We recorded this song together with John Oates this Fall and the words resonate so strongly with the passing of Nelson Mandela, one of our great heroes, that we wanted to share them with the world today.

Keep On
Raise your head up high
Freedom is on our side
Its time for us to decide
To keep on trying

Keep on trying
Everyday
Everybody

Keep On - Featuring Clint Maedgen and John Oates

Recorded at Preservation Hall on April 26, 1966 by noted jazz historian William Russell, New Orleans’ Billie and De De and Their Preservation Hall Jazz Band stands as testament to the extraordinary power of one of Preservation Hall’s earliest lineups. Born in Marianna, Florida in 1907, Billie Goodson Pierce was a passionate player of ragtime and blues piano. From her teenage turn playing for blues legend Bessie Smith to her lean depression-era years playing the honkytonks of the French Quarter’s lower Decatur Street, this self-taught player would later become one of the most widely heard performers in the history of New Orleans Jazz. Born in New Orleans in 1904, Joseph “De De” La Croix Pierce was the Creole son of an established brick mason who fell in love with the trumpet at an early age and spent his life balancing his father’s blue collar assertions with his own musical aspiriations. Married on March 28, 1935 with George Lewis as best man, Billie and De De Pierce rarely worked a job that they didn’t play together. With De De on cornet and Billie on piano, the couple had already been together for thirty years by the time this album was recorded. Joined by George Lewis on clarinet, Cie Frazier on drums, Louis Nelson on Trombone, Narvin Kimball on banjo, and Chester Zardis on bass, this record captures some of the greatest jazz musicians from the first half of the twentieth century in the midst of one of the most remarkable comebacks in New Orleans history.

Peanut Vendor

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band derives its name from Preservation Hall, the venerable music venue located in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter, founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe. The band has traveled worldwide spreading their mission to nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans Jazz. Whether performing at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center, for British Royalty or the King of Thailand, this music embodies a joyful, timeless spirit. Under the auspices of current director, Ben Jaffe, the son of founders Allan and Sandra, Preservation Hall continues with a deep reverence and consciousness of its greatest attributes in the modern day as a venue, band, and record label. 
 
The PHJB began touring in 1963 and for many years there were several bands 
successfully touring under the name Preservation Hall. Many of the band's charter 
members performed with the pioneers who invented jazz in the early twentieth century including Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Bunk Johnson. Band leaders over the band's history include the brothers Willie and Percy Humphrey, husband and wife Billie and De De Pierce, famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, and in the modern day Wendell and John Brunious. These founding artists and dozens of others passed on the lessons of their music to a younger generation who now follow in their footsteps like the current lineup. 
 
THE PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND IS: 
 
Ben Jaffe/Creative Director & Tuba: As son of co-founders Allan and Sandra Jaffe, 
Ben has lived his whole life with the rhythm of the French Quarter pulsing through his veins. Raised in the company of New Orleans’ greatest musicians, Ben returned from his collegiate education at Oberlin College in Ohio to play with the group and assume his father’s duties as Director of Preservation Hall. Today he serves as Creative Director for both PHJB and the Hall itself, where he has spearheaded such programs as the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund. 
 
Mark Braud/Trumpet and Vocals: As nephew to two former PHJB leaders, Wendell and John Brunious, Jr., Mark is proud to further his family’s musical legacy in the company of so many historic players. Beginning his career playing with the Olympia Kids, a young players’ offshoot of the famous Olympia Brass Band, Mark has gone on to record, tour, and play with New Orleans legends of both traditional jazz and R&B, including Eddie Bo, Henry Butler, Harry Connick Jr., and Dr. Michael White. 
 
Charlie Gabriel/Clarinet and Vocals: The musical heritage of Charlie Gabriel can be 
traced back as far back as the 1850s. Great-grandson of New Orleans bass player 
Narcesse Gabriel, grandson of New Orleans cornet player Martin Joseph, and son of New Orleans drummer and clarinetist Martin Manuel Gabriel, Charlie is truly a living legend. A t eighty-one years old, the extensive list of musicians with whom he’s played includes well-known PHJB alumni Kid Howard, Kid Sheik, Jim Robinson, and George Lewis. 
 
Clint Maedgen/Saxophone and Vocals: Though Clint is best known as leader of 
multi-media alt.cabaret group The New Orleans Bingo! Show, he has been in love with the sound of traditional New Orleans jazz since he was a small child. After studying with clarinet innovator Alvin Batiste at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Clint returned to New Orleans’ French Quarter where he cemented his reputation as an artist and collaborator through an ongoing series of eclectic and experimental musical ensembles. As a full-time member of the PHJB, he brings an infectious passion to both his playing and singing. 
 
Joe Lastie, Jr./Drums: Born and raised in the Lower Ninth Ward, Joe comes from a long line of family members equally dedicated to music and the church. Having played his first job with a rhythm section backing the Desire Community Choir, he would go on to study jazz with Willie Metcalf at the Dryades Street YMCA with classmates Wynton and Branford Marsalis. After a brief move with his family to Queens, New York, Joe returned to New Orleans where he was invited to substitute on drums at Preservation Hall in 1989.He’s been a regular with the band ever since. 
 
Freddie Lonzo/Trombone and Vocals: Born and raised in New Orleans’ Uptown 
neighborhoods, Freddie was exposed to the music of the streets at a very young age. Having cemented his desire to play New Orleans jazz, these early Second Line parades would later offer him his first professional gig with EG Gabon and Doc Paulin’s Band. A true master of every style of New Orleans music, from marching brass to modern jazz, Freddie’s first appearances with Preservation Hall date back to the mid-eighties when he toured and played with Percy Humphrey and Kid Sheik. 
 
Rickie Monie/Piano: Born and raised in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward to jazz loving church musicians, Rickie was inundated at an early age with the recordings of such great jazz and gospel pianists as Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Teddy Wilson. After majoring in woodwind instruments at Dillard University, Rickie turned back to the piano and picked up work in every style of music. In 1982, Monie got his first call from Preservation Hall, to substitute for the legendary resident pianist Sweet Emma Barret after she suffered a stroke. To the delight of audiences around the world, he’s stayed onboard ever since. 

Ronell Johnson/Tuba and Vocals: Born and raised in New Orleans, Ronell started on the trumpet and piano around the age of 6. He is from a musical family and was taught to play, in the beginning, by his three older brothers who are also professional musicians. Also, he and his brothers are the great-nephews of Joseph "Kid Twat" Butler, who was the string bass player with the legendary Kid Thomas Valentine and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Ronell is recognized around the world and in a host of magazines and journalsas one of New Orleans' prized musicians who adds a lot of energy, animation, humor, andfire to the band stand.

Keep On - Featuring Clint Maedgen and John Oates

PHJB

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