Bit of New Orleans comes to SPAC
by Steve Grandin, The Saratogian
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band brought just a little bit of New Orleans to upstate New York Sunday night as it opened the season at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The seven-piece group from the jazz capital of the world drew only a little over 2,000 to the performance.
When you think of a SPAC special event, a few guitars, several hundred square feet of amplifiers, and some young long-haired musicians usually pop into mind. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band is almost exactly the opposite. Graying, and carrying a few pounds of excess baggage around the middle, this group needed only their instruments to show their tremendous musical ability. And although the band was different and the crowd was considerably older than those at rock concerts, it ended exactly the same — with the audience running around and dancing to the group’s encore performance.
The group consisted of Percy Humphrey on the trumpet; Willie Humphrey, clarinet; Frank Demond, trombone; Narvin Kimball, banjo; James “Sing” Miller. piano; James Prevost, bass; and Cie Frazier, drums. All proved to be especially talented on their respective instruments, with Willie Humphrey and Kimball being the crowd’s favorites.
The show lasted slightly over two hours, with a slight intermission in the middle. Unlike most rock concerts, the show started on time as there wasn’t a tremendous sound system to test at the beginning. During each song, the group would play for a while, and then each member would do a solo piece. The solos kept the audience applauding almost throughout the entire show.
Although a great majority of the audience probably didn’t know most of the songs by their titles, the band succeeded in pleasing everyone by exhibiting great talent and creating an atmosphere that seemed to be straight out of New Orleans.
Besides being great at playing their instruments, members of the band showed other talents. Miller and Kimball each sang several songs quite well, while Willie Humphrey did a song-and-dance number that was the evening’s high point—at least until the final number. As their encore, the group broke into “When the Saints Go Marching In”, and the crowd went crazy. Soon listeners of all ages began dancing and over a hundred were quickly on the stage with the musicians. A few members of the group went out into the seats and began marching up and down the aisles, with several hundred fans more following, Pied Piper-style. Obviously, most people went away from the concert happy.
Throughout the performance, the group, closely grouped together in the middle of the giant SPAC stage, seemed to be dwarfed by its surroundings. Perhaps this is just part of the atmosphere they created. The band would seem to be much more at home on some undersized stage in a smoky honky-tonk bar on a hot summer night in New Orleans. A few degrees warmer, a little jasmine in the air, and the Mississippi River rolling by, and we could have had New Orleans in Saratoga Sunday night.
Recent Comments