Summertime is steamy in the Big Easy – but the city’s legendary jazz clubs stay cool. Come see for yourself. The hotel rates this time of year tend to tumble as the streets take on the ambience of an open-air sauna.
Cool off inside, where the drinks are cold and the music magical. Here are just a few of New Orleans’ jazz enclaves:
The I Club is inside the JW Marriott® Hotel on Canal Street. The repertoire isn’t confined to Dixieland. Here you’ll hear New Orleans R&B, Zydeco, Cajun, Afro-Cuban, Funk and such. The setting is decidedly up-scale, the bar brilliant.
The Bombay Club is like unto the I Club. Tucked away in the heart of the French Quarter on Conti Street. Chef Ricky Cheramie’s Nouveau Creole cuisine pairs perfectly with nightly live music, some of the best in town. If you love libations, wait till you see the bar menu. It’s replete with Martinis and cocktails from the 1860s to present day. The Champagne cocktail selection is equally voluminous.
d.b.a is a no-nonsense, thisiswhatmusic’sallabout place