Preservation Hall at 50 Celebration

On Friday, November 4th The Louisiana Museum Foundation and Louisiana State Museum celebrated the opening of the Preservation Hall at 50 exhibit opening at the Old U.S. Mint.  It was a HUGE celebration that was chaired by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel O. Conwill IV along with honorary chairs, Dr. John, Wendell Pierce, Jeremy Davenport, Sandra Jaffe, Ben Jaffe, Irvin Mayfield and Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne.  Entertainment included Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Rebirth Brass Band, Preservation Hall Junior League Jazz Band and Roots of Music. 

Here is a video of the event from courtesy of Althea and Steve Sabludowsky at Bayoubuzz.com:

http://youtu.be/hdHN251Ht1Y

Preservation Hall opened its doors in 1961 to honor and preserve traditional New Orleans jazz, which was in decline, and to provide a place where it could flourish. Preservation Hall at Fifty: Celebrating Jazz, now on display at the Old U.S. Mint, illustrates how, over the past half-century, the Spartan building at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter has more than fulfilled that purpose, becoming an iconic institution for millions of tourists and a treasured shrine for locals.

Evolving from an art dealer’s informal jam sessions and a jazz society’s efforts to run a daily jazz venue that welcomed all in a segregated age, Preservation Hall came to nurture a musical culture that spanned generations. Some of today’s players are descendants of the Hall’s past musicians, while others trace their lineage back not by blood, but by musical tradition.

Paintings, extraordinary historic and contemporary photographs, letters, video and film footage, jazz instruments, album covers and other two and three dimensional artifacts from Preservation Hall and the Louisiana State Museum’s internationally acclaimed Jazz Collection are on display, accompanied by oral histories and sample music that visitors can hear at listening stations incorporated into the exhibit.

The images and artifacts in the Preservation Hall at Fifty: Celebrating Jazz exhibit tell the story of the Hall’s many musicians and their audiences in New Orleans and around the world. Preservation Hall at Fifty is a fitting tribute to the Hall, which has meant so much to so many, and to the musical legacy it has nurtured and promoted.