Dixieland Jazz Redux

Lately, I have noticed everywhere in the world I have been, Dixieland Jazz is back en vogue. From the Hollywood Farmer's Market to a basement speakeasy in Berlin, it is not just for New Orleans anymore. (Three sentence Wikipedia def: Dixieland, an early style of Jazz that developed in New Orleans in the 1910s, is the earliest recorded style of Jazz music. The style combined earlier brass band marches, French Quadrilles, ragtime and blues and with collective, polyphonic improvisation. It was most popular during prohibition era of the 20s, until the swing era of the 30s took over.)

Yesterday, I went to the farmer's market in Hollywood, where many terrible, terrible folkies perform. However, aside from the crazy asian man, rastafarian and girl that looked like she was having a poop in her pants, there was one special gem in the sea of crap, Petrojvic Blasting Co. Two adorable brothers from Tennessee playing Balkan street music in Los Angeles. Luckily I was walking by as they announced they were playing a free show at Bar 107 in downtown Los Angeles. So I went. Although the Balkan stuff was good, the real deal was the second set of Dixieland Jazz. Hard to get a crowd going in this town, but everyone in the place was having some ol' fashioned fun. http://www.blastingcompany.com
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-04-23/la-vida/la-people-2009-the-petrojvic-blasting-co-street-sonic/





A couple of weeks ago, I found myself running around with a local to various bars in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin. We walked into a cute, nondescript bar at the end of the night and he kept walking to the back. I followed him down a dodgy set of wooden stairs to a hot crowed basement swathed in red light and velvet curtains, where another young Dixieland band was performing to a very enamored hipster German crowd. It was amazing and random and reminded me of the cantina scene in Star Wars. I am pretty sure we were at Das Ä on Weserstraße 40 in Neukölln, near Sonnenallee. That was an all-nighter... http://www.ae-neukoelln.de/

In Paris at the Casino de Paris Andrew Bird show, I met Ben Jaffe, tuba player and current director of Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans. About them: The Preservation Hall Jazz Band derives its name from Preservation Hall, the venerable music venue in the French Quarter, founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe, Ben's parents. The band has traveled worldwide spreading their mission to nurture and perpetuate New Orleans Traditional Jazz. So lucky that he happened to be in town and stopped by to play a couple of songs with Andrew. He was so friendly and so passionate about music and his native New Orleans, it was wonderful to be around! Plus I always like anyone who is a fan of Polariods... If you are in Los Angeles on December 23rd, Preservation Hall Jazz Band is playing a Creole Christmas at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
http://www.preservationhall.com