Down Home Jazz

Traditional New Orleans jazz, with its stomping rhythms, happy melodies and buoyant front-line interplay of trumpet, clarinet and trombone, is a joyful, all but irresistible, noise.

Benjamin Jaffe agrees with this view--and well he should. He’s the son of Allan and Sandra Jaffe, who in 1961 formed Preservation Hall, a rough-hewn 100-seat joint in New Orleans. It remains home to the famed Preservation Hall Jazz Bands, in which Allan Jaffe played tuba until his death in 1987.

Benjamin Jaffe, 27, grew up with the exultant music ringing in his ears. Still, he considered a career in modern music when he studied bass and jazz at Oberlin College in Ohio, from which he graduated in 1993. But then he returned to New Orleans and took over the bass chair, and eventually the manager’s seat, in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and discovered he was musically right at home.

“This music is what I grew up with, what comes most naturally, “ said Jaffe. “If the whole object of music is to feel honest and do what makes you and the audience feel good, then I’ve found what I’m looking for: happiness.”

Jaffe will be part of the touring Preservation Hall band when it plays a free concert Sunday at Warner Park in Woodland Hills. Also on hand will be trumpeter-bandleader Wendell Brunious and clarinetist Michael White.

The bassist said that although he had enjoyed investigating modern jazz while at Oberlin, it lacked something. “I always felt a little empty,” he said. “I don’t know if it was the music or that I didn’t see the audience smile. It was a little too serious for me. A lot of people feel that if musicians are smiling, they aren’t artists. They can’t see beyond the smiling and hear the music.”

And while playing the rambunctious New Orleans style may seem easy, Jaffe said it’s anything but.

“This is a folk tradition, and players weren’t taught formally but learned by ear,” he said. “They didn’t know harmony, in a traditional sense, but they could play. I wish I had that kind of talent.”

Jaffe was lucky to be around so much music when he was young, and to start playing early--in the second grade. He wants to give the kind of breaks he’s had to other youngsters, and has started performances for children at Preservation Hall and an outreach program in which elementary school kids can touch the instruments and even play them. The band will offer the latter Monday at the West Valley Boys & Girls Club in Woodland Hills.

* The Preservation Hall Jazz Band appears Sunday, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at Warner Park, 5800 Topanga Canyon Blvd. (at Califa Street), Woodland Hills. Free. Parking, $2. Call (818) 704-1587.

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Spruced-Up Club: Though Chadney’s in Burbank has long been the Valley’s most popular jazz club, for a while it seemed in danger of losing its reputation: The piano had become ragged and the bandstand often looked like an overcrowded mess. Happily, changes have been made.

First, a new Yamaha baby grand piano arrived, in part due to the efforts of jazz fan and music store owner Vicki Pedrini. In early June, the bandstand was moved to a spacious spot on the south wall, and knocking down part of a north wall allowed some diners sight lines of the performers. Chadney’s now seats about 25 more jazz lovers, and in spruced-up comfort. Bravo!

The lineup at the club this week includes singer Belva Sinclair, tonight; pianist Pat Tuzzolino and reed great Sam Most, Friday; singer Thelma Jones, Saturday; and pianist Marty Harris, trumpeter-singer-comedian Jack Sheldon and pianist Ross Tompkins, Sunday.

* Chadney’s, 3000 W. Olive St., Burbank. No cover, one-drink minimum per show. Performances 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. except Sunday, 6 p.m.-12:30 a.m. (818) 843-5333.