Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Because of You (Sony 60327)

At last, a CD that brings the most famous house band in New Orleans to your local Starbucks!

Preservation Hall, long a purveyor of real down-home New Orleans jazz, has released a number of albums with a revolving-door lineup, and the newest one is about as good as they get – perhaps not Preservation Hall in its prime, but undoubtedly the PHJB disc I'd like to hear at any given time.

Sure, it's an airbrushed version of the "real deal," but the laid-back feel of the album keeps it from coming off like so many dixieland albums that go full-throttle the whole time.

Call it Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, rather than Saturday night. Good music to wake up with a hangover to, and believe you me, I need an album like that more and more these days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. The current band features Wendell Brunious on trumpet and vocals, leading the band admirably through a conservative set that seems intent on offering props to past PHJB leader Percy Humphrey, who was the beloved trumpeter and leader for like two decades.

The mood is respectful and very traditional, which is not to say it ain't no fun. 89-year-old banjoist Narvin Kimball gets five lead vocals, and his cracked-up voice is charmingly cartoonish, providing the proceedings with a grampa-pulling-your-leg irreverence.

Brunious takes three vocals, including an absolutely wonderful "Exactly Like You" which is in my opinion, the biggest reason to own this disc. Totally charming song, and a great performance by all.

The rest of the band gets ample opportunity to strut their stuff over the course of the disc, a bit overlong at 61 minutes … high points include clarinetist David Grillier's take on Sidney Bechey's "Petite Fleur" and the entire band soloing simultaneously on "Mama Don't Allow It."

Most of the cuts are midtempo strollers, and the sonic punch is never over-the-top as many N.O. jazz CDs will get – add a trombone to anything and you're asking for trouble, if you ask me. Why else do you think so many people get pinned up against a wall by the slide when it inevitably comes loose in cartoons or Three Stooges movies?

As with ragtime, a little dixieland goes a long way, and I can't say that this disc is always a warm and welcome experience all the way through every time I play it. Recently I've taken to just playing the first five or six tracks, then skipping to the last two, and that leaves a much better impression than the whole set does straight through.

The track listing is good, with well-chosen gems, avoiding the necessary "When the Saints Go Marching In" type warhorses of some of the early PHJB albums. If you're new to Preservation Hall, this is an ideal place to start – and if you're an old-timer, this is a good reaffirmation of what the band does best: no-frills playing of that real old time New Orleans jazz.

No one here is a virtuoso by any means, but the band is exciting and fresh, especially given that a few of these cats have been playing this stuff for like 60 or 70 years.

I only hope that when I'm 89, my reviews are still insightful and funny. What was that? They're not currently insightful or funny? Oh, in that case, I'm going back to porn.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Lula Babcock