A Presentation of Jazz The Way It Should Be

Rutland Daily Herald, August 1, 1972

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band came up from New Orleans Sunday night and played Dixieland the way it was meant to be played for two and a half hours at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

A crowd of 3,000 heard a lot of Dixieland classics played by a band with an average age of around 70, a band that has lived with the evolution of jazz since early in this century and remembers how it once was played.

At the end of the night a magnificent clarinetist and a man with a big bass horn led a strutting, clapping parade of listeners through the big auditorium to the sounds of “Saints Go Marchin’ In”.

On the stage, a few hundred kids, down from the lawn, were dancing in a long moment of pure joy.

The whole thing began a little past 8:30 p.m. Sunday, on a less than promising note.

As the see-and-be-seen late arrivals were still coming in, an elderly lady began moving toward center stage with the assistance of a walker.

From stage left came a very old blind man who needed a little steadying to reach his chair.

“It’s going to be a few plinks, toots, and squeaks, and some applause for a memory,” said a man up in the audience.

The old man eased into his seat.

The old lady finally made it to the piano.

Then she started playing that piano just as sweet as anyone ever heard and to sing a blues number that would have done justice to Bessie Smith.

The old man picked up his gold trumpet and blew that horn long and strong and pure, probably just the way it was meant to be played.

Then on came an old trombonist, waving a familiar white handkerchief, an aging drummer, a strutting clarinetist, and a younger fat man puffing a big bass horn.

Almost three hours later, the band was still blowing so strong it seemed to be near bursting eardrums.

And later, lingering on the warm Saratoga night air were the strains of “St. James Infirmary,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Liza Jane” and “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” as good as anyone ever heard.

Before summer ends, the people of Israel will be hearing America’s contribution to the history of music played as it began by Preservation Hall. Those old folks are going on tour.