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somewhere new. And it wasn’t always easy for them. Look
at Bob Dylan getting booed when he plugged in. Could you
ever imagine today Bob Dylan not playing electric? It’s hard
and it’s brave to do those things, but it’s also inspiring to have
people like that in your life. We do it with a deep reverence
for where we come from. at’s one of the characteristics that
di erentiates who we are and what we do in New Orleans, this
embedded knowledge of our past as we move forward. I love
what Trombone Shorty is doing, building on the tradition of
the musicians in his family–community and taking it some-
where to re ect who he is, but it’s with reverence. And I think
that speaks to the music that we made now. So It Is was a result
of that musical journey—the majority of the music on it was
heavily in uenced by a trip that Preservation Hall took to Cuba
shortly a er [President Barack] Obama li ed the sanctions.
You just signed with Sub Pop Records, the birthplace
of Nirvana and Soundgarden, for your next round of
recording. How did a grunge-turned-
folk-pop label connect with a world-
famous New Orleans jazz band?
We’re the most punk-rock thing we
could possibly be right now! I mean,
an acoustic-like band that’s almost
years old that’s making some of the
most progressive and inspiring music.
at’s beautiful. To me that’s no di erent
than what Nirvana did in many ways. It
connected with something at the core
of people. … It was really a result of
knowing each other and respecting each
other. We hosted the whole team from
Sub Pop in New Orleans. ey came to
Preservation Hall, and once they le ,
they came to me in a state of shock and
amazement. ey were like, ‘ is is
what we felt when we rst started our
label.’ It has nothing to do with genre. It
has to do with the musical spirit of the
musicians and the energy that you’re
giving. As you share this with other people, it grows and grows
and grows, so it became very natural t to be with Sub Pop.
Who are some of the most unexpected and unconventional
collaborations for the group in recent years and what was it
like to fuse those styles together?
All of the collaborations that we do are usually the result of an
organic relationship. From the outside, it’s probably stranger
than it is on the inside. It’s like, why would Preservation Hall
Jazz Band be playing with the Foo Fighters or My Morning
Jacket or Mos Def or Erykah Badu? What’s going on here? Take
a project like the one we did with Del McCoury. We call that
era ‘Mardi-Grass.’ People were scratching their heads at the
time, but you look back on it and it becomes a part of history.
We didn’t sit around concocting something in a lab some-
where. ese were all the product of a friendship or getting to
know each other through music or just having a mutual respect
for each other as artists. e importance of a collaboration
comes when you are able to give and receive. You have to be
willing to learn and to teach at the same time, and that goes for
both parties. at comes naturally to some people, and then
for some that’s something that itself has to be learned. ere’s
a very, very intricate dance that takes place, and it doesn’t hap-
pen o en. Most musicians spend their life just becoming famil-
iar with the people in their band, so [collaborating requires
them to] step outside of that into sometimes a very unknown
and potentially intimidating environment.
How do you hope to keep preserving and building upon
that legacy of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band?
Our foundation has become a major part of what we focus
on. We continue to build bridges to other culturally rich and
important communities around the world, sharing the joy
of instruments and live music, while protecting this fragile,
important city that is New Orleans. It means something to
me when people come back to Preservation Hall and they say,
‘I’m here with my children. My grandmother brought me here
when I was , and now I’m bringing my children here.’ Like,
holy cow, that’s four generations! at happens every night, not
just every now and then. If you come to Preservation Hall and
listen to the stories that people tell you every night, it’s pro-
found. It’s had a meaningful impact on so many people. You re-
ally begin to realize that you are the di erence. You are making
the di erence.
Andy Argyrakis is a Chicago-based writer/photographer whose credits include
the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Herald, Daily Journal, Illinois
Entertainer,Hear/Say Now, Concert Livewire, Chicago Now, Redeye, Metromix,
Paste, Down Beat, , , Fuse TV, UP TV, Pollstar , and Celebrity
Access. He also is the founder and content curator for .
DANNY CLINCH
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