Live at Preservation Hall: A Louisiana Fairytale

24 Beats Per Second
D: Danny Clinch

It isn’t every world premiere that welcomes its audience with “St. James Infirmary” sprightly delivered by none other than the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and featuring vocalist Jim James of My Morning Jacket on megaphone. That was the Paramount scene Thursday afternoon, opening this cinematic “Louisiana Fairytale” – recording the joint concert between the legendary Dixieland ensemble and the rock band known for its energy and eclecticism. From its opening shots, featuring sousaphonist Ben Jaffe (son of the hall’s founders) bicycling through the New Orleans streets, the film colorfully captures the hall and the city, as well as reams of music spanning more than a century in styles. Jaffe is touchingly eloquent on the meaning of the hall and the music, the bands separately and together play copiously, and the film is as generous as James says of the hall: “This place just gives, just gives and gives and gives.”

Saturday, March 19, 4pm, Arbor

This article appears in March 18 • 2011.

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Contributing writer and former news editor Michael King has reported on city and state politics for the Chronicle since 2000. He was educated at Indiana University and Yale, and from 1977 to 1985 taught at UT-Austin. He has been the editor of the Houston Press and The Texas Observer, and has reported and written widely on education, politics, and cultural subjects.