Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Lift Every Voice and Sing

What this video is

Released on December 3, 2020, this video arrived at a pivot point in American racial discourse — months after the killing of George Floyd and the largest racial justice protests since the Civil Rights era. The song itself, 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' (composed by James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson in 1900), carries immense symbolic weight as the Black national anthem. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band's…

Why it matters

Represents a landmark document of the New Orleans jazz tradition applied directly to the 2020 civil rights moment. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band — one of the longest-standing institutions of traditional New Orleans jazz — lending their identity to an explicitly political anthem marks a notable…

The director

Ben Jaffe is the Creative Director of Preservation Hall and an upright bassist in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, recognized as a steward of New Orleans jazz heritage. Kenneth Alexander Campbell is a collaborator credited as co-director on this video…