffes’. I learned the clarinet from some of the old musicians and today play regularly at the hall. It is hard, in these surroundings, not to think of Allan Jaffe, whose record collection and books still fill the shelves, and Sandra, whose blue eyes gaze at me from her son’s handsome face. Ben wears a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, well-cut blue jeans, a black vest, and brown boots. A thatch of curly brown hair gives him a wild look that contrasts with the serenity of his manner and the quiet warmth of his voice. He moves stiffly and lives with constant pain, caused by an autoimmune arthritic disease that could one day leave him in a wheelchair.

“The struggle with any family business is how do you survive into the second and third generation,” he says. “Most of them don’t. Probably a lot of the stubbornness that I have inherited from my mom is what willed it to keep going.” Katrina almost brought it down. Like the rest of the French Quarter, Preservation Hall was spared the flooding, but the virtual shutdown of tourist traffic threatened to put the Jaffes out of business. The hall was closed for eight months. “I felt terrible despair,” says Ben. “Those were awful moments, when you don’t know how you’re going to survive.” In order to meet expenses and continue paying the staff, the family sold two buildings.

The hall lost money four out of the past five years, says Ben, but is now back in the black. He puts the total annual revenue from all operations—tours, hall concerts, and merchandise—at roughly $2 million. He is paid a salary and shares dividends with his mother (the 50 percent owner) and brother (like him, a 25 percent owner). Jeanette Jaffe, whom Ben married in 2010, is a C.P.A. and oversees an office staff of five and a night crew of seven. “Our business is strange,” she says, sitting at a computer in one of the back offices. “We don’t sell alcohol, which is a huge missing revenue stream. It is unbelievable that we lasted so long in the French Quarter without selling alcohol. The touring income helps pick up the slack.” The touring band, in fact, rakes in about two-thirds of Preservation Hall’s total revenue. The nightly concerts account for only about 20 percent, with the remainder coming from the sale of merchandise—T-shirts, neckties, and CDs. Jeanette also helps run the education program, in partnership with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, which seeks to teach the fundamentals of traditional brass-band music to young players.

“People think we’re making money hand over fist,” says Ben. “If my family were in it for the profit of the business, it would have made more sense to sell the property or run it as a daiquiri shop or a karaoke bar.” He is exasperated by charges that the Jaffes have made a fortune on the backs of old black musicians. “Oh, I’ve heard it all—‘Plantation Hall,’ ‘the Old Folks’ Home,’ ” he says. “This is a place that has always presented music in such a dignified manner that it really upsets me to the point of anger when people talk about exploitation.”

Few members of the touring band would complain about being exploited. They work an average of 150 travel days a year, at $550 a day. That comes to $82,500, plus what they make on other engagements when they’re not on the road. That’s more than the average college professor or recent law-school graduate makes. Even in the old days, the touring musicians did well. It was rumored that when trombonist Jim Robinson died, in 1976, there was $100,000 in cash hidden in his house. The nightly pay is considerably less at the hall itself—$125 for sidemen, $150 for the leader—but that’s far better than the average French Quarter remuneration. There is no question that Preservation Hall has raised the standard of living of the musicians who play there.

Katrina was just a speed bump compared with the demographic challenge facing the hall as the last of the original musicians faded from the scene in the 1990s. “I was scared,” says Ben. “Would we even have a band anymore? I saw what happened to the Duke Ellington and Count Basie bands after their leaders died. They were just lifeless caricatures of what they had been. I was so scared that was what the Preservation Hall band would become—had become.” He decided to shake things up and build a broader fan base through collaborations with other musicians and groups.

The first of these was an unlikely alliance with Clint Maedgen, a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and creator of the New Orleans Bingo! Show. A combination rock show, happening, and bingo game, replete with clowns and dancing girls, the raucous spectacle mesmerized Jaffe when he first saw it, in 2004. “It was complete mayhem,” he recalls. “I’d never been in a room with a band that had that kind of energy and passion. I became a fan.” He saw in Maedgen the key to rejuvenating the touring band. Clint represented “fresh new blood,” he says. “He had that free and liberating effect.” Ben invited Maedgen to join the band on tour as a singer and later gave him a frontline role on tenor sax.

