Fittingly, the wonderful “Preservation Hall at 50” exhibition , previously shown for a limited run at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, has moved to the Old U.S. Mint on the corner of Decatur Street and Esplanade Avenue in the French Quarter. With its location in the heart of the Quarter on St. Peter Street, Preservation Hall has remained an enduring haven of traditional New Orleans Jazz for the last fifty years. Nightly, a group of legendary New Orleans jazz musicians play in the historic building amidst Noel Rockmore’s Preservation Hall Jazz Band Series of paintings dating from the 1970. It is classic New Orleans.
With the encouragement of the local art dealer and jazz enthusiast, Larry Borenstein, Alan and Sandra Jaffe opened Preservation Hall in 1961 with the idea of providing a much needed venue for traditional jazz musicians. On view are engaging vintage photographs of the young couple with the renowned musicians at the hall including George Lewis and Dee Dee and Billie Pierce, and on their tours of Europe and Japan. In a particularly poignant letter to his father, Alan expresses his delight as well as his financial concerns about the hall.
As can be expected, the Louisiana State Museum has made a few additions to the show, drawing from local private collections and their own vast collection of jazz photography and art. At the entrance is an important large Noel Rockmore painting of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performing on stage, inviting the visitor into the world of New Orleans jazz and the legacy of Preservation Hall.
In the first room a solitary trumpet is dramatically spotlighted in a case. The horn is not just any horn - it is Louis Armstrong’s first horn. As the story goes, after getting in trouble for shooting a gun on New Year’s Eve, the young Armstrong was sent to a boy’s home. While in the home, he was given the horn and encouraged to play.
In conjunction with the exhibition, LSM has opened a newly renovated performance space on the third floor of the Old U.S. Mint. The first class performance space provides a means for students, tourists and locals to experience live New Orleans jazz in the family atmosphere of a museum. Over the last ten years, the Old U.S. Mint has become an important venue for music festivals at its ample grounds in the French Quarter.
If you are looking for an excuse to make a venture to French Quarter, the Preservation Hall at 50 at the Old U. S. Mint is well worth the trip.
The Old U. S. Mint is located at 400 Esplanade Avenue in the French Quarter, for additional information call 504-568-6993 and 800-568-6968 or go to www.crt.state.la.us/museum/properties/usmint. Part of the Louisiana State Museum system, the Old U.S. Mint is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 4:30 pm. The admission is $6 for adult, $5 for students, military and seniors, and free for children under 12 years old. There is pay parking available across Esplanade Avenue and street parking.
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