Made in New Orleans: The Hurricane Sessions [CD/DVD]

by Steve LeggettIn January 2006 Benjamin Jaffe drove to what was left of Seasaint Recording Studios in New Orleans to see what damage the flood waters that followed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina some four months earlier had wrought on the facility, hoping more than anything to salvage whatever master tapes he could. Amazingly, although most of the studio's tape vault was destroyed, he found the masters for the sessions his father, Allan Jaffe, had produced in the 1970s with the classic lineup of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band still intact a mere inches above the waterline. Refurbished, those tapes form the emotional core of this remarkable box set, which bridges the past with the present and essentially tells the story of the Preservation band, whose current members, although they ended up scattered across the country from Orlando to Los Angeles, all survived the hurricane and its aftermath. Don't expect the ensemble work Preservation is famous for, though. Jaffe has assembled a different kind of history here, combining 1959 vocal performances by Sister Gertrude Morgan, unreleased gems from his father's 1970s sessions with the band, scattered radio and television introductions, and material the group was working on just prior to Katrina into a sort of personal photo album that reverberates with loss even as it suggests and points toward a hope in the future. This set, assembled with dozens of very real mementoes (photos, press passes, receipts, etc.) is intended to be something to hold, to literally hold on to, in a world that revealed itself in the wake of Katrina to be unreliable and full of tragedy and abandonment. In a sense, this set has literally survived Katrina, and as such, it gives tremendous hope even as it also points to how much was lost in the city of New Orleans. Among the highlights musically are Sister Gertrude Morgan's emotionally haunting 1959 rendition of "Blow Wind Blow" and a striking version of "Over in the Gloryland," which merges the instrumental track of the tune produced in 1976 by Allan Jaffe with Carl LeBlanc's poignant vocal track added in 2006 and produced by Benjamin Jaffe into a single statement of cohesion, bridging what was with was is and also with what one hopes will be. The Hurricane Sessions is a tremendously moving artifact. There is the music, yes, which is marvelous and enduring, and a DVD video history of the group, but in this case, it is also something beyond that -- an object to hold dear. Literally.