The arrival of Maedgen, who initially had a spiky punk hairdo, raised some eyebrows among the regular bandsmen. “At first he was totally a fish out of water, from left field,” says trombonist Frank Demond, 78, a P.H.J.B. member since 1976. Maedgen, who is 41, worked hard at trying to fit in. He speaks humbly about his effort to learn the traditional style from the older musicians. “They became my teachers and uncles,” he says. “All I can do is approach it with as much integrity and sincerity as possible. I’m the one asking for the old tunes these days.”

The innovations did not stop there. In 2005, Ben Jaffe started taking the Bingo! Show clowns on the road with the P.H.J.B. to warm up the audiences and spruce up the presentation. “We had a ball,” says Ron Rona, 36, who performs in black-and-white makeup as “Ronnie Numbers” and also works closely with Ben in the Preservation Hall office. “Some people hated it, but in the bigger markets reaction was positive. Honestly, we thought it was weird. But Ben wanted to do it. Why? To keep things relevant, to do something different.” Concert organizers and many of the band’s traditional fans were apparently less amused: according to two band members, the Bingo escapades caused them to lose regular summer bookings at Stanford University and the Robert Mondavi Winery.

Even bolder changes have put the P.H.J.B. on concert stages with the rock group My Morning Jacket and Del McCoury’s bluegrass band. During the city’s annual Jazz Fest, moreover, Jaffe invites a panoply of rock, blues, and folk groups to play after-hours sessions in the hallowed confines of the hall itself—an invasion that is considered a sacrilege by many jazz purists but that delights the sellout crowds, who have recently paid up to $100 a ticket to hear such performers as Robert Plant, the Edge, Charlie Musselwhite, and Warren Haynes.

No one seems more excited than the guest stars themselves. Allman Brothers Band alumnus Haynes was gushing as he came offstage, his curly red locks drenched and his Gibson slick with sweat. “You can just feel the vibe,” he said. “I’m still surging from it.” My Morning Jacket’s Jim James told his audience, “What’s amazing about this room is that it is untouched by the hand of time—music has literally ripped the paint off the walls.” When Tom Waits arrived to record the old Danny Barker ditty “Tootie Ma Was a Big Fine Thing,” he ran around photographing the stained, crumbling interior. “Every wall here is like about nine Picassos,” he said in his familiar growl.

For their part, many of the regular P.H.J.B. members have mixed feelings about sharing the stage with such a disparate collection of musicians. Standing in the courtyard during one late-night session, clarinetist Charlie Gabriel, 79, flashes a broad-toothed grin when asked for his thoughts. “Mixing of the music is good, because it’s the same thing—it just took a different avenue. But Preservation Hall should stand out for itself to be what it is. You shouldn’t weaken the foundations by putting too much in the soup.” Drummer Joe Lastie, 53, is frankly skeptical. “They respect what we are doing,” he says of the other groups, “but they don’t bring us nothing. When people come to Preservation Hall, they want to hear Preservation Hall music.”

Trumpeter Wendell Brunious, 57, former leader of the P.H.J.B., takes a more jaundiced view. Along with other ex–band members, including banjoist Don Vappie and clarinetist Michael White, Bru­nious quit the group after falling out with Ben Jaffe over personal and artistic differences. “They got clowns running out in the audience,” he fumes. “What the hell is that all about? It’s almost a violation. That’s got nothing to do with what the hall is about. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel—you just have to roll the one you have. In the field of traditional jazz, Ben already had the biggest wheel.”

Jaffe sighs wearily when asked about such criticisms. “I get shit all the time from everybody,” he says. “I’m admitting that we don’t live in a bubble. At what point do you accuse musicians we admire of adopting popular music and popular artists into their repertoire? Louis Armstrong made a record with Jimmy Rogers. In 1968, the P.H.J.B. was on the same bill as the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore. What I’m doing is just a continuation of what’s been done in New Orleans for years.” Since the P.H.J.B. started collaborating with other artists, he maintains, “we have earned a younger, more musically affluent audience.”

