PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ PLAYERS

In the 1960s New Orleans’ Preservation Hall opened to foster a then-fading tradition of Dixieland jazz. It was soon—and still is—enormously popular. For a stretch in these early days, Dad went there almost every weekend to sketch, and he’d then draw larger pictures at home based on his sketches. He loved painting these on newsprint and posters—feeling it somehow helped to capture the spirit of this sort of music. Of all the art he produced, he seemed to have most fun with these pictures. He returned to these depictions time and time again through his life, painting several in his 90s, and doing so, still, on newsprint.

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For a range of p;ersonal reasons, this was a favorite picture—perhaps the most favorite—of everything Dad produced. This is “Sweet Emma” Barrett, an iconic jazz performer at Preservation Hall in the 1960s. This painting well exemplifies Dad’s creative experimentaiton with his jazz images.