Preservation Hall Jazz Band: "New Orleans Isn't Really the South"

While in New Orleans for this year's Voodoo Music Fest, Fuse made a point to chat with Ben Jaffe, the director of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and a cultural ambassador of the city. While explaining how New Orleans-style jazz—which his band specializes in—differs from contemporary jazz, Jaffe made the interesting claim that New Orleans shouldn't be considered part of the U.S., at least culturally speaking.

"New Orleans has been isolated from a lot of outside influences. We're not really the United States. We're not even the South," Jaffe tells Fuse News' Matte Babel. "We're really the Northern Caribbean when you think about it. We're African, we're Spanish and we're French. That's our bloodline and you hear it in our music."

Watch the video above for Jaffe's full take on NOLA culture. And to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in action, check out these pics from their red-hot Voodoo performance.