Preservation Hall, the modest building in front of you, is one of the most important music venues in American history, having done more to preserve traditional New Orleans jazz than any institution in the world. Preservation Hall opened in 1961 when art dealer Larry Borenstein and musician Allan Jaffe created a dedicated space for the older generation of New Orleans jazz musicians — men and women who had learned to play in the early decades of the twentieth century and whose style was in danger of being forgotten as modern jazz moved in different directions. The hall seats fewer than one hundred people, with standing room for more.
There are no cocktails served, no tables, no elaborate staging: just wooden benches, a sawdust floor, and a small stage where some of the greatest musicians in the jazz tradition have played every night for more than sixty years. Percy Humphrey, Kid Thomas Valentine, Sweet Emma Barrett — the legends of traditional jazz played here well into old age because this hall gave them a home. Today the Preservation Hall Jazz Band tours internationally and records regularly, but the nightly sets at this room on St. Peter Street remain the core of the institution.
If you can get inside, stand close to the band. The acoustic presence of a New Orleans brass band in a small room is something your body remembers.