Who: Preservation Hall Jazz Band When: 8 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday Where: The Barns at Wolf Trap, Vienna

Who: Preservation Hall Jazz Band When: 8 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday Where: The Barns at Wolf Trap, Vienna

"Reverential is a word I use a lot to express how we all feel about New Orleans and our history."

The words are Ben Jaffe's, and he would know. Creative director of the city's landmark Preservation Hall, and tuba player for the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Jaffe is the son of founders Allan and Sandra Jaffe.

"Growing up in New Orleans, we kind of take the music for granted," he said in a phone interview. "I would wake up in the morning to my dad practicing his tuba, and I would go to sleep at night with the windows open, being able to hear the music coming from Preservation Hall."

Going into the family business was something that happened naturally, after a slight deviation. "For a long period in my life, I did think I was going to end up in New York playing modern jazz," Jaffe said. "When I got out of college, however, it was a no-brainer for me to move back to New Orleans and take over the post that my father once held. It was not only a calling, but a yearning and a piece of me that was filled when I returned to New Orleans."

The feeling was only heightened when Hurricane Katrina ruined large parts of the city in 2005. At that point, Jaffe decided not to tour regularly with the band members but to join them occasionally as a special guest, as he will next week at Wolf Trap. "This will be my first time performing with the band at the Barns," he said, although the ensemble has a long and happy history playing in the area. As Jaffe put it, "Mrs. Shouse, whose family gave the endowment to establish Wolf Trap, was one of Preservation Hall's biggest fans and proponents."

The origins of the Jazz Band date back to 1961, when Preservation Hall, once a private residence, was opened to protect and honor traditional New Orleans-style music. At that time, the sound was being eclipsed by modern jazz and rock and roll, and the hall offered a place where musicians could always play their local musical brew. More than 40 years later, the music is still played by "old-timers" in their 70s and 80s and younger musicians who come to absorb the lessons of the elders.

Naturally, the roster has changed over the years. "Seats become available, members retire, members pass away, younger members move on to solo careers," Jaffe said. "With that said, the core group of musicians that make up the Preservation Hall Jazz Band are musicians who have been performing together and growing up together and living together and learning from one another for their entire lifetime."

Because Preservation Hall is in the French Quarter, in a relatively high part of the city, it did not suffer flood damage. It had plenty of wind damage, however, compounded by the site having been off-limits for some time because of the area's generally deteriorated condition. "Imagine if an entire side of your house had been knocked down by a tree and exposed to the environment, and particularly the humidity and heat of New Orleans, for several months," Jaffe said.

He salvaged master tapes of early band recordings produced by his father, from Allen Toussaint's Sea-Saint studios, which had been flooded, to create "Made in New Orleans: The Hurricane Sessions," a CD/DVD boxed set that came out last year, including rare recordings, live footage and more from Preservation Hall's archives. All of the materials were printed or manufactured in New Orleans, and the boxes were assembled and packaged at Preservation Hall, including a unique Collector's Edition box, hand-filled with original photographs and actual archival documents so that no two were alike. Jaffe said he found the effort "cathartic."

"I took the hurricane as a wake-up call to myself, as an opportunity to share with others my experience of growing up in the French Quarter, growing up around all these amazing musicians. And I tried to reflect that in the band's most recent project."

Conditions in the Big Easy have improved, Jaffe said, but the city is still grateful that people care. "One of the great things that people can do is literally go out and hear some New Orleans music, go purchase a CD by a New Orleans musician, come visit."

He said, "It's not as much of a struggle as it was for a long period of time, but sometimes just to hear 'We're still thinking about you' goes a long way."

-- MARIANNE MEYER

The Barns at Wolf Trap is at 1635 Trap Rd., Vienna, 703-938-2404. Tickets are $35 through tickets.com, 877-965-3872, or throughhttp://www.wolftrap.org.

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