Got a jazz lover on your list? Consider springing for one of the coolest music releases of 2007.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Preservation Hall Jazz Band bassist Benjamin Jaffe worked to salvage years' worth of master tapes from a studio that had been flooded beneath six feet of water. Made in New Orleans: The Hurricane Sessions grew out of what he rescued: it's the most comprehensive retrospective of the legendary band's music, with recordings from the very early days (round about when his father Allan Jaffe founded the hall in 1961, to revive traditional jazz) to post-Katrina sessions.
The box is a multimedia feast, rich with photos, reproduced memorabilia and performance extras on DVD, but it's the sheer bounty of music -- a true archive of excellent New Orleans jazz -- that stands out.
written on Friday Dec 21, 2007
soul of the big easy.
