The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which celebrated its 50th anniversary from 2011 until last year, has become an institution. But as it enters what it hopes will be its second half-century, it seems determined not to behave like one.
A brand as much as a band from the beginning, the outfit has had different touring line-ups drawn from a pool of musicians spread across several generations, renewing itself over the years.
When I saw the group last year at New Orleans' annual Jazz Fest, one of the trumpets was played by the then 100-year-old Lionel Ferbos, but also on the stage were young members of the Preservation Hall Junior Jazz Band who will be the keepers of the flame over the coming decades. Ferbos, now 102, is still gigging.
That special anniversary performance had a star-studded guest list which included some unlikely performers, none seemingly more so than Jim James, vocalist and guitarist with American indie band My Morning Jacket.
It turned out that James already had an affiliation with the band, having performed St James Infirmary Blues - which he also sang with them that day - on their live album, St Peter and 57th Street, last year.
James is back on their latest, That's It!, but this time in the producer's chair. He shared production duties with the band's creative director, Ben Jaffe - son of Preservation Hall founders Allan and Sandra Jaffe - who also plays bass and sousaphone.
The two have come up with an album unlike any other in the band's richly varied back catalogue of about 30, stretching back to 1964. For one thing, it is their first studio album to be composed entirely of original new compositions, although there are bonus live recordings of two New Orleans standards. Members Jaffe, Charlie Gabriel, Rickie Monie and Clint Maedgen all contributed compositions.