By Bret Saunders, Special to The Denver Post
New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band has seen multiple performers pass through its ranks in its half-century plus history, but the group’s spirited, celebratory aesthetic has remained amazingly consistent. Bassist and tuba man Ben Jaffe has been running the band since 1993, taking the reins from his late father, Allan, who founded the project. The younger Jaffe has seen to it that the PHJB remains vital and not just something of a Crescent City tourist attraction.
One of the more impressive facets of the PHJB has been its ability to remain committed to traditional jazz while being viable as a contemporary organization. Ambitious projects like its new album, “A Tuba To Cuba,” which serves as the soundtrack for a documentary about the band’s trek to that country to explore the musical connections between New Orleans and Cuba, prove that Jaffe and company still have much to express.
“A Tuba To Cuba” is as satisfying an album as the group has ever created, and that’s saying something. The PHJB will play the Paramount Theatre on Nov. 7, performing selections from the release and more, with special guests in tow. Tickets start at $29.50 and can be found through altitudetickets.com.
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Any list of the most storied living jazz vocalists must include Dee Dee Bridgewater somewhere around the top. Bridgewater’s expressive pipes have graced multiple wonderful recordings for a significant chunk of time, and lately her timbre is as lush as ever.
The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master will appear at DU’s Newman Center on Nov. 9. Bridgewater’s latest album, “Memphis … Yes, I’m Ready” from 2017, allows her to flex a unique versatility, taking on songs associated with B.B. King and Elvis Presley to uplifting effect. That album is just one stop on her boundary-smashing journey through American music. Tickets for the Newman Center performance range from $29 to $63. Get them at newmancenterpresents.com.
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Meanwhile, Latin jazz giant (and fellow NEA Jazz Master) Eddie Palmieri will appear at Fort Collins’ Lincoln Center. Though he’s in his 80s, Palmieri approaches the piano as a seemingly inexhaustible force of nature. He’s an essential sonic and cultural component of jazz history, having helped to forge a percussive keyboard style that practically induces dancing.
The 10-time Grammy recipient has been taking something of an extended recording and performing victory lap in recent years, proving to be as prolific as ever. Tickets for the Nov. 9 show are $31 and are available at lctix.com.
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Most jazz reissues are a welcome way to ingratiate an artist’s legacy with a new audience and, in the process, make a few bucks for whatever conglomerate owns the repurposed tapes. Every once in awhile, however, the heavens (fine, the vaults) open up with something momentous. Think about some of the John Coltrane albums that have materialized in recent years, and the work of the Resonance label, which put out a revelatory set of Wes Montgomery sessions in April. The obsessive types at Resonance have just issued the sprawling and immensely enjoyable “Hittin’ The Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943)” which takes a comprehensive look at the early recording years of singer-pianist Nat King Cole.
Cole is probably best remembered now as a smooth mid-century balladeer whose name graced multiple hit records. And he was that. But before his years of television fame and Vegas gigs, he had established himself as a superb pianist and singer with an effervescent approach. Over the course of these seven CDs (or 10 LPs, if you prefer), a portrait of a swinging trailblazer emerges, one whose keyboard skills were as distinctive as his voice. There are plenty of vocal tracks here, with Cole sounding as authoritative as he would when he moved to Capitol Records in the early 1940s. There are dozens of treasures in this set, many previously unreleased, and such great care has gone into the mastering that it all sounds fantastic. Pick up a copy of this for the historic jazz fan in your life: They’ll be thrilled, and you’ll be supporting more efforts to unearth this kind of excellence.
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More jazz performances: Rekha Ohal sings and plays piano at Dazzle on Nov. 7, then guitarist Oz Noy brings his trio there for two nights, Nov. 7 and 8. … Swallow Hill Music presents bassist Matt Skellenger and his group Nov. 8. … Inventive guitarist Joshua Breakstone stops in Colorado to perform with Mark Diamond at Arvada’s Henriksen Factory Stage at 4 p.m. on Nov. 10. … Traditional jazz fans The Hot Sardines appear at the Soiled Dove Underground Nov. 20. … The Dru Heller Quartet plays Nocturne on Nov. 15, and acclaimed saxophonist Miguel Zenon takes to the Dazzle stage with his quartet Nov. 16. … Boisterous Slavic Soul Party! – which fuses jazz chops with funk and music from the Balkans — plays the Lakewood Cultural Center on Nov. 22.