Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Jun. 3rd, 2007 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnOn Friday we went to Barnstaple to hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Rather a long way to go of an evening, but it was worth it in the end. The evening started rather unpromisingly with a rather poor film about the band. It's a bit strange to start an evening of live music with a film that goes on about how important live music is, and has you thinking 'well, give us some then!!!'.
Still, once they got started it was great - and the musicians are all rather old, so can perhaps be forgiven for looking for a way to keep their set reasonably short. And they definitely gave it some welly once they got going.
The audience were mostly even older than the musicians! We speculated whether this was down to the profile of jazz fans, or if it reflected the kind of people who go to the theatre in Barnstaple. It was also a little strange, somehow, to be watching a black New Orleans jazz band (with white trombonist) as a member of an absolutely uniformly white and ethnically very English audience. Still, we all had a great time and they even found enough people to dance around the theatre and the stage after a while - led by an enthusiastic sequinned lady equipped with a floral parasol. I'd have joined in, only there was a lady in a wheelchair at the end of our aisle, so we were kind of stuck in our seats.
I was a little disappointed there was no sax or woodwind, though I see from their site that they do have both an alto sax and a clarinet player, so perhaps it was just the players that they had brought for their UK tour. Or maybe the woodwind guys were ill.
Still, once they got started it was great - and the musicians are all rather old, so can perhaps be forgiven for looking for a way to keep their set reasonably short. And they definitely gave it some welly once they got going.
The audience were mostly even older than the musicians! We speculated whether this was down to the profile of jazz fans, or if it reflected the kind of people who go to the theatre in Barnstaple. It was also a little strange, somehow, to be watching a black New Orleans jazz band (with white trombonist) as a member of an absolutely uniformly white and ethnically very English audience. Still, we all had a great time and they even found enough people to dance around the theatre and the stage after a while - led by an enthusiastic sequinned lady equipped with a floral parasol. I'd have joined in, only there was a lady in a wheelchair at the end of our aisle, so we were kind of stuck in our seats.
I was a little disappointed there was no sax or woodwind, though I see from their site that they do have both an alto sax and a clarinet player, so perhaps it was just the players that they had brought for their UK tour. Or maybe the woodwind guys were ill.
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Date: 2007-06-05 02:39 pm (UTC)With a band of that size, it wouldn't surprise me if all of the regular members couldn't make every leg of every tour. It's also getting tougher (and taking longer) to get passports now. It used to take 6 - 10 weeks, at that was before 9/11. I understand it's now routinely taking 3 months for a renewal, and longer for a new application.
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Date: 2007-06-06 09:42 am (UTC)They played for a couple of hours I think, but some of that was dancing round the theatre, which must be quite exhausting while playing a wind instrument.
I suppose that is about the same age as the Rolling Stones, but I'm guessing the Stone's tour bus is a lot more comfortable.
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Date: 2007-06-07 06:38 pm (UTC)