Join us on Tuesday, May 26 at 9PM EDT for a live Q&A session with Preservation Hall Creative Director Ben Jaffe, Up From The Streets: New Orleans: The City of Music Executive Producer Terence Blanchard and Producer / Director Michael Murphy. Ben, Terence and Michael will join on video to discuss the music and culture of New Orleans and answer your questions about the film.
About Ben Jaffe
Ben Jaffe is the creative director of Preservation Hall and plays tuba and double bass with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. He serves as Creative Director for both PHJB and the Hall itself.
He is the son of Preservation Hall's founders Allan Jaffe and Sandra Jaffe. Jaffe grew up in New Orleans' French Quarter, two blocks from Preservation Hall. His father, Allan, in addition to managing the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Preservation Hall, played tuba with the band as well. From birth, Ben was brought on tour with the band during their international tours. Ben’s early musical memories are marching alongside his father in Mardi Gras Parades and jazz funeral processions. He began playing in grammar school at McDonogh 15 School for the Creative Arts in the French Quarter. During high school at NOCCA, he studied upright bass under Walter Payton. After high school, Ben attended Oberlin College where he received a degree in bass performance in 1992.
Following his graduation, Ben returned to New Orleans, resumed his father's position as manager of the Preservation Hall venue and joined the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on tour playing bass. Benjamin produced a number of albums for the Preservation Hall band, and most recently co-produced the band's first album of original compositions "That's It," alongside My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James.
Benjamin serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Preservation Hall Foundation, the charitable non-profit that serves the mission to "protect, preserve and perpetuate New Orleans jazz music and culture."
About Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard is a six-time Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter, composer and music educator who in 2019 received an Oscar nomination for best original score for Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. Blanchard has been a consistent artistic force for making powerful musical statements concerning painful American tragedies – past and present - and was recently named the first Kenny Burrell Chair in Jazz Studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Blanchard's opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones, is the first opera by an African American composer to be presented by the Metropolitan Opera House of New York City (2021-2022 season).
A veteran of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Blanchard is a musical polymath who launched his solo career as a bandleader in the 1990's. Since then he has released 20 solo albums, composed more than 60 film scores, and received 10 major commissions. Among these works are two critically-acclaimed operas in jazz commissioned by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis - Champion - which debuted in 2013, as well as the recently premiered Fire Shut Up In My Bones, based on the memoir by Charles Blow (Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times). Blanchard has also composed work for Broadway revivals, plays, dance performances, and for national orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
About Michael Murphy
New Orleanian Michael Murphy is an award-winning visual storyteller, producer and director with over 30 years of film, video and digital media experience. Michael has served as President of House of Blues Productions in charge of all television & radio programming. He also managed video production & custom branded content for MSN.
He produced and directed the critically acclaimed & award-winning feature film documentary “Make It Funky”, released by Sony Pictures late summer of 2005. The film was used to raise funds to support the city’s recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina hit New
Orleans. Another documentary, "Clarence John Laughlin: An Artist With A Camera,” was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2009 New Orleans Film Festival.
Michael has won numerous Telly Awards for his television and web based series. He filmed the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for 25 years, in addition to the Newport Jazz Festival, Sasquatch Festival and other live music events. In 2018 Michael was a producer on the Smithsonian Folkways New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 50th Anniversary boxed set. Michael graduated from Loyola University with a B.A in Communications, majoring in Broadcast Production.
Join us on Tuesday, May 26 at 9PM EDT for a live Q&A session with Preservation Hall Creative Director Ben Jaffe, Up From The Streets: New Orleans: The City of Music Executive Producer Terence Blanchard and Producer / Director Michael Murphy. Ben, Terence and Michael will join on video to discuss the music and culture of New Orleans and answer your questions about the film.
About Ben Jaffe
Ben Jaffe is the creative director of Preservation Hall and plays tuba and double bass with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. He serves as Creative Director for both PHJB and the Hall itself.
He is the son of Preservation Hall's founders Allan Jaffe and Sandra Jaffe. Jaffe grew up in New Orleans' French Quarter, two blocks from Preservation Hall. His father, Allan, in addition to managing the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Preservation Hall, played tuba with the band as well. From birth, Ben was brought on tour with the band during their international tours. Ben’s early musical memories are marching alongside his father in Mardi Gras Parades and jazz funeral processions. He began playing in grammar school at McDonogh 15 School for the Creative Arts in the French Quarter. During high school at NOCCA, he studied upright bass under Walter Payton. After high school, Ben attended Oberlin College where he received a degree in bass performance in 1992.
Following his graduation, Ben returned to New Orleans, resumed his father's position as manager of the Preservation Hall venue and joined the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on tour playing bass. Benjamin produced a number of albums for the Preservation Hall band, and most recently co-produced the band's first album of original compositions "That's It," alongside My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James.
Benjamin serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Preservation Hall Foundation, the charitable non-profit that serves the mission to "protect, preserve and perpetuate New Orleans jazz music and culture."
About Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard is a six-time Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter, composer and music educator who in 2019 received an Oscar nomination for best original score for Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. Blanchard has been a consistent artistic force for making powerful musical statements concerning painful American tragedies – past and present - and was recently named the first Kenny Burrell Chair in Jazz Studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Blanchard's opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones, is the first opera by an African American composer to be presented by the Metropolitan Opera House of New York City (2021-2022 season).
A veteran of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Blanchard is a musical polymath who launched his solo career as a bandleader in the 1990's. Since then he has released 20 solo albums, composed more than 60 film scores, and received 10 major commissions. Among these works are two critically-acclaimed operas in jazz commissioned by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis - Champion - which debuted in 2013, as well as the recently premiered Fire Shut Up In My Bones, based on the memoir by Charles Blow (Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times). Blanchard has also composed work for Broadway revivals, plays, dance performances, and for national orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
About Michael Murphy
New Orleanian Michael Murphy is an award-winning visual storyteller, producer and director with over 30 years of film, video and digital media experience. Michael has served as President of House of Blues Productions in charge of all television & radio programming. He also managed video production & custom branded content for MSN.
He produced and directed the critically acclaimed & award-winning feature film documentary “Make It Funky”, released by Sony Pictures late summer of 2005. The film was used to raise funds to support the city’s recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina hit New
Orleans. Another documentary, "Clarence John Laughlin: An Artist With A Camera,” was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2009 New Orleans Film Festival.
Michael has won numerous Telly Awards for his television and web based series. He filmed the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for 25 years, in addition to the Newport Jazz Festival, Sasquatch Festival and other live music events. In 2018 Michael was a producer on the Smithsonian Folkways New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 50th Anniversary boxed set. Michael graduated from Loyola University with a B.A in Communications, majoring in Broadcast Production.