Would his father approve of these innovations? “There’s lots of things my dad didn’t approve of,” he says. “He didn’t approve of the way I dressed. But I think today, looking at the success of the projects musically, he would have to absolutely take his hat off. If he disagreed in the beginning, he would have to agree with it now.”

One of Allan Jaffe’s closest friends, the writer and jazz pianist Bob Greene, has his doubts. “I don’t think Jaffe imagined the longevity that the hall had,” he says. “I think Jaffe felt that when it’s over, it’s over. I don’t think he envisioned a renaissance.” Yet Greene voices admiration and sympathy for Ben’s efforts. “He belongs to another musical culture completely, and it’s quite clear that he’s valiantly trying to bridge the two. I think he feels the tradition of the hall very deeply.” Another longtime friend of Allan Jaffe’s, festival producer George Wein, is more upbeat: “Ben Jaffe has done a fantastic job keeping the image alive by bringing in slightly different music occasionally but maintaining the tradition of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. You don’t know what the future is, but we do know that Preservation Hall will survive. I have no problems about that.”

During the week of the 50th anniversary, this past June, Ben Jaffe held a party in the courtyard behind the hall. In the shade of the banana trees that line a moss-covered brick wall, more than 100 guests gathered to commemorate the event. In the old days, Allan and Sandra Jaffe had thrown countless parties back there, where the hall’s founding musicians had played their horns and feasted on red beans and rice. Allan and the old players are gone; Sandra, who is now 73 and lives in Florida, was unable to make it. In place of the red beans, there was a table piled high with crawfish and grilled chicken. The exuberant music went on, provided by the Treme Brass Band, and old friends mingled and marveled at the longevity of this special place.

The morning before the party, Ben Jaffe called and asked me to go with him to his father’s gravesite. “Bring your horn,” he said. “It would mean a lot to me.” I grabbed my clarinet and picked him up in front of Preservation Hall. He was waiting on the corner with his sousaphone, and he had two black parade caps under his arm, in keeping with the New Orleans jazz-funeral tradition. One aspect of that tradition had not been respected the day his father was buried, and he wanted to set things right. “They didn’t play happy music at the end,” Ben said, tearing up slightly as we drove toward the old Jewish cemetery at the end of Canal Street. “Everybody was too sad. I had never seen grown men cry before, but all the guys in the Olympia band—Harold Dejan, Milton Battiste, Papa Glass—they all had tears streaming down their faces. They couldn’t do it. They just played dirges and hymns.”

We got out of the car and walked through the iron gates of the Chevra Thilim cemetery, past the neat rows of bronze plaques on granite bases to one that read: beloved husband and father. allan p. jaffe. april 24, 1935–march 9, 1987. We put on our parade caps and played the one song his father had requested for his funeral, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” Immediately after the last note, Ben launched into a riff his dad had played 10,000 times with the Olympia: “Joe Avery’s Piece,” a joyous, up-tempo number that always made the second-liners—those who followed the band in parades—jump and shout with its syncopated breaks. There were no second-liners today, just a two-man brass band playing a remembrance song. “Do you feel his presence?,” I asked as we headed back to the car. “Every day of my life,” said Ben. “Every day.”

Tom Sancton

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Preservation Hall in New Orleans

This post is about how to see a jazz performance at the legendary Preservation Hall in New Orleans, including tickets, schedules, and reviews. 

Tickets and Schedule

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Preservation Hall is small. This keeps the scene intimate, just like it was at the beginning of New Orleans jazz.

There are only 100 admissions for each set.

Each set is 45 minutes long, but you can only stay for one. Between each, there is a complete turnaround of guests and you must purchase another ticket if you'd like to get back in.

The Quarter is lively any night of the week, and Preservation Hall keeps the same schedule, with several shows per night, every night.

• DAILY -shows are at 5pm, 6:15pm, 7:30pm, and 8:45pm with doors opening 15 minutes beforehand;
• Saturday and Sunday - they add a 2:30pm and 3:45 pm show

While they’re closed on some holidays, on others they offer a limited schedule. The show is brief – only around 35-40 minutes from when the performers enter until it’s time to admit the next crowd.

