Perpetuating Tradition in 2020: Join Us for This Year’s Legacy Awards
Six incredible Preservation Hall musicians will be honored as Master Practitioners and inducted into the Preservation Hall Foundation Legacy Program on Thursday, November 12 at 7PM Central during a free streaming event on Youtube.
The Foundation’s Legacy Program was originally established in 2015 to reflect the values and practices from Preservation Hall’s history, providing tangible support to elder musicians, ensuring our culture bearers are honored, and that their enduring contributions are celebrated and rewarded for many generations to come.
As we await the day when we can see these musicians perform in person again, we are honored to tell the incredible stories of our six 2020 Master Practitioners. Get to know this year’s awardees below and RSVP for the event here.
Please join us in honoring this year’s Legacy Program inductees:
Kerry Brown
Kerry Brown is a New Orleans institution behind the drums. Throughout his decades-long career, he has toured and recorded with incredible artists like the Allman Brothers Band, David Allan Coe, BB King, Jimmy Page, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and more. As an event organizer and community leader, Mr. Brown booked talent for the Gretna Heritage Festival for upwards of 20 years. He is also the neighbor and caregiver to 93-year-old Mr. Lawrence Cotton, Preservation Hall's eldest musician. During COVID-19 lockdowns in New Orleans, the two have joined forces musically, recording new material and rehearsing daily to cope with the lack of live music around town.
Wendell Brunious
Wendell Brunious comes from a long line of prolific New Orleans trumpeters. As a young man, he honed his craft under the guidance of his father, John "Picky" Brunious, his older brother, John Brunious, Jr., and the elder Preservation Hall bandleader Kid Thomas Valentine. In addition to seven albums under his own name, he has recorded and toured with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Harry Connick, Jr., Wynton Marsalis and a long list of New Orleans musicians. Today, Mr. Brunious serves as an educator and clinician with the Trombone Shorty Foundation and the Preservation Hall Foundation, passing on the traditions of New Orleans music to the next generation.
Roger Lewis
A legendary baritone saxophonist and co-founder of the world-renown Dirty Dozen, Roger Lewis is a New Orleans musical icon. He studied at Southern University under Edward “Kidd” Jordan, the famous New Orleans jazz saxophonist, and in his early career, performed with artists like Irma Thomas, Fats Domino, The Impressions, and Marvin Gaye. Since their formation in 1977, the Dirty Dozen has toured 5 continents and more than 30 countries, recorded 12 studio albums, and collaborated with a huge range of artists, including Elvis Costello, Dr. John, Dave Matthews, Dizzy Gillespie, Modest Mouse, Widespread Panic, Norah Jones and more.
Richard Moten
Richard Moten's mother, a Juilliard-educated concert pianist, inspired him to pursue music professionally at a young age. After mastering the piano and electric bass by 15, Mr. Moten performed dance and R&B of the 60’s and 70’s with the William Houston Youth Orchestra for over 20 years. He graduated to the upright bass in 1989, and began to excel in the traditional jazz styles he's known for today. He has since become a staple performer at a long list of New Orleans’ best venues, and has toured Europe and Japan several times over. Prior to COVID-19, Mr. Moten served as an active clinician with the Preservation Hall Foundation, sharing his joy and expertise with students through the Foundation's Kids In the Hall and Sensory Friendly Family Day programs.
Steve Pistorius
Steve Pistorius has participated in the New Orleans musical tradition since the early 1970s as a piano soloist, sideman, bandleader, and educator. Known as a master of early New Orleans "stride" piano techniques, Mr. Pistorius' playing is reminiscent of Jelly Roll Morton and others. He studied under mentors like early Preservation Hall pianists Sweet Emma Barrett and Jeanette Kimball, composer Eubie Blake, banjoist Danny Barker, and trumpeter Kid Sheik Colar, whom he’d later join on a Preservation Hall tour around the world. Mr. Pistorius has since toured the South Pacific, Far East, Europe, Scandinavia, South America and the Middle East performing New Orleans music. He has collaborated with artists such as Lionel Ferbos, Wynton Marsalis, Banu Gibson, and a long list of New Orleans' best jazz and ragtime orchestras.
Gregg Stafford
Gregory Stafford is known as one of New Orleans' foremost trumpeters and bandleaders. Raised in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans, Mr. Stafford grew up surrounded by brass bands marching for all occasions. As a young man, he played for the E. Gibson Brass Band and the Fairview Baptist Church Band, under the guidance of legendary musicians like Danny Barker, Teddy Riley and Herman Sherman. Mr. Stafford has performed as a member of the Olympia, Onward, Royal, Excelsior, Hurricane and Tuxedo Brass Bands, the final of which he went on to lead for decades. He also leads Danny Barker’s Jazz Hounds band, as he has since 1994, and is a co-founder of the Black Men of Labor, a civic organization fostering brass bands in New Orleans. He has been performing at Preservation Hall since the early 1990s.