Nightlife

New Orleans is one of the most beautiful cities in the United States, possibly the world, but we won't mind if you never see the sights -- provided, however, that the omission is because you are spending the daylight hours recovering from the equally extraordinary nightlife.

This is a city of music and rhythm. It is impossible to imagine New Orleans without a soundtrack of jazz, brass bands, R&B, and even Cajun and zydeco. Music streams from every doorway, and sometimes it seems people are dancing down the street. Sometimes they really are. (After all, this is the town that sends you to your grave with music and then dances back from the cemetery.) You walk along Bourbon Street, for example, and with every step you hear music of all varieties. Maybe none of it is world-class, but that doesn't matter too much. It's just that it's there and in such variety. Plus, it's darn infectious. And even Katrina barely put a dent in the nightlife; at least a couple of intrepid bars on Bourbon Street never closed, while residents cranked up boomboxes when they couldn't get live music, which itself returned in some form or another in a matter of weeks, if not days.

This is also the city of decadence and good times rolling. Not to mention really loose liquor laws and drinks in "go" cups (plastic containers you can take with you -- many bars and clubs even have walk-up windows for easy refills). And all this increases at night. We aren't just talking about the open-air frat party that is Bourbon Street some (okay, most) evenings. In fact, we prefer not to talk about that at all.

Most important is that virtually every night, dozens of clubs all over town offer music that can range from average to extraordinary but is never less than danceable. In most places, cover prices vary from night to night and performer to performer, but rarely will you have to pay more than $10 -- and then only for more high-falutin' places such as the House of Blues.

When the clubs get too full, no matter: The crowd spills into the street, talking, drinking, and still dancing right there on the sidewalk (the music is often plenty audible out there). Sometimes the action outside is even more fun than inside, not to mention less hot and sweaty.

Club hopping is easy, though with some exceptions some of the better choices will require leaving the Quarter by cab or some other vehicle. Don't worry -- most are an easy taxi ride away, and many are within an additional, even easier, cab ride, if not walking distance, of each other. We strongly urge you to leave the Quarter at night to visit some of the town's better joints.

However, if you aren't up to that, don't fret. Some of the best jazz and brass-band clubs are right in the Quarter. And only steps away is the excellent scene in the Frenchmen section of the Faubourg Marigny, where at least a dozen clubs and bars are going at once within 3 blocks of each other. People wander from one to the other, sometimes never bothering to pay the cover price and go inside. If you do your evening right, those calories you consumed all day long will be gone by morning.

Or, yes, you could spend your night running from bar to bar. There is no lack. With such great music available, that seems a waste of time, however; if all you wanted to do was drink, you could have stayed home and enjoyed yourself just as much. Still, it is New Orleans, and some of these places are as convivial and atmospheric as you will ever find; ducking into a few isn't a bad idea at all. And, of course, everything only gets livelier and wilder as the evening goes on.

Speaking of which, don't be fooled by the times given in local listings for band performances. If it says 10pm, the band will probably go on closer to midnight and keep playing until late. Really late. This isn't always true -- once in a blue moon, an act will go on when billed and finish up rather early -- but chances are good that if you come late, even really late, you will still catch quite a bit of the act you came to see.

However you decide to do it, don't miss it. New Orleans at night is not New Orleans during the day, and not to take advantage of it is to miss out. You could stay in your hotel room with the covers pulled over your head, but if that's what you want, you came to the wrong city: Just tell yourself you'll sleep when you get home.

For up-to-date information on what's happening around town, look for current editions of Gambit, Offbeat, and WhereY'at, all distributed free in many hotels and all record stores. You can also check out Offbeat on the Internet (www.nola.com; once you get to the NOLA home page, go to "Music" in the "Entertainment" section) and Gambit at www.bestofneworleans.com. Other sources include the Times-Picayune's daily entertainment calendar and Friday's "Lagniappe" section of the newspaper. Additionally, WWOZ (90.7 FM) broadcasts the local music schedule several times throughout the day.

An Evening Cruise -- The Creole Queen and the Cajun Queen (tel. 800/445-4109 or 504/524-0814; www.neworleanspaddlewheels.com), riverboat cruisers built in the tradition of their forebears, host lovely (if a bit touristy) Creole dinners and jazz cruises nightly. Both boats are operated by the same company; sometimes only one runs at a time. Departures are at 8pm (boarding at 7pm) from the Canal Street Wharf. The fare of $59 per person includes a sumptuous Creole buffet (it's $35 without the meal), and there's bar service as well as live jazz and dancing against a backdrop of the city's sparkling skyline. Schedules are subject to change, so call ahead to confirm days and times.

