Drummer with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Joe Lastie Jr, records album

THE DRUMMER with legendary New Orleans jazz group The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Joe Lastie Jr is featured on an album in a new series, Preservation Hall Introduces, launched in late March. The project, 'Lastie Family Choir And Gospel', was originally conceived as a jazz session with a few gospel tracks featuring the drummer's family members. But then, as Billboard magazine reports, Lastie's aunt, Bettyann Lastie, and organist Leon Vaughn showed up and began reeling off favourite spirituals. Producer Alan Jaffe wound up doing little more than rolling tape for an hour or so.

Lastie told Billboard, "None of that was rehearsed. We just did what we do - went to church." Lastie had longed to document it on record for years. "When I go on tour with Preservation Hall, people come up to me and tell me that my playing touched them. In Europe, one fan said, 'When you play the drums, it looks like something that was sent from above.' Now, they'll know a little more about all that."