Preservation Hall is card only. Doors open 15 minutes prior to the set.

• General Admission Standing - $25
• General Admission Seated - $40
• First Row Seated - $50

Get tickets here .

NOTE: All ages are admitted. This is a family-friendly venue. Children under 2 years old get in free.

TIP: If you are traveling with children, check out our post of  things to do with kids in New Orleans .

Reviews of Preservation Hall

In many ways, Preservation Hall feels like a step back in time. This can be both charming and limiting.

At its start, the Hall employed out-of-work and underappreciated musicians from the early days of jazz – contemporaries of Louis Armstrong – and today they still focus on that traditional sound.

The venue is humble, more a living room than a concert hall. The 100 patrons admitted to each show is enough to make the place crowded.

The first to enter, including those with Big Shot tickets, will have access to simple wooden benches and floor pillows, with the first couple of rows within arm’s length of the performers.

Mostly, though, it’s standing room only, with a limited view of the performers. Counting time spent in line, this can mean nearly two hours of standing without much movement. Also importantly, the venue is not air-conditioned and has no restroom.

All of this certainly creates a historical ambiance, and for a fan of the music, it can be absolutely worth it.

But it does mean Preservation Hall can be a poorer fit for the elderly, restless kids, and those who aren’t used to as much walking as a visit to the French Quarter involves.

In that case, nearby venues like the Jazz Playhouse, the Carousel Bar, Palm Court Jazz Café, or the Bombay Club can offer a similar genre of music with seating more likely or guaranteed.

How to get here

Located at 76 St. Peter in the French Quarter, Preservation Hall is only a block and half from Jackson Square and just half a block from Bourbon Street.

It’s an area full of foot traffic, safe for walking in the evening.  Use this Google map for directions to Preservation Hall from anywhere in New Orleans.  

Learn more about things to do in the French Quarter .

Preservation Hall does not serve or operate a kitchen or bar. Bottled water is permitted. Alcohol and Food, however, is not allowed. Don't try to bring in something in a glass container, though - plastic only!

And be sure to check our free Music, Arts and More Tour of New Orleans , every Friday and Saturday @2:30 pm.

Also, check out our master guide on things to do in NOLA .

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Entertainment | Sandra Jaffe, co-founder of Preservation Hall,…

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Entertainment, entertainment | sandra jaffe, co-founder of preservation hall, dies, the woman who co-founded preservation hall in new orleans has died.

Jaffe died Monday, her son Ben Jaffe, creative director of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, said on the hall’s Facebook page. No cause of death was given. She was 83, news outlets reported.

Jaffe and her husband, Allan, were jazz fans in their 20s when they stopped in New Orleans in 1960 during what their son described as a “Kerouac adventure” that had taken them all the way from Philadelphia to Mexico City.

“They stopped off in New Orleans and, like others before and after, found themselves swept away in the beauty, romance, excitement, mystery, freedom, history, and charm of the city,” he wrote in the announcement. Days after arriving, they came across a French Quarter gallery where owner Larry Borenstein held informal concerts featuring local artists. Borenstein introduced the couple to some of the jazz musicians, many of whom were elderly, according to the hall’s website.

Ultimately, he offered the Jaffes the space to continue the concerts as a business, marking the founding of Preservation Hall. The hall was the first fully integrated music venue in the South, according to an obituary written by Ben Jaffe that appears on the website. He said Sandy Jaffe was arrested once for violating segregation laws still in force at the time.

Allan Jaffe, who died in 1987, also played sousaphone in the house band and recruited musicians while Sandra Jaffe typed up nightly schedules and collected admission fees, The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate reported. She even threw out the occasional rowdy customer.

Sandra Jaffe stopped working at the venue after her two sons were born but returned after her husband died, the newspaper reported.

Over the decades since the Hall was created, countless locals and tourists have descended on the tiny venue to hear a rotating cast of musicians. Concertgoers line up outside to snag one of the bench seats inside the rustic interior where the musicians and audience share an intimacy more akin to a living room than a performance hall.

