Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s latest effort, So It Is, brings together a variety of influences from the New Orleans musical pedigree. The album consists of all-new original music, largely composed by longtime members Ben Jaffe (tuba and bass) and Charlie Gabriel (tenor saxophone) with the assistance of Clint Maedgen (saxophone), Ronnel Johnson (trombone), Walter Harris (drums), Kyle Roussel (piano), and Branden Lewis (trumpet).

In 2015, the band embarked on a trip to Cuba, a major source of inspiration for So It Is. While Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been the torchbearer for preserving and carrying forward the Crescent City’s musical traditions, they are also innovators of shifting the city’s sound. By incorporating Cuban and Latin influence into the fold, Preservation Hall Jazz Band has created a traditional jazz record that is a marriage of the quintessential New Orleans musical elements and the vibrant Cuban dance pulse that gives a new identity to New Orleans traditional music.

Bandleader Ben Jaffe starts the record with this slinking bass line to lead in the rest of the band in on the cool, laidback title track. ‘So It Is’ saunters off purposefully to allow the rest of the album to really heat up. ‘Santiago,’ the second track on So It Is came to fruition specifically from an exchange between some Cuban percussionists Preservation Hall encountered on their 2015 trip to Cuba. The Afro-Cuban dance beat provides a vivacious rhythm for the horns to sing and swell over and is infectiously danceable. See the live performance below.