New Orleans jazz legends Preservation Hall Jazz Band are celebrating their  50th anniversary by performing with some of their musical friends at one of the most legendary venues in the world.  On January 7th they will grace the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, with special guests to be announced soon.  Tickets for what is bound to be an unforgettable night go on sale December 2nd and are available at www.carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th street and 7th avenue. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been carrying the distinctive sound of New Orleans jazz around the world on behalf of Preservation Hall, a unique venue that embodies the city’s musical legacy.  With a cast of musicians schooled through first-hand experience and apprenticeship into the music’s historic traditions, the PHJB has served as an irreplaceable, vital link to the earliest days of one of America’s most beloved forms of popular music.  The group manages to evoke the spirits of times past in an ever-evolving modern context that has found them traveling around the world.  Along the way, they have brought in collaborators of all musical stripes to play, honor, and reinterpret America’s first true art form.  The PHJB have played and recorded with artists like Tom Waits, Pete Seeger, Ani DiFranco and My Morning Jacket.  Their most recent collaboration has been with the Grammy-winning bluegrass outfit, the Del McCoury Band, with whom they released a joint album earlier this year titled American Legacies. The Louisiana State Museum also just launched a major exhibition celebrating Preservation Hall’s 50th anniversary at the Old U.S. Mint.  Co-curated by Preservation Hall and the Museum, Preservation Hall at 50, tells the story of the venue’s history through artifacts, photographs, film and audio clips, as well as interviews and oral histories.  The exhibit is open now and will run through 2012.