Children often sit on the floor directly in front of the musicians, who alternate between playing music and telling stories of jazz or answering questions from the audience. The crumbling plaster walls, worn hardwood floors and random assortment of paintings add to the simple, wholesome ambiance and provide a sharp contrast to the daiquiri-serving, neon lights-flashing atmosphere on Bourbon Street just a few houses down.

In 1963, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was created as a touring organization that brought music to audiences far from New Orleans. An associated foundation promotes jazz education, supports elderly jazz musicians, and works to preserve Preservation Hall’s collection of photos and other archival material.

Like other music venues in New Orleans, Preservation Hall was shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic. It reopened in June but is now closed again for a few days amid a nationwide resurgence of the virus.

Sandra Jaffe was on hand for the reopening in June, hugging local musicians who showed up to play.

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About Expressions of America

Experience the music, art, and personal reflections of the 1940s through Expressions of America , an outdoor sound and light show available exclusively at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

A nighttime spectacular for all ages, Expressions of America brings history to life on a grand scale. Stunning visuals projected 90 feet tall transform the exterior of the Museum’s buildings as actor Gary Sinise narrates an inspiring glimpse into what life was like for the men and women who served our country in every way imaginable.

Generously presented by Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation, Expressions of America combines cutting-edge technology with the real words of the WWII generation to present an experience like no other.

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The National WWII Museum

The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world —why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today—so that future generations will know the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn. Dedicated in 2000 as The National D-Day Museum and now designated by Congress as America’s National WWII Museum, the institution celebrates the American spirit, the teamwork, optimism, courage and sacrifices of the men and women who fought on the battlefront and served on the Home Front. Since opening, the Museum has become one of America’s leading cultural institutions—welcoming over 9 million visitors, ranking as the #1 attraction in New Orleans by TripAdvisor, providing resources and training for hundreds of thousands of students and teachers, and reaching millions through its online historical content exploring one of he most catastrophic and transforming events of the 20th century.

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Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation was established to provide for and to assure the continuation of the humanitarian and philanthropic values of the founders, Bob and Dolores Hope, by supporting organizations that bring HOPE to those in need, and those who served to protect our nation. The Foundation also honors and preserves the “Spirit of Bob Hope” and his legacy as an entertainer, comedian, patriot, humanitarian, philanthropist, golfer, and supporter of US military service members. In addition to its generous support as Presenting Sponsor of Expressions of America , Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation advances the Museum’s educational mission and preserves the legacy of Bob Hope through its support of numerous Museum programs, including BB’s Stage Door Canteen, Tickets for Troops, Bob & Dolores Hope Summer Theater Camp , Bob Hope Dog Tag Experience, So Ready for Laughter: The Legacy of Bob Hope traveling exhibit , and more.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT for Expressions of America Provided by U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

Gary Sinise

Gary Sinise’s stage, film, and television career has spanned more than four decades. In 1974, at 18 years old, he co-founded Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and 20 years later, his memorable performance as Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump earned him Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Academy Awards nominations. Film and TV credits include Apollo 13, The Green Mile, Truman, George Wallace, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, and CSI: NY among others. For nearly 40 years, Sinise has also stood as an advocate on behalf of America’s servicemembers, forming the Lt. Dan Band in 2003 to entertain troops serving at home and abroad and establishing the Gary Sinise Foundation in 2011 to serve and honor America’s defenders, veterans, first responders, Gold Star families, and those in need. Sinise has made it possible for more than 850 WWII veterans to tour The National WWII Museum through his Foundation's Soaring Valor initiative and has funded an oral historian position at the Museum to preserve the stories of these veterans and share them with future generations.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Preservation Hall presents intimate, acoustic concerts featuring bands made up from a current collective of 60 masters of traditional New Orleans Jazz. These musicians have learned the traditional style from the greats who played before them and are now working to pass it on themselves. Preservation Hall Jazz Band has held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for more than 50 years, all the while carrying it enthusiastically forward as a reminder that the history they were founded to preserve is a vibrantly living history. The band has shared festival stages from Coachella to Newport with legends like Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, and the Grateful Dead and modern giants like My Morning Jacket, Arcade Fire, and the Black Keys.

