"For too long, people have portrayed New Orleans as this fool's playground of Bourbon Street, beer and beads," he said. "New Orleans is church on Sunday and red beans and rice on Monday. It's playing music with your friends and staying up all night to watch the sun rise."
Forgive Jaffe if he sounds like an ad by the Louisiana city's visitors bureau.
The guy has passion for his hometown, and the art that has made New Orleans one of the most distinct cities in America.
But even though he was born to the son of the founders of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and raised in the French Quarter of the Big Easy, Jaffe didn't quite "get" New Orleans until he was mature enough to appreciate it.
"This city has a real identity, and it wasn't until I was older and had traveled the world a bit before I fully understood just how unique my neighborhood is," he said.
Now, as creative director and tuba player of Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Jaffe's passion is to carry on the mission his parents established more than five decades ago: to nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans jazz.
The group, which plays the Attucks Theatre in Norfolk on Sunday night, derives its name from Preservation Hall, the vintage Crescent City music venue founded by Jaffe's parents in 1961.
The band, a vital link to the beginnings of this uniquely American music, celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.
"The fact that you can trace the bloodline of our membership all the way back to the early days of jazz is just so special," Jaffe, 42, said.
Many of the group's charter members performed and recorded with such jazz pioneers as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and Buddy Bolden.
Through the inevitable lineup changes that come with any long-running organization, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band continues to represent the indigenous music of New Orleans.
"This band embodies all of the things that make our city so distinctive," Jaffe said. "It's so important to me that we continue to embrace that."
Even so, he knows that cultural traditions evolve over time.
"I think it's important to acknowledge that the Preservation Hall Jazz Band does not live in a bubble," he said. "We are a living and breathing institution. You have to keep moving forward, otherwise you become stagnant."
To that end, the seven- piece band is gladly embracing the 21st century. "We are not interested in being a museum piece," Jaffe said.
By collaborating with an array of contemporary artists, the musician works to introduce more people to the rich musical tradition of New Orleans jazz.
In 2010, the group recorded with bluegrass great Del McCoury and indie rocker Ani DiFranco on the record, "Preservation."
Two months ago, the rock group The Black Keys invited the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to perform the Keys' hit song "Lonely Boy" during the Grammy Awards show broadcast.
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band's latest alliance is with Jim James, frontman for the experimental rock act My Morning Jacket.
"He also played on our 'Preservation' album, and we became good friends," Jaffe said. "Now he's co-producing our new record."
The disc, which is slated for a summer release, will be the band's first album of all original material in its long history.
"Right now, we're focused on our next 50 years," Jaffe said. "We want to expose as many people to the music as possible, and if we have to go out there and do it one person at a time, by God, that's what we're going to do."
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