While the city of New Orleans is filled with all-star superjams in the evenings after the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival lets out, one get-together stands above the rest. The historic Preservation Hall hosts the star-studded Midnight Preserves series during Jazz Fest, which on Friday, May 3rd featured guest appearances by Hozier, George Porter Jr., Erica Falls, and more.
The Midnight Preserves is a Jazz Fest tradition where headliners from the festival go from playing to tens of thousands to a room that holds about 50. The lineups are not announced in advance and tickets are nearly impossible to get, but it is always a safe bet that there will be some serious star power at the historic jazz club which first opened in 1961. Earlier in the second weekend of Jazz Fest, The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood took the stage at Pres Hall to perform “Time Is On My Side” with the Soul Queen of New Orleans Irma Thomas, which they had done at the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots earlier in the day to a reported crowd of 40,000.
On Friday, after headlining the Shell Gentilly Stage, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier swung through the French Quarter for a surprise appearance at Preservation Hall for the Midnight Preserves. There, he performed his iconic 2014 hit “Take Me To Church” with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Hozier wasn’t the only Jazz Fest headliner at Preservation Hall, with Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl also in attendance. Though he did not take the stage, Grohl did shake a tambourine at one point during the show, which also included guest appearances by The Meters bassist George Porter Jr., Dumpstaphunk keyboardist Ivan Neville, and vocalist Erica Falls.
Check out some images from Hozier at Preservation Hall courtesy of photographer Ron Valle along with a video of “Take Me To Church”.
Hozier, Preservation Hall Jazz Band — “Take Me To Church” — 5/3/24
[Video: ron valle]