Mousetrappe

Mousetrappe is an award-winning media design and production studio that creates and develops inspired ideas into unforgettable cinematic experiences. The studio’s work is featured in shows, spectaculars, immersive films, exhibits, attractions, and live events for the most treasured museums, events, theme parks, and IPs in the world. Led by a team of multi award-winning creative and technological talent, Mousetrappe’s spectacular experiences magically entertain millions of visitors annually. Mousetrappe previously collaborated with The Hettema Group on media production of the Museum’s Beyond All Boundaries 4D experience and assisted in the development of the Priddy Family Foundation Freedom Theater in the Museum’s capstone exhibit hall, Liberation Pavilion.

Solomon Group

Solomon Group is the experiential production company behind some of the biggest media-driven experiences, cultural events, and broadcasts of our time. Their passionate team of artisans, technologists, and fabricators thrive on the complexity of delivering what’s next. They leverage their range and talent to produce experiences that matter. From the biggest ephemeral live moments to sustainable timeless exhibitions – they turn artistic visions into cultural realities. For over a dozen years, Solomon Group has been a proud partner of The National WWII Museum on several of their immersive exhibits, entertainment spaces, and events.

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Whether you're in town for Pride or any other time of the year, enjoy our three-day itinerary packed with must-dos from supporting LGBTQ-owned businesses, nightlife, dining, and more.

Hop aboard this historic mode of transportation for scenic rides to some of the city’s best attractions, restaurants and more.

Visit New Orleans this June for Pride Month celebrations, Restaurant Week New Orleans, New Orleans Wine & Food Experience, and more. 

From classic Creole eateries to neighborhood po-boy joints, New Orleans is a city for foodies. Celebrate Restaurant Week from June 17-23 and try multi-course menus at some of the best spots.

New Orleans is full of once-in-a-lifetime meals at every budget. Looking to treat yourself? Here are the top spots for bigger-ticket meals that are 100% worth it.

Looking for snacks long after the sun has set? Here are some of our favorite places to grab a bite after a night out on the town.

Find bites that both kids AND adults will love at these top picks for family-friendly dining in NOLA.

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From total overhauls to extensive upgrades, book a room at one of these recently revamped hotels in New Orleans.

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HEALTH & SAFETY

Accessibility, frequently asked questions, is preservation hall open.

While the Preservation Hall venue is currently closed for infrastructural upgrades, all performances have moved around the corner to the historic Toulouse Theatre (615 Toulouse Street).  Please see our up-to-date concert schedule by clicking HERE .

Performance times and band leaders are subject to change. Please follow us on social media at @preservationhall for announcements and timely updates.

Where is Toulouse Theatre located?

Toulouse Theatre is located at 615 Toulouse Street in the heart of the French Quarter, between Chartres and Royal Streets.

How early should I arrive before the performance?

Please plan to arrive 45 minutes in advance of your scheduled performance to allow our staff to scan in your tickets, answer any questions you may have, and guide your party comfortably before the show begins.

I’m not able to make the show. Can I get a refund for my tickets?

Our standard policy states that all sales are final. Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferrable. Tickets purchased from or sales by a third party are not authorized. We reserve the right to refuse refunds based on our policy.

Can I purchase tickets at the door?

We ask that all guests purchase tickets on our website in advance of their visit. To view dates and more for performances at Preservation Hall, click HERE .

Can I purchase tickets online with an international address?

International customers are welcome to purchase tickets online with their international billing address. When selecting what state you live in, choose the label ‘INT’ from the dropdown menu.

I don’t see tickets available for when I am planning to visit. When are shows scheduled?

We typically schedule our shows roughly two weeks prior to the month-of. Stay tuned to our social media for updates on ticket availability.

Does Preservation Hall accept cash?

