Interview: Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Two decades ago, Clint Maedgen hadn’t had the remotest thought of becoming part of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

After all, he was a rock singer/songwriter who was running a cabaret-style game show in New Orleans’ French Quarter, a seemingly far cry from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, founded in 1960, which plays traditional New Orleans jazz at the hall in the Quarter and at venues around the world. That’s a far different venue than the back of The Original Fiorella’s Cafe, a Big Easy culinary institution for which he delivered food on a bike (“can't even imagine how many actual pounds of chicken I delivered over all those eight years,” Maedgen said) – where his New Orleans Bingo Show was performed.

Then, in 2004, Ben Jaffe, the owner of Preservation Hall, saw the Bingo Show a couple times, and asked Maegden if he’d be interested in singing a couple Kinks songs with the jazz band, a cover choice that, considering the ensemble had played with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and The Who’s Pete Townsend, Maegden learned, was very fitting.

“Each of those artists have a really strong connection to traditional New Orleans jazz, ironically enough, because of their parents,” he said. “Ray Davies (singer/guitarist of the Kinks) grew up in a house where his dad was a trombone player. When Ray Davies played with us he insisted that we play ‘Muskrat Ramble,’ which is kind of a deep cut. But he had a really strong connection to it because of his dad.

“And when he and his brother did (the 1971 album) ‘Muswell Hillbillies” a lot of the overall vibe and how the chord changes work is kind of a nod to traditional New Orleans jazz,” Maegden said. “I think that Ben recognized that and thought it would be a really organic choice to have a singer come in and do some of the songs.”

That singer was Maegden, whose performances of The Kinks numbers got him an invitation to join the band as featured singer.

“Ben invited me into the band, and this is out of his own words, to kind of shake things up a little bit honestly,” the singer said. “When I got into the band, most of the audience (members) that we were performing for were, let me just say that, on the older side…

“What I experienced when I was first in the band was, I don't mean to be flippant about this in any way, but literally, in between songs, there would be these loud squealing sounds and we'd look at each other wondering what it was,” Maegden said. “It turned out it was everyone's hearing aids in the audience just cranked up as loud as possible.”

A few years in, the band needed a fill-in sax player for a gig and Maegden got drafted. “I don’t think most of the guys even knew I played sax,” he said. That, too, was a hit and he was soon one of the band’s horn players, learning how to play traditional sax on the job.

“I had the great honor of sitting right next to Charlie Gabriel (the band’s now-92-year-old musical director) for probably close to nine years on the road,” Maegden said. “I sat to his left and the bottom of my right leg was bruised for two years. He would kick me to say ‘You're playing too loud.’ I kind of learned under a really old tradition approach.

“Twenty years in, I still feel like I am a student at the feet of Black American music,” Maegden said. “I've just had the great opportunity of being able to study under these gigantic figures like Charlie Gabriel, my chief teacher.”

Shaking things up worked for Jaffe and the band as it began drawing younger audiences with its repertoire that extends beyond classics like “St. James Infirmary,” “Basin Street Blues” and “When The Saints Go Marching In.” That shakeup even extends to what the seven-piece ensemble plays on any given night.

“We share a songbook of about 250 songs, and we just kind of leave it up to the trumpet player in the clutch of the moment to kind of curate a show based on the audience that's there and the room and the vibe of the band,” Maegden said. “I imagine we'll probably lean a little bit more into the traditional catalog, but then you don't ever really know,”

That mix will likely include a gospel song or two, blues, maybe a rock cover, played by the eight musicians on acoustic instruments – drums, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, bass, piano – another rarity.

“I suppose that really is a novelty these days, right?” Maegden said. “It becomes sort of a niche experience. We don't really embrace and try electronics. But ironically enough, we have sat in with Pretty Lights. We’ve done things with Skrillex. We’ve played Electric Forest, the gigantic EDM festival…But when you look at us singularly, we are playing organic, acoustic instruments.”

Maedgen himself is also something of a novelty. He’s either a singing saxophonist or a sax-playing singer, an extremely rare combination in bands of any kind.

“I never really thought of it like that,” Maedgen said. “But now that you say it, I don't know if I can think of too many either, certainly not traditional jazz musicians. I guess we could always be wrong, but I can't think of any who come to mind.”

Now 55, Maegden has no plans to ever leave Preservation Hall, following in the footsteps of the older legends like Gabriel, who’s still playing, but not touring.

“I love my job, and I hope to do it for the rest of my life,’ he said. “There's nothing quite like this experience. It's almost like folk music that we're playing because it hits people in such a deep, organic way. It's not uncommon for people to start crying, even myself, it's very emotional.”