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New Orleans Music
Categories
Bands & Musicians
CDs, Records & Tapes
Choruses
Disk Jockeys, DJs
DJ New Orleans
Festivals
Guides
Instruments
Live Music Clubs
Music Guides
Music Lessons
Music Stores
New Orleans DJ, DJs
Opry, Opera & Orchestra
Organizations
Record Companies
Sheet Music
Songwriters
Wedding Bands
Wedding DJ
Wedding Music
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Who’s Playing, Where?
There's no single website that lists all the live music acts on one schedule. There are simply too many bands and venues for any one website to track. Here are the best of the bunch.
New Orleans Music Guides
or
Check out each music club's website for dates at...
New Orleans Live Music Clubs
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New Orleans Bands
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Bag of Donuts
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New Orleans and Louisiana Music CDs, Records and Tapes - SEE ALL
New Orleans Music Online
There are stores and record shops in New Orleans specializing in old Blues, New Orleans R&B and Jazz records from when vinyl was king to the latest, hottest New Orleans music CD's. Find CDs of all your favorite and latest New Orleans musicians, singers  and bands as well as those hard to find original vinyl records from old New Orleans Jazz recordings of the 20s and 30s to New Orleans R&B music of the 50s and 60s.
Buy online from local shops! All your favorite music  from your favorite Louisiana and New Orleans musicians including Jazz, Cajun, Blues, Zydeco, Funk, Hip Hop, Rock and Roll, Country and Rock bands.
Go to New Orleans CDs, Records and Tapes
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New Orleans Music Stores, Musical Instruments and Sheet Music - SEE ALL
This is where New Orleans musicians shop.
 If you’re a professional musician or an amateur, a drummer or a pianist, these websites are important to you. Find specialty stores for every type of band instrument, drums and pianos, guitar and violin repairs and even sources for jazz sheet music.
From shops that specialize in hand crafted Cajun accordions to drum and guitar centers, there are plenty of stores catering to musicians in the entire New Orleans area.
Go to New Orleans Music Stores, Musical Instruments and Sheet Music
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Many photos of New Orleans Bands and New Orleans Musicians on this page are courtesy of the photo artist and New Orleans Photographer Nicole Nichols. Nicole is a true lover of New Orleans music and has artfully photographed New Orleans bands and New Orleans musicians from brass bands at Jazz funerals (both first and second line processions) to the legendary jazz musician Kermit Ruffins at Vaughn’s in the Ninth Ward. Thank-you, Nicole, for your many contributions to the New Orleans Website Directory.
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New Orleans & Louisiana Record Companies, Music Managers - SEE ALL
The recording industry is hot in New Orleans. New Orleans and Louisiana have both grown over the years as a center of  America’s recording industry. There are numero us record compani es and recording artist managers throughout New Orleans and Louisiana. Many record (or recording companies) specialize in promoting Louisiana and New Orleans bands and musicians of certain music genres from Cajun to Hip Hop.
Check out over 25 local websites for everything from record labels to music marketing specialists.
Go to New Orleans and Louisiana Record Companies and Music Managers
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New Orleans Bands - SEE ALL
Jerry Christopher, Jr. is the Joker and bass player in "Bag of Donuts". The New Orleans band covers a wide variety of music from the 1960's through today's top of the pop charts. They are a New Orleans based quartet known for their wild stage antics, outlandish costumes and strange renditions of popular songs. The band plays to a wide audience from Champion Square for the Pelicans' Season Opener to weddings and Louisiana festivals.
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New Orleans Bands & Musicians - SEE ALL
The New Orleans Sound
New Orleans musicians have their own sound. It’s the sound of a brass band  playing second line music while returning from the cemetery. It’s the sound of a New Orleans style funk band making everybody dance at Tipitina’s. It’s the sound of St Augustine’s Purple Knights marching band in a night time Mardi Gras parade. And it’s the sound of a tuba playing an old New Orleans bass line in a new rap song that became the fight song for the New Orleans Saints and the Who Dats.
Whatever you call it, New Orleans jazz, funk or second line music, when New Orleaneans hear it, they just gotta get up and dance! Every band in New Orleans can play it. Depending on where you go, you may hear a taste of real New Orleans music or you may hear it all night long! And when Mardi Gras comes along, New Orleans musicians and bands start playing New Orleans own Mardi Gras music.
New Orleans is a Music Capital
 Few cities in America have more resident musicians and no city in the world loves music more than New Orleans. Whatever sound you’re looking for, there’s musicians and bands in New Orleans playing it. In New Orleans you’ll hear jazz, blues, R&B, funk, punk, rock, rap, Latin, country, zydeco, cajun and rock and roll bands plus bands and musicians that defy classification.