Sorry, Preservation Hall no longer accepts cash at the door. All reservations for performances must be made online at preservationhall.com/calendar. In addition, Preservation Hall does not accept cash for merchandise purchases from our Store.

Will I be able to choose my seat?

Guest comfort and safety is always at the front of our minds – our staff will direct you to your selected section upon arrival.

May I bring the entire family to Preservation Hall?

Yes, Preservation Hall is proud to be an all ages venue.

Can I film, record, or photograph during the performance?

We are honored to share this experience with you, and not your screens. We kindly ask that you refrain from photography, video, and audio recordings of any kind.

Does Preservation Hall host private events?

Preservation Hall is equipped to host any corporate event, wedding, private party or tour of the venue. Please click HERE to learn more about private events at Preservation Hall and contact us with your inquiry.

Q: Is my ticket valid for all performances?

Due to our limited capacity, your ticket is valid for only one 45-minute performance. After each show, we do a full turnover of the venue to accommodate our next group of eager guests.

Where can I park?

Preservation Hall is located in the heart of the historic French Quarter, so most parking options are limited to street parking. There are also several commercial parking lots throughout the French Quarter, many of which are just a short walk to Preservation Hall. We encourage visitors to walk, taxi, rideshare, or utilize public transportation to reach the venue.

Find out more about public parking options in New Orleans.

Health & Safety

Proof of vaccination or negative test is no longer required for guests upon entry at Preservation Hall.

Guests are no longer required to wear masks while in attendance.

Contactless ticket scanning and purchasing wherever possible.

Hand sanitizer stations will be available throughout the venue.

CDC-recommended cleaning practices between shows, particularly cleaning of “high touch” surfaces.

We remain committed to providing a safe and enjoyable atmosphere and livelihood for all performers, employees, and supporters of live entertainment, and thank everyone for their contribution to these mitigation efforts at this time.

Q: Is Preservation Hall accessible to guests with disabilities?

We are committed to making our facilities and performance accessible to all patrons. Preservation Hall is accessible through a primary entrance on Saint Peter St. on the ground floor. To enter inside the venue itself, there is a mobility ramp which can be requested from venue staff.

Q: Does Preservation Hall offer reservations for accessible seating?

Alternative seating options are available for guests with disabilities and their companions and families. There are seating locations that are mobility device-accessible, where a mobile chair user can remain in the chair or transfer to bench seating. Please email us at [email protected] ahead of your visit so we may best accommodate you.

Q: Is Preservation Hall sensory processing-friendly?

Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Foundation understand that guests have varying sensory needs and sensitivities. N oise-reducing headphones and disposable ear plugs are available for all performances. If you require a sensory-free space at any point during the performance, Preservation Hall staff can assist you.

Q: Are service animals allowed at Preservation Hall?

Trained guide dogs and service animals are welcome at Preservation Hall. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Q: Are there accessible restrooms at Preservation Hall?

Sorry, there are no public restrooms at Preservation Hall. However, we are happy to point you in the direction of the nearest facilities in the area.

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Preservation Hall Jazz Band – June 28, 2024

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal presents

Preservation Hall Jazz Band

At a moment when musical streams are crossing with unprecedented frequency, it’s crucial to remember that throughout its history, New Orleans has been the point at which sounds and cultures from around the world converge, mingle, and resurface, transformed by the Crescent City’s inimitable spirit and joie de vivre. Nowhere is that idea more vividly embodied than in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which has held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for more than 60 years, all the while carrying it enthusiastically forward as a reminder that the history they were founded to preserve is a vibrantly living history.

PHJB marches that tradition forward once again on So It Is . The album redefines what New Orleans music means today by tapping into a sonic continuum that stretches back to the city’s Afro-Cuban roots, through its common ancestry with the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti and the Fire Music of Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane, and forward to cutting-edge artists with whom the PHJB have shared festival stages from Coachella to Newport, including legends like Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and the Grateful Dead and modern giants like Beck, The Foo Fighters, My Morning Jacket, and the Black Keys.

Théâtre Maisonneuve Friday, June 28, 2024 at 8:00pm

To purchase your tickets visit: www.placedesarts.com