Burke and Preservation Hall
Preservation Hall was a concert space established in the 1960's, which quickly became the center of a revival in New Orleans Jazz. In 1961, Icon Record label executive Grayson Mills traveled to New Orleans in order to record veteran Jazz musicians. Because many of these players were elderly or unpracticed, Mills conceived of Preservation Hall as a sort of practice space, where the players could redevelop their talent in front of an audience. Unlike many contemporary New Orleans Jazz clubs, Preservation Hall was designed solely for listening to the musicians. The hall served no food or drinks, had only a few rows of benches for seating, and no dance floor. Originally, donation was the only source of revenue for the club as even admittance was free. Mills hoped that, if the musicians were not worried about appealing to tourists or needy club owners, they would be able to regain their creativity. This fit Burke's music-first approach, and he became a regular Preservation Hall musician for the remainder of his life. In the mid 1960's, Allan Jaffe assumed management of preservation hall and expanded its operations. In order to ensure the financial survival of the Hall during low tourist seasons, Jaffe began looking at alternative ways for Preservation Hall to maintain an income. Jaffe began managing numerous “Preservation Hall Bands” negotiating recording contracts and sending groups on international tours, even sending Burke to the Soviet Union in 1979.
Read more about this topic: Raymond Burke (clarinetist)
Famous quotes containing the words burke, preservation and/or hall:
“Young man, there is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“Men are not therefore put to death, or punished for that their theft proceedeth from election; but because it was noxious and contrary to men’s preservation, and the punishment conducing to the preservation of the rest, inasmuch as to punish those that do voluntary hurt, and none else, frameth and maketh men’s wills such as men would have them.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)