The Rhythms of New Orleans

The late New Orleans R&B legend Ernie K-Doe was once quoted as saying, "I'm not sure, but I think all music came from New Orleans." What might be a more accurate account -- and relatively hyperbole-free -- is that all music came to New Orleans. Any style you can name, from African field hollers to industrial techno-rock, has found its way to the Crescent City, where it's been blended, shaken, and stirred into a new, distinctive, and usually frothy concoction that, it seems, could have come from nowhere else.

"Yeah," you scoff, "but what about classical music?" Well, maybe you've never heard how pianist James Booker, an eye-patched eccentric even by New Orleans standards, could make a Bach chorale strut like a second-line umbrella twirler. Or maybe you're forgetting that Wynton Marsalis has Grammy Awards for both jazz and classical recordings, not to mention a 1997 Pulitzer Prize for his slavery-themed jazz oratorio Blood on the Fields.

On the other side of the spectrum, don't forget that Trent Reznor, the man behind the brutal sounds and imagery of the industrial act Nine Inch Nails, chose to live and record in New Orleans -- not because of the good property values, but because the aesthetics and atmosphere suit him. (His now-former studio is in a former funeral home, natch.)

Even more unusual is the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars ensemble, a group of musicians that plays the lively music of eastern European Jewish troubadours with a few New Orleans embellishments. You're not required to dance at their performances, but you'll probably find it impossible not to.

Of course, what you're most likely to experience is somewhere in the middle, music more truly rooted in the Crescent City -- the Storyville jazz descended from Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton, the bubbly R&B transmitted via Fats Domino and Professor Longhair, the Mardi Gras Indians, and the brass bands of the second lines that recently added exuberant, youthful infusions of funk and hip-hop.

Finding music in New Orleans is no trick. Walk anywhere in the vicinity of Bourbon Street and your ears will be assaulted by a variety of sounds. If you're really interested, it's worth a little effort to seek out the good stuff and avoid the tourist-oriented caricatures that will be thrust at you. Consult the free monthly Offbeat, available at many businesses in the French Quarter and elsewhere around town, for what's playing at such clubs as the Howlin' Wolf, Donna's, the Maple Leaf, Tipitina's, or the gotta-see-it-to-believe-it Mid City Lanes bowling alley, home of the famed Rock 'n' Bowl. Listen to public radio station WWOZ-FM (90.7 FM), which plays the best of New Orleans music and gives concert info.

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 non-stop 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 arguably one of THE voices of New Orleans these days, 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 spin-off taking the gypsy jazz route. 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 Allstars -- 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 recreate 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."