BY KAREN BOSSICK

Clint Maedgen was hosting the New Orleans Bingo Show in the early 2000s in the back of a chicken restaurant on New Orleans’ Decatur Street when he got the opportunity of a lifetime to play the saxophone and sing with the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

“Ben Jaffe asked me to sing a couple songs by the Kinks, whose father was a trad jazz trombone player. I did a video covering ‘Complicated Life’--me delivering food on a bike in the French Quarter. Hanging with Preservation Hall was an absolute dream come true for me--like I won the lottery or something.”

In fact, Maedgen’s gig with Preservation Hall Jazz Band has led to unimaginable experiences from getting a thumbs up from President Bush at the White House while singing “You Are My Sunshine” to jamming with the King of Thailand.

“The King of Thailand has passed on since, but he was an incredibly dedicated fan of traditional New Orleans jazz music and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was his favorite band,” Maedgen said. “He played alto sax and he composed music that borrowed heavily from New Orleans jazz so he would fly our band over to be his jam band once a year for eight years.”

Band members would get a call, sometimes at 1 in the morning, telling them that the king wanted to jam. They even recorded an album with him.

“It was incredibly surreal to be in the presence of somebody like that when they make their entrance into a room,” said Maedgen. “Everybody falls on the floor because nobody can be taller than the king. Not only is his photograph in every restaurant, every shop, but also on gigantic billboards all over town. If he wears yellow, everybody wears yellow. Our boys in their 70s would be on their knees, crawling up to greet the king.”

There will be no kings to bow down to when the Preservation Hall Jazz Band returns to Ketchum to perform at The Argyros next week. But Maedgen and his cohorts are offering the unique opportunity for Sun Valley-area residents to see three different sides of the band during their visit.

On Wednesday, Aug. 21, the band will perform BIG EASY, BIG HITS, or the best of their traditional N’awlins jazz favorites in a traditional concert setting.

Friday, Aug. 23, the band will perform more intimate mellow jazz numbers as The Argyros turns into a JAZZ NIGHTCLUB with cabaret-style seating.

Saturday, Aug. 24, the seats will be rolled back, turning the Tierney Theatre into a dance floor for a BRASS DANCE PARTY.

All events begin at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at https://www.theargyros.org/.

“We don’t often get the opportunity to play three different sets like this in one place. But we could do it all the time—that’s the beautiful thing about having such a deep songbook and so many versatile musicians—we can cover a lot of ground,” said Maedgen. “For the party we’ll be playing some of our Cuban-infused music. We’ve been to Cuba, Haiti, Brazil multiple times--we get around. We’ll be connecting with an audience that wants to feel something, that wants to dance. This music is designed for interaction. It’s music to live your life by, and we love to share it.”

The six-member Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been hailed by music critics as the best jazz band in the land. The band grew out of jam sessions at the French Quarter’s Preservation Hall where racially integrated bands and audiences shared music together during the Jim Crow era.

The band was formed to preserve the music that evolved in New Orleans around the turn of the century and it has taken that music as far as Japan.

Branden Lewis, the trumpet player, is the grandson of James Victor Lewis, a Grammy award-winning saxophone player. The elder Lewis moved to Los Angeles in 1960 to escape the bitter realities of segregation and lack of job opportunities for Black people in New Orleans, but he never let family members forget that their roots and cultural identity lay in New Orleans.

Branden Lewis studied botany at college but decided being a plant specialist didn’t offer the level of excitement he wanted. So, in 2012 he moved to New Orleans where he was taken under the wing of Delfeayo Marsalis. He joined the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in 2016 where he’s had the chance to perform alongside Stevie Wonder, Jon Batiste, Dave Matthews and the Foo Fighters.

“It was definitely a homecoming—I knew it was my home before I ever visited. It’s a pretty awesome gig representing the city, playing with this band. I love the city’s food, its music and its culture—all those things wrapped in with Mardis Gras. So much music innovation from Buddy Bolden to Louis Armstrong has come from New Orleans. It has an identity so different from other cities in the world—it’s a northern Caribbean city, rather than a southern American city,” he said.

As cultural ambassadors for the city of New Orleans, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band has performed at the Grammys and played the national anthem at the Super Bowl.

“The moments I’ve been most proud to be playing with this band are almost too many to count,” Lewis said.

The band is adding more and more innovative contemporary sounds to its repertoire, while maintaining its mission of preservation trad music.

“It’s a careful balance of blending new things with old things,” said Lewis. “We’re currently recording a new album, which will have both. It’s been a couple years since we’ve released something and hopefully it will come out next year.”

Lewis will check out the restaurant scene while in Sun Valley.

“I travel by my mouth so I’m always looking for good food—whatever the regional food is,” he said.

Look for Maedgen to cruise the streets with his camera.

“I can’t wait to get out there and shoot some film,” he said. “I’m a photographer, and there are incredible shadows all over the place. I’ll get up early before sound check and start walking and taking photographs, connecting with the local people, check out antique shops, book shops…”

Capping the day with music never gets old, he said.

“I love that this music is such a joyful sound. The music in our songbook has the power to heal the universe. Music is a superpower and there’s something about these songs has been passed down from generation to generation. From the church to bluegrass--everybody can relate to it almost instantly.”