New Orleans is a great place to visit if you love food or if you’re interested in a destination rich with cultural history. More than anything though, it’s a city known for its robust music scene.
New Orleans is literally filled with music, from festivals to concerts to more intimate jazz clubs. Whether you’re walking down Bourbon Street listening to the tunes streaming from bars, lounges and night clubs or browsing the shops in Jackson Square to the the tunes of the numerous street bands, you’ll leave with a renewed or newfound liking for jazz, blues or brass bands.
Whether you’re already an enthusiast or experiencing the New Orleans music scene for the first time, we have a few spots that you must not miss.
Maple Leaf Bar
The Maple Leaf Bar is one of the longest continuing music clubs in New Orleans’ music clubs with live performances seven nights a week. You’ll find almost every kind of music imaginable on the agenda there, but The Rebirth Brass Band is one its most frequent performers. The club has also been an important incubator for the city’s many up-and-coming bands, often comprised of local musicians and music students. It’s crowded and it’s not exactly a luxury scene, but it’s definitely a local must-see.
Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse
Known as one of the best jazz clubs in New Orleans, Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse showcases New Orleans’ greatest Jazz talent alongside the city’s favorite cocktails and appetizers. At only 37 years old, Irvin Mayfield is a Grammy Award and a Billboard Award winning versatile trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, professor, cultural ambassador and recording artist on a path to greatness. In a luxurious venue on the lobby level of the Royal Sonesta Hotel New Orleans, guests can listen to some of the world’s best jazz talents on a nightly basis.
The French Quarter
The French Quarter, which I learned is also known as Vieux Carré, is a cultural hub and a destination for travelers to New Orleans to soak in the sights and sounds of the eclectic city, with an emphasis on the sounds. Nearly anywhere you go in the French Quarter, but especially on Bourbon Street, you’ll find live pianists, jazz quartets, local bands and so much more. It’s rare to find a venue that doesn’t play live music, so if you want to experience different kinds of sounds you will never have to walk far.
Frenchmen Street
Stroll this two-block-long entertainment district on any night of the week and you’ll hear a wide variety of live music the way only New Orleans can do it. You’ll find about a dozen different music clubs, all nondescript. Unlike the French Quarter, you won’t find flashing neon lights and drunk tourists in the street wielding beer bongs or 48 ounce Hurricanes. While Bourbon Street is a place that everyone should experience once, Frenchmen Street is a place you’ll want to return again and again.
To book your trip to New Orleans, visit VisitNewOrleans.com.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of New Orleans Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. The opinions and text are all mine.
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