New Orleans is home for many bands and a large community of musicians including New Orleans blues, R&B and jazz singers like Aaron  Neville, Fats Domino, Irma Thomas and Charmaine Neville. There are great New Orleans funk bands like the Funky Meters and the Radiators and funky musicians like Dr. John, Jon Cleary and Art Neville. You’ll even find New Orleans style Latin bands like the Iguanas and Cajun bands like the Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band. There are also many classical musicians in New Orleans adding the sounds of string quartets and symphony orchestras to the mix of New Orleans music.
As the birthplace of Jazz, New Orleans is still the place to hear it. From traditional Dixieland Jazz to the latest jazz music, jazz bands and musicians can still be heard all around New Orleans.
Well known New Orleans Jazz musicians include Ellis, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Pete Fountain, Kermit Ruffins, Charlie Miller, Roderick Paulin and Jamil Sharif. There are dozens of jazz bands playing in New Orleans. Look for bands like the Big Easy Jazz Band, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Bayou Brass Band and Dr. Jazz and the New Orleans Sound.
Louisiana is home for stars of the music industry. Louisiana country stars include Tim McGraw and Hank Williams, Jr. There are Rock and Roll stars like Jerry Lee Lewis and Frankie Ford, pop stars like Britney Spears and Jazz singers like Harry Connick, Jr.
There are thousands of hard working musicians in bands all over Louisiana who play their own style of music but always add a side order of Louisiana and New Orleans music as a certain crowd pleaser.
The most popular category of music websites in New Orleans are for the people who keep it alive. Over 100 websites for New Orleans bands plus some of the best cajun, country, zydeco and swamp pop bands from around Louisiana.
For all the New Orleans Bands sites...
Go to New Orleans Bands and Musicians
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New Orleans Disk Jockeys, DJs - SEE ALL
Planning a party and want great sound and music variety without the expense of a live band or musicians? Look for a New  Orleans DJ on our New Orleans DJs to provide all your favorite music from today’s top 40 to your favorite Oldies. Many New Orleans Disk Jockeys or DJs have great collections of the best New Orleans music from Jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong to New Orleans R&B artists like Fats Domino. Whatever your music needs, find the right DJs for your parties and events. If you want the most sound and variety without the expense of a band, then look into the local DJs on the web.
Go to New Orleans Disk Jockeys, New Orleans DJ, DJs
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New Orleans and Louisiana Festivals
SEE ALL
Over 100 Louisiana Festivals
From the Angola Prison Rodeo and Arts and Crafts Festival in Angola, Louisiana to the Zydeco Extravaganza Festival in Opelousas, Louisiana we have websites for over 100 New Orleans and Louisiana Festivals.
Most Louisiana and New Orleans festivals revolve around food and music.  You can hear more New Orleans and Louisiana musicians and bands and eat more New Orleans and Cajun food at one Louisiana festival than in several days of enjoying music and cuisine in even the Big Easy.
Some examples of Louisiana food festivals are the Jambalaya Festival in Gonzales, Louisiana, the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival and the Mandeville Seafood Festival just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, the Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival in New Iberia, Louisiana, the Plaquemines Parish Orange Festival and Le Festivale de la Viande Boucanée (Smoked Meat Festival) in Ville Platte, Louisiana.
Louisiana Music Festivals are everywhere.
All Louisiana or New Orleans Festivals have good food and good music. Just like the food festivals, if you’re looking for your favorite Louisiana music, the name is a clue. There’s the New Orleans Jazz Festival and the Baton Rouge Blues Festival, the Gospel Fest Jubilee in Mamou, Louisiana and the Cajun Music Awards Festival in Lafayette, the Cajun capital of Louisiana and Zydeco Music festivals in Plaisance and Opelousas, Louisiana.
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is the biggest of all Louisiana festivals. Starting in the tiny Lafayette (Congo) Square in downtown New  Orleans in 1971, the original New Orleans Jazz Fest was only known of by a small circle of Jazz fans. By the mid 70’s the Jazz Fest had moved to the massive Fair Grounds in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. Crowds were small then by today’s standards and you could listen to your favorite New Orleans musicians and bands while having a picnic in front of the stage. Yes, you could bring your ice chest full of beer and food back then and there was room to spread out your blanket.
Times have changed and today the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is one of the world’s greatest music festivals. Musicians, singers, bands and artists come from all over the world to entertain at the 10 day super event.
Festivals are year round in Louisiana. From gospel to zydeco, you'll find plenty of great food and music at every festival you visit. Over 100 festivals listed from every corner of Louisiana!
Go to Louisiana and New Orleans Festivals
Go to New Orleans Jazz Fest Websites
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New Orleans & Louisiana Opera, Opry, Orchestras, Choruses & Ballet - SEE ALL
New Orleans and Louisiana are blessed with great musicians playing all kinds of great music.
