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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

,

Spin.com

,

MTV.com

, Fuse TV, UP TV,

Pollstar

, and

Celebrity

Access

. He also is the founder and content curator for

ChicagoConcertReviews.com

.

DANNY CLINCH

RAVINIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 20 – SE3TEM%ER 2, 2018

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