Preservation Hall has run on house bands since it opened its doors at 726 St. Peter Street in 1961. The Preservation Legacy Band is one of the current resident lineups — the musicians on the bandstand for the room's regular sets, playing the traditional New Orleans jazz repertoire the Hall was built to protect.
The band's billing tells you how the Hall works: it is often presented with a featured leader out front. Recent seasons have paired the Legacy Band with trumpeters Wendell Brunious and Leroy Jones and with Gregg Stafford, each show built around that night's frontman and the band's deep bench of veteran players.
It is a different job from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band — the touring ensemble that carries the Hall's music around the world. The Legacy Band is the band at home: the sound of the room itself, in afternoon and evening sets at 726 St. Peter, for the visitors and regulars who make the pilgrimage to the French Quarter's most famous listening room.
On this fall's calendar the Legacy Band holds September 27 and October 4 dates at the Hall, alongside a longer October run under the “Wendell Brunious and the Preservation Hall Legacy Band” billing — matinee sets at 2:30 and 3:45.