 Classical musicians perform regularly in New Orleans in orchestras for symphonies, operas, musicals and ballets. New Orleans also has wonderful choruses that are especially noticed during the holidays. Besides their regular schedules, ballet troupes throughout the state annually perform the Nutcracker to the delight of parents and children throughout Louisiana.
Country music Opry also has a following in Louisiana with its own music traditions. The Opry Halls of Louisiana provide venues for some of Louisiana’s best country singers and musicians. Hank Williams, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash all played to their first big audiences at a similar country venue called the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana.
We've collected sites of orchestras, opera companies oprys and choruses from around the state as well as the local favorites from New Orleans.
Go to New Orleans and Louisiana Opera, Opry, Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet
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New Orleans Live Music Clubs - SEE ALL
Live Jazz, the Real Thing at Vaughn’s Bar!
French Quarter Live Music Clubs
The New Orleans French Quarter is home to dozens of live music bars, clubs and music venues. Just take a stroll down Bourbon Street and you’ll hear all genres of live music  from Jazz and Cajun to Rock and Pop. Bourbon Street music venues include the Funky Pirate, Razoo’s, the Cajun Cabin and Tropical Isle.
The French Quarter is also home to the best chain live music clubs such as the House of Blues and Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. After all, Bourbon Street is where Buffet, a Mississippi native, got his start. Want to just relax with a drink at a great piano bar? Pat O’Brien’s Piano Bar and Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop have great piano bars right in the French Quarter.
Looking for New Orleans Jazz Bands?
Preservation Hall is the place to hear traditional Dixieland Jazz. Located in an obscure old building on St. Peter Street in the French Quarter, Preservation Hall is home to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the best venue to hear a stirring rendition of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In”. To hear the latest New Orleans Jazz you need to get further from the tourists and head into neighborhoods where the New Orleans jazz musicians live.
Beyond the French Quarter
Head down river, toward the back of the French Quarter, past the bars full of  loud tourists and the rock, pop and country music venues. Cross over beautiful Esplanade Avenue, that tree lined street with the wide neutral ground (median to outsiders), go two blocks further and you’ll arrive at Frenchmen Street in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood. The Marigny is the second neighborhood built by the French after the Quarter. The houses are old and the streets are at odd angles but the charm is off the charts. Frenchmen Street is the main drag where the tourists fade away and the locals come out to listen to real New Orleans music.
The Faubourg Marigny is home to many New Orleans musicians and artists. Frenchmen Street in the Faubourg Marigny is full of old merchant shops converted into some of the best music clubs in New Orleans. Have a drink and listen to an eclectic array of live bands and music at Cafe Brazil and then head across the street to Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro for live jazz music. You’ll more often find New Orleans musicians and hip locals in the crowd enjoying their favorite New Orleans bands than tourists from the French Quarter.
At the edge of the Faubourg Marigny on Saint Claude Avenue is Sweet Lorraine’s Jazz Club featuring the latest New Orleans jazz music and the hottest New Orleans jazz musicians. Or take a break further down Chartres Street to Feelings Cafe in the Faubourg Marigny for some good food and a relaxing piano bar.
Jazz Music in the Ninth Ward.
After hearing live New Orleans jazz music at jazz clubs in the Faubourg Marigny, you’re ready for the best, Vaughn’s in the Bywater neighborhood of the Ninth Ward. Find Dauphine Street which runs parallel to the Mississippi River. Head downriver on Dauphine, through the Faubourg Marigny, over the railroad tracks and keep going as you enter the ByWater neighborhood in the Upper Ninth Ward. (only the Industrial Canal separates the Upper 9th from the Katrina devastated Lower 9th) A block before you reach  the canal (at Poland Ave.) on the corner of Dauphine and Lesseps Street is Vaughn’s, the most sought after jazz club in New Orleans. Actually it’s just a bar that ignites into the hottest little jazz joint in the city when the jazz musicians play. Charles Kuralt wrote about it but couldn’t find it. HBO’s Tremé featured Vaughn’s and now every jazz lover that visits New Orleans looks for it. Vaughn’s is an old neighborhood bar that features Kermit Ruffins and his jazz band one night a week. Be there when Kermit and his jazz musicians play and you’ll enter a place where famous musicians and music stars like Mick Jagger have come to listen to real New Orleans jazz bands and not be bothered by the tourists.
Uptown, Downtown Live Music Clubs.
Just walking distance from the French Quarter on South Peters Street in the downtown Warehouse District is the Howlin’ Wolf. This live music club is the premier venue for up and coming New Orleans bands and musicians. From Blues and Jazz to Indy Rock bands, the best musicians and bands in New Orleans eventually appear at the Howlin’ Wolf.
After Vaughn’s head Uptown. If you like partying with young college students while hearing live New Orleans bands go to Carrolton Station on Willow Street near Tulane University. But if you want to dance to the best New Orleans bands in a legendary New Orleans music club where even your grandmother would love to dance then go to...