Using the Listings -- Most clubs in New Orleans feature an eclectic lineup that reflects the town's music scene; the ReBirth Brass Band, for example, attracts as many rock fans as it does brass-band fans. Consequently, while we have broken down the clubs into musical genres, that's somewhat misleading: The bulk of the club scene escapes categorization (and, of course, booking policies are often subject to change) -- even the local papers refer to club lineups as "mixed bags." Brass bands, old-timey-sounding bands, jazz bands -- they cross-pollinate throughout the local club scene. Rock 'n' Bowl is listed under "Zydeco" but you can find brass and jazz bands there as well, and pretty much every kind of music goes through the doors of d.b.a. If you want a specific sound, you have to look at listings (in Offbeat and Gambit magazines, for example) night by night. Some places are generally good fun on their own regardless of who is playing; any night at the Maple Leaf is going to be a good one, while wandering from spot to spot in the Frenchmen section is a well-spent, must-do evening. Be sure to check to see who is playing at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (tel. 504/539-9600) on Thursday nights, lest you think all the good music in the city happens only in humid bars.

Really, in New Orleans, you can't go too wrong going just about anywhere simply to hang out. And in the process, you might get exposed to a new, wonderful genre of music or an incredible band.

A Night on the Town

If you only have a night or two in New Orleans, you should try your best to hear some incredible live local music. But how to choose? Here is a guide to some of the best regular performers doing their best to keep their city's musical traditions alive. Okay, it would take a whole bunch of nights to hear them all, but you can't go wrong with any one -- or two, or three -- of the following.

Linnzi Zaorski plays Jazz-era standards with vocal verve right out of the Ziegfield Follies. Bob French, a drummer and second-generation powerhouse, is the keeper of the flame of traditional New Orleans jazz both on the bandstand and on the air at WWOZ. Hot Club of New Orleans brings acoustic swing and Gypsy jazz with New Orleans twists. Hot Eight means nonstop booty shaking from one of the top of the current crop of brass bands. Soul Rebels Brass Band is perhaps the most inventive of the young brass bands, subtly integrating some hip-hop energy to become a major local favorite. John Boutte is one of the voices of New Orleans these days and a national treasure, not just for his thrilling singing but for his ability to turn a wide range of songs, old and new, topical and pointed. Boutte's one of the finest singers in the country, and not to be missed. After reenergizing the brass-band revival as teenagers 2 decades ago, ReBirth Brass Band's Tuesday-night gigs at the Maple Leaf remain must-do marathons. Like Louis Armstrong, a major musical role model, the former ReBirth trumpeter Kermit Ruffins has become a New Orleans music ambassador, even though he rarely plays outside the city these days. Troy ("Trombone Shorty") Andrews has been playing more with his funk band Orleans Avenue lately, with older brother James ("12") sticking a bit more to the traditional, but both of the former prodigies have matured into leaders on the scene. New Orleans Jazz Vipers is the best, and least precious, traditional jazz band in town. Va va voom is a Vipers spinoff taking the Gypsy jazz route. Linnzi Zaorski plays speak-easy jazz in a voice that sounds like it's coming straight off a 78 through a gramophone horn. Tom McDermott takes audiences on a tour of Caribbean, southern, and South American piano styles that fed into the music of Jelly Roll Morton and others. He's always a wonder, in particular in his shows with clarinetist Evan Christopher. New Birth Brass Band is carrying on family legacies going back through several generations of great brass bands, with James and Troy Andrews often among the members. New Orleans Klezmer All Stars -- yes, there are Jewish traditions in NOLA, too -- give exciting life through this adventurous music. Their reeds man Rob Wagner's solo gigs veer more toward free jazz. Great stuff, but for specific tastes.

Big Sam and Funky Nation: Descended from Buddy Bolden, so he claims, trombonist Sam Williams ain't lying about the "funky" part. Formerly of popular party band Cowboy Mouth, Paul Sanchez may be the top singer-songwriter in town. Catch him on a double bill with Susan Cowsill -- yes, that Cowsill! Susan, who co-fronted the Continental Drifters for years as well, covers a lot of ground in her terrific solo shows, literally in her "Covered in Vinyl" nights when she and friends re-create such entire classic albums as Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and U2's The Joshua Tree. Sax man Donald Harrison, Jr., mixes his top-flight modern jazz with the spirit of his role as chief of the Congo Nation Mardi Gras Indian tribe, a role he inherited from his father.

Henry Butler is an heir to the piano crown of Professor Longhair. Butler can also bring in some modern styles with dazzling keyboard skills. Bonerama is a brass band, sure, but with funk-rock variations heard on versions of such songs as "Helter Skelter" and "Frankenstein." Irvin Mayfield has become a central educator and ambassador of a wide range of New Orleans jazz, on top of being a star trumpeter and bandleader.