WHAT THEY'RE SAYING....
The real thing...
The Heritage Hall Jazz Band is the real thing. A direct link to the traditional music of New Orleans. It's a style which still flavors much of the contemporary music of today. There is no band in existence closer to the real New Orleans sound. And there is some superb musicianship involved; especially noticeable in their tightly compatible ensemble work. There is a group sound in all of their work which is smooth, easy and infinitely tasty.” New Orleans Times-Picayune
Some of New Orleans finest traditional artists....
“Some of the best players working in the traditional vein of New Orleans jazz, a kind of all-star roster…. The Heritage Hall Jazz Band was one of the most pleasant surprises of the evening as it presented a most palatable program that ranged from kid Ory's “Muskrat Ramble” through Lil Hardin's “Struttin’ with some Barbecue.” On the Hardin number, the New Orleans combo was joined by the Woody Herman band, for yet another happy collaboration of the two distinct styles of big hand and traditional jazz. The Hartford Courant
Heritage Hall group has come a long way from Dixieland...
The group’s name suggests a band of graying archivists, living bits of history still playing that good old Dixieland jazz the way they did when Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet were pups. The band does hail from New Orleans; it was the house band at Heritage Hall in that city before it closed a few years ago, but the musicians serve up their Dixieland with a twist, often playing in a style that could give listeners expecting straight Dixieland a slight jolt. The Kansas City Times
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Concert does a service to the art of jazz...
The Heritage Hall Jazz Band, a group devoted to playing traditional New Orleans jazz, came across Monday night as a gentlemanly, thoroughly professional ensemble with its roots in genuine early New Orleans practice and its style considerably less commercial than that of many Dixieland revivalists. Indeed, as the Heritage Hall band, appearing on the Community Concert series, effectively demonstrated, traditional jazz is by no means always synonymous with the formula-ridden Dixieland music. The group's lack of gimmickry and relatively unpretentious air struck this listener as especially praiseworthy. Bands like this could well give New Orleans jazz a good name again. Battle Creek (Mi) Enquirer and News
Heritage digs jazz with abandon....
The Heritage Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans appearing this week at the Blue Note provides a timely reminder of a couple of eternal jazz verities. They play traditional jazz. Dixieland. Yet they don't sound like New York-based bands working the same stylistic soil. They're brash occasionally a little ragged. Yet they generate what used to be called a beat — a strutting, high stepping momentum to start even the most leaden foot tapping. New York dixieland has become like most jazz in the post-bop age, a soloist’s music. Ensemble playing tends to be functional at best: all the old fine points — explosions, flares dynamic shifts, shuffle rhythms and the rest have vanished. A sense of abandon is hard to find. But abandon is just where this sextet from New Orleans seems to excel. New York Post
The best traditional jazz band in town....
Such an abundance of talent makes it difficult to highlight one player over the others, since all have impressive moments. Perhaps the fairest and most accurate statement is that this may be the best traditional jazz band in town — at least as we have them on record. Most of the Heritage Hall members are seasoned musicians who have played with the legends and carry on fundamental impulses of the jazz heritage. New Orleans Times-Picayune-States-Item
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