Tipitina’s, the most popular live music club in New Orleans. Tipitina’s, or Tip’s as the locals call it, is the the most beloved music venue of New Orleans locals.  It’s the home of the New Orleans funk sound, that uniquely New Orleans music that combines blues, jazz, soul and R&B into the ultimate New Orleans dance music. All the best New Orleans funk bands and musicians have played at Tipitina’s including Aaron Neville, Professor Longhair, the Funky Meters and Jon Cleary. It’s big, it’s loud and you can take your date or your parents and they will all love it. Just head uptown on Tchoupitoulas Street to Napoleon Ave. Tip’s is on the corner.
Take a virtual tour of the clubs where bands and musicians are playing in the New Orleans area. For all the New Orleans Music Clubs websites...
Go to New Orleans Live Music Clubs
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New Orleans Jazz
A little New Orleans Music History
Music has long been a cultural hallmark of New Orleans. Before the Civil War, New Orleans was the second largest city in America and attracted talented musicians from all over the country to play in orchestras, operas, minstrel shows and even Bourbon Street bars. While orchestra musicians in a big city like New Orleans had fine brass instruments to play the latest hit symphonies or sonatas from Europe, other musicians had to rely on simpler, less expensive instruments like banjoes, fiddles, drums and harmonicas.
The Civil War changed music in America. Besides the obvious beginnings of the long march down freedom road for African Americans that led to today’s place at the table of great American artists, the Civil War did another thing to change American music. For the first time in American history, thousands of new brass and wind instruments were needed for musicians in military bands. And there were lots of military bands.
 When the war ended, the military bands disbanded and a lot of nice horns were suddenly war surplus. For the first time, any musician could afford a horn in the flooded market. Suddenly thousands of brass and wind instruments from cornets to trombones to clarinets were in the hands of young musicians across America.
In New Orleans, a magic music gumbo brewed.
Like New Orleans, New Orleans music is a great cultural gumbo and African music is the roux! For those not acquainted with Louisiana cuisine, you can’t make a gumbo without a roux. And the roux flavors the whole gumbo.
In the decades that followed the end of the Civil War, the huge surplus of new brass and wind instruments filtered down to young musicians in New Orleans. Old African rhythms found new voices in flutes and clarinets but especially the bold brass sounds of cornets, trumpets, trombones and tubas.
The New Orleans musicians that would eventually create a new music sound called jazz would have been influenced by many music sounds. New Orleans was already an ethnic gumbo and a mix of musical sounds. American folk music, French African music of Louisiana Creoles, blues and gospel from the rural Deep South, the playful rhythms of Sicilian musicians as growing numbers of Italians came to New Orleans in the late 1800’s and the complex melodies and structures of European style orchestra music. But above all, was the roux, African rhythms that would find new expression in musical instruments that beforehand were thought to be at their best use in a symphony orchestra.
Early Jazz in New Orleans. As the country prospered in the late 1800’s, more pianos added to the mix. As pianos became more commonplace, ragtime music, the precursor to jazz, grew out of the red-light districts of cities like New Orleans and Saint Louis. Musicians called ‘professors’ appeared in New Orleans bars and brothel parlors entertaining guests with rollicking new sounds.
By the 1890s, a cornet player in New Orleans named Buddy Bolden was playing a new sound. The earliest New Orleans jazz musicians accredited Buddy Bolden as the first to use blue notes, improvisation and syncopated  rhythms blown from his brass horn to create the music they called Jazz. By the 1910s, Dixieland Jazz as can still be heard in New Orleans, became the identifiable sound of a new music genre and art form rising from the streets of New Orleans. Early New Orleans jazz musicians like ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton, Sidney Bechet, Joe ‘King’ Oliver and a young Sicilian kid named Nick LaRocca had developed a new New Orleans sound that was ready to take the world by storm. That storm was World War I.
Suddenly the Jazz Musicians were out of work in New Orleans and heading across America.
Before World War I, prostitution was legal and gambling was loose in New Orleans. The best New Orleans jazz musicians were playing the red light districts and gambling parlors.
In 1917, during the war, the navy offered to build a new navy base in Algiers just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans on one condition. The gambling and brothels had to go and thus New Orleans Jazz musicians were out of work. By the 1920s New Orleans Jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong and their jazz bands had packed their bags, left New Orleans and taken Jazz music across America and beyond.
In the years since the first Jazz musicians left New Orleans to spread the new sound, many notable New Orleans Jazz musicians have made the scene including Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, the Marsalis family of Jazz musicians, Harry Connick, Jr. and the hot jazz musician and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins.
For websites of New Orleans Jazz Bands and Jazz Musicians...
Go to New Orleans Bands and Musicians
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