Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Original Album Classics (2012)

UK five CD set containing a quintet of albums packaged in mini LP sleeves, all housed in an attractive slipcase. Includes the albums New Orleans Vol.1, New Orleans Vol.2, When The Saints Go Marching (New Orleans Vol.3), New Orleans Vol.4 and Preservation Hall Jazz Band Live. Sony.

Although New Orleans' traditional jazz scene had many top players in the 1950s, there was no principal venue for the city's veteran greats to play. In 1961, local art dealer Larry Borenstein opened a building in the French Quarter called Preservation Hall. The young tuba player Allan Jaffe ran the hall and organized tours for the musicians who often performed there, naming the band the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. In the early days, the key musicians included, at various times, trumpeters Kid Thomas Valentine, Punch Miller, or De De Pierce; trombonists Louis Nelson or Jim Robinson; clarinetists George Lewis, Albert Burbank, or Willie Humphrey; and pianists Joseph Robichaux, Billie Pierce, or Sweet Emma Barrett. By the early '70s, the front line usually comprised trumpeter Percy Humphrey, his brother Willie on clarinet, and trombonist Jim Robinson (who, after his death in 1976, was succeeded by Frank Demond).