Meet the 2022 Preservation Hall Foundation Legacy Program Inductees
Meet the six outstanding musicians being honored as Master Practitioners at this year’s Preservation Hall Foundation Legacy Celebration – taking place on Monday, October 3 at the historic Toulouse Theatre in the French Quarter. Learn more about the Legacy Program here.
Will Smith
Will Smith grew up going to Preservation Hall as a child, where his sister Dodie Smith-Simmons worked and his brother-in-law trumpeter John “Kid” Simmons sometimes played. A young Will would help push an aging Sweet Emma Barrett's wheelchair to the car when her son came to pick her up, despite her signature sassy comments throughout the duration of their encounters.
After following around his brother-in-law, Smith couldn't wait to get an instrument of his own. His parents eventually bought him a trumpet, and he has been playing New Orleans jazz ever since.
Hall legends whom he met as a child, like Percy Humphrey, Ernie Cagnolatti, Kid Thomas, and DeDe Pierce, remain a part of Smith’s musical fiber, and have greatly influenced his sound.
In 1975, Smith joined the Fairview Baptist Church Band, led by the legendary Danny Barker. It was his sister Dodie who thrust a young Will into the street with the Fairview band at the corner of Orleans and Claiborne Avenues – the first occasion on which he played with a band.
Mr. Smith has since performed and toured around the world with numerous traditional brass bands, including the Storyville Stompers and Harold Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band, as well as the Doc Paulin, Chosen Few, Treme, Tornado, Lil’ Rascals, and Pinstripe brass bands.
Today, he is a special education teacher in New Orleans, and remains a staple performer at the Hall.
Will Smith (left) performs with Preston Jackson’s band at Preservation Hall. Sweet Emma is on piano, alongside Chester Zardis on bass and Louis Nelson on drums. This photo is from the personal collection of Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Simmons, Will’s older sister.
Shannon Powell
Shannon Powell grew up in New Orleans’s Tremé neighborhood, where brass bands and second lines passed by his house. Drawn to the drummers he saw in those parades, he was playing drums at his church by the time he was six years old.
Legendary jazzman Danny Barker recruited Powell to play in the Fairview Baptist Church Band while he was in grade school, and by age fourteen, he was performing professionally with Danny Barker’s Jazz Hounds.
“My dad used to get Shannon’s grandmother to bring him over by the Hall at night to listen to Cie Frazier, Louis Barbarin, Alonzo Stewart, and Freddie Kohlmann," Preservation Hall director Ben Jaffe recalls. "By the time I graduated high school, Shannon was touring and recording with Harry Connick, Jr. I remember the first time I saw Shannon at Madison Square Garden with Harry’s big band and not believing my eyes. I was so proud of him.”
Mr. Powell has recorded with Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Leroy Jones, Nicholas Payton, and Donald Harrison Jr. and played with Diana Krall, Earl King, Dr. John, Marcus Roberts, John Scofield, and Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Each week, Powell delights Preservation Hall’s audience by leading a spirited, inspired ensemble.
A young Shannon Powell plays the drumset of his musical mentor – Josiah “Cíe” Frazier – alongside Allan Jaffe and trumpeter Kid Sheik Colar, 1973.
Mark Brooks
Mark Brooks grew up in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward on Flood Street among a musical family. His father had a gospel group that his two brothers played in, and when his older brother decided to switch from bass to vocals, Mark began his training on the electric bass – one song at a time, eventually becoming the group's bassist.
Upon entering junior high and developing an interest in the marching band, a friend of his mother's offered the family a free trombone. Mark quickly picked that up, too – and an opportunity to join his first brass band soon came.
He got a call to join the legendary Fairview Baptist Church Band early one Mardi Gras morning, where he first played with fellow 2022 PHF Legacy Program inductee, Leroy Jones. He played snare drum with the Fairview, and trombone with Doc Paulin's Brass Band, rubbing elbows with the Fairview band's founder, the legendary Danny Barker, and Doc Paulin himself, both of whom would become mentor figures to Brooks, in addition to clarinetist Alvin Batiste.
It was fellow PHF Master Practitioner Wendell Brunious who later encouraged Mr. Brooks to pick up the upright bass and traditional New Orleans jazz. His first call from Preservation Hall came after Richard Payne, another mentor and beloved elder bassist of the Hall ensembles in the 1990s, passed away.
Throughout his career, Mr. Brooks has performed with Fats Domino, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Lou Rawls, Davell Crawford, Henry Butler, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and many more.
Mark Brooks and fellow PHF Master Practitioner Gregg Stafford (second and third from left) pose for a photo with the Fairview Baptist Church Band in front of Armstrong Park in New Orleans, 1977. The band traveled to perform in Breda, Holland shortly after this photo was taken. Mark's sister and the band's vocalist, Juanita Brooks, appears in the center, with Charles Barbarin (bass drum), Awood Johnson (front center, trombone and bandleader), Charles Joseph (trombone), Darryl Adams (saxophone) and Larry Baptiste (tuba).
Leroy Jones
Trumpeter and bandleader Leroy Jones was raised in New Orleans’ Seventh Ward. He started playing cornet at St. Leo the Great Elementary School and soon got a trumpet. When he was twelve, his neighbor – the legendary banjoist Danny Barker – heard him practicing and recruited him for the Fairview Baptist Church Band, today widely credited with reviving interest in the brass band tradition of New Orleans.
Sometimes after finishing Fairview gigs in the French Quarter, Jones and his bandmates would stop by Preservation Hall to listen.
Mr. Jones has performed on all seven continents – with Harry Connick Jr.'s Orchestra, his own Leroy Jones Quintet, and many more ensembles. He is a member of the New Orleans Jazz Hall of Fame.
Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard remembers growing up around Jones: “He was the guy that was well ahead of his time. He played with a command and maturity that is still unmatched. When I listened to him play I always imagined myself having that tone, or his sense of phrasing, and definitely his sense of rhythm. He was and still is my hero.”
Leroy Jones, Lucien Barbarin, and Shannon Powell at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 1975, ready to perform with Herman Sherman’s Young Tuxedo Brass Band. Photo by Armand 'Sheik' Richardson.
Craig Klein
As an 18-year-old from Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, Craig Klein and his buddies would get together and head to the French Quarter on the weekends. They’d grab a drink from Pat O’Brien’s, and peek into the windows of the building next door: Preservation Hall.
Sometimes they’d pay the $3 at the gate, and watch in wonder as living legends like Louis Nelson, Kid Sheik, Chester Zardis and pianist Sweet Emma Barrett took the stage. These musicians were masters of their craft, performing well into their 80’s. Craig’s journey as a professional musician had only just begun.
When he was in third grade, Craig’s uncle, Gerry Dallmann, a professional trombone player, gave him his first horn. “Through my uncle I met a lot of old New Orleans musicians. I started chasing the brass bands, and the Treme neighborhood was ground zero for me. That is where I got my real education in New Orleans music," he recalls. “There’s no other place in the world like it, and I was in the middle of it all.”
After forming a brass band with some of his friends under the name Storyville Stompers in 1981, Craig and his bandmates would follow around the Olympia Brass Band, coming to know Harold "Duke" Dejan, Waldron "Frog" Joseph and trumpeter Milton Batiste as a mentor, later the producer of the band's first recording, Stompin’.
It was his good friend and fellow future Preservation Hall trombonist, Lucien Barbarin, who gave Klein his big break in music. Craig was watching Lucien perform with Danny Barker at French Quarter Festival 1990. After the performance, Lucien pulled Craig aside to tell him some good news. He had recommended him to Harry Connick, Jr., who had just announced a world tour called When Harry Met Sally.
“‘They’re gonna call you tonight!’” Craig recalls Lucien telling him. “I went straight home. Sure enough, I got home and not long after, Harry called.”
The audition process was quick: they asked to either send in a tape, or play a tune over the phone. “I remember thinking, ‘it’s now or never!’ and grabbed my horn. When I picked up the phone, they said ‘OK, you got it.'”
Travels with Connick, Jr. lasted 16 years, and would bring him around the world. Klein has since recorded and performed with Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Bruce Hornsby, Tori Amos, Leroy Jones and many more – in addition to his current ensembles: the Grammy award-winning New Orleans Nightcrawlers; Bonerama, the Euphonious Brass Band and of course, the Storyville Stompers.
Craig Klein (third from right) busking at Jackson Square, with tourists and fellow Preservation Hall Foundation Master Practitioner Roger Lewis of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (right)
Louis Ford
Louis Ford is a clarinetist, saxophonist, music educator, and fifth generation New Orleans musician – who we are thrilled to be honoring as a Master Practitioner at this year's Preservation Hall Foundation Legacy Celebration!
Growing up under the tutelage of his father – master clarinetist and saxophonist Clarence J. Ford, Sr., who performed with Fats Domino and a long list of musical legends – Louis knew he was destined to become a professional musician, share his knowledge as an educator, and continue the musical ancestral tree of his family dating back to the late 1800s.
In junior high, Louis was already proficient on clarinet when he picked up the saxophone. He attended NOCCA, performing with the All State Concert Band for the Louisiana Music Educators Association (LMEA) two consecutive years and was Lead Alto Saxophonist in the LMEA All District Jazz Band.
Louis stood alongside his father playing in the William Houston Symphonic Orchestra and the Kendrick Johnson Big Band, becoming close with numerous stellar musicians, including the prolific clarinetist Manuel Crusto, trumpeter Wallace Davenport, Teddy Reilly, Warren Bell, Sr., and more.
Since studying under the principal clarinetist of the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra; with Kidd Jordan at Southern University; with the noted clarinetist and educator Alvin Batiste and earning his degree in music education at Loyola University, Mr. Ford has toured the world with musicians like Harry Connick, Jr., Wallace Davenport, Dave Bartholomew, Danny Barker, David Baker and many more.
Among several teaching positions, Mr. Ford has served as Band Master in Orleans Parish and St. John the Baptist Parish; director of the Lafayette Academy Charter School’s band program, and as assistant band director at Tallulah Middle School and McDonough 15 in New Orleans, alongside the beloved Preservation Hall bassist Walter Payton.
Today, Mr. Ford remains a staple band member at Preservation Hall, as he has been since 2008. He also serves as the Preservation Hall Lessons Curriculum Developer and Music Artist Liason for the Foundation.
Louis Ford (right) performs with his father, master clarinetist and saxophonist Clarence J. Ford, Sr.
We are so grateful to each of these musicians for their dedication to passing on the traditions of New Orleans music.
Thank you for your music, gentlemen.