No microphones, no backing tracks — just the rawest jazz left in New Orleans

New Orleans’ most important music room

You’ve probably heard the music drifting out from 726 St. Peter Street without knowing what it was.

That sound, raw and acoustic, no microphones, no backing track, just horns and rhythm packed into a room the size of a large living room, is the real thing.

Preservation Hall has been keeping traditional New Orleans jazz alive since 1961, and on most nights of the year, the doors open and the music starts. What happens inside is harder to explain than it sounds.

The building’s past goes back to the War of 1812

Long before it held jazz, 726 St. Peter had other lives. The building went up in the early 1800s and at one point served as a tavern during the War of 1812.

Later, it became a photo studio. By the 1950s, a Milwaukee art dealer named Larry Borenstein had turned it into a gallery called Associated Artists.

To pull in customers, Borenstein started inviting local jazz musicians to play informal sessions on the floor. The crowd that showed up wasn’t there for the art.

Borenstein got the message and moved his gallery next door.

A honeymoon detour that changed American music

In 1961, Allan and Sandra Jaffe were on their way home to Philadelphia after a honeymoon in Mexico. They passed through New Orleans, heard the music at Borenstein’s space, and never left.

Allan had a business degree from the Wharton School and played tuba. Sandra had a feel for the room.

Borenstein offered them the space to run the concerts as a real operation. They said yes.

That detour became Preservation Hall, and the Jaffes spent the rest of their lives there.

Old masters who had nowhere else to play

The musicians Allan Jaffe first hired were in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Many had been struggling with poverty and couldn’t find gigs anymore.

He brought in pianists, clarinetists and trumpeters who had roots going back to the earliest days of jazz, people like Sweet Emma Barrett, George Lewis, Kid Thomas Valentine, and brothers Percy and Willie Humphrey.

The Hall served no alcohol. There was no amplification.

They didn’t advertise.

In the beginning, admission was free, a basket passed for donations, until they eventually charged a dollar a head.

Sandra Jaffe was arrested for breaking segregation laws

The Jaffes ran racially mixed bands for mixed audiences from the start. In early 1960s New Orleans, that was against the law.

According to the Jaffe family, Preservation Hall became the first fully integrated music venue in the South. Sandra Jaffe was arrested for violating the city’s segregation ordinances.

The Hall kept going.

After the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, it became known as a place where families could come together to hear the music, no matter who they were.

The touring band carried the music to Carnegie Hall

Allan Jaffe put together the first Preservation Hall Jazz Band tour in 1963, routing through the Midwest. The band grew fast.

Within a few years, they were playing Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

Some of those original touring members had personally played alongside the people who invented jazz, figures like Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong.

The band took that lineage on the road to stages across the country and eventually around the world. They’re still touring.

Three generations have run this hall

Allan Jaffe died in 1987 at age 51. Sandra came back to help keep the Hall going, with her sister and brother-in-law alongside her.

Their son Ben grew up two blocks away, surrounded by musicians his whole life.

He studied upright bass at Oberlin College in Ohio, then came home to New Orleans and took over as creative director. He plays tuba and double bass with the band.

Sandra passed away in December 2021 at age 83. Ben runs the Hall today.

Katrina closed the doors but couldn’t stop the band

When Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, the French Quarter came through largely intact, and that included the Hall. But the doors closed for a time.

The band kept touring while the city found its footing.

Ben Jaffe organized efforts to bring displaced musicians back to New Orleans, working to rebuild the community the Hall depended on.

That work pushed the Hall’s mission wider than concerts alone, and it never really pulled back.

A Grammy nomination and a National Medal of Arts

In 2006, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award the U.S. government gives to artists. Ben and Sandra Jaffe accepted it from President George W. Bush at the White House.

In 2020, Folk Alliance International gave the Hall its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Then, in 2025, a Grammy nomination came in for the ensemble Preservation Brass, whose album “For Fat Man” was nominated for Best Regional Roots Music Album. The recognition has stacked up over six decades.

The foundation that pays musicians and teaches kids

Ben Jaffe launched the Preservation Hall Foundation in 2011 as a nonprofit tied to the Hall’s mission. It runs private music lessons for young people, taught by New Orleans jazz musicians.

The Preservation Hall Junior Jazz Band connects kids to the tradition directly.

A Legacy Program sends monthly stipends to elder musicians and helps cover healthcare and emergency costs.

The Foundation also maintains the Hall’s archives, photos, instruments and documents going back to the earliest days at 726 St. Peter.

Sixty musicians and no two nights are the same

The collective now draws from more than 60 musicians, and some of them are children or grandchildren of people who played the Hall decades ago.

You’ll hear the same classic tunes that have been in rotation for years, but each musician brings their own read on them, and improvisation is built into every set.

Several ensembles now perform under the Preservation Hall name, including the Preservation All-Stars, the Legacy Band and Preservation Brass.

The Hall has also recorded and performed with Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, the Del McCoury Band and the Foo Fighters. Ben Jaffe has said that calling it “preservation” can mislead people, because jazz moves.

It always has.

What it’s like to stand in that room

The Hall holds about 100 people. If you get there early, you can claim a spot on the wooden benches or one of the floor pillows right in front. Sit there and you’re within arm’s reach of the musicians.

Most people end up standing, packed in close, in a room with weathered walls and no air conditioning to speak of. The music is entirely acoustic.

No microphones, no monitors, nothing between you and the horns. Each set runs about 45 minutes, and shows run back-to-back through the evening.

Come more than once if you can. The lineup rotates, and what you hear tonight won’t be exactly what anyone heard last night.

Visit Preservation Hall in New Orleans, Louisiana

You can walk up to the box office at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter any day between noon and 5 p.m. to buy tickets.

Weekday shows typically start at 5 p.m., with weekend shows beginning at 2:30 p.m. The venue is card only and doesn’t serve food or drinks.

Limited reservations are available online through the official website, and booking ahead is worth it during busy stretches. Lines can get long, especially on weekends and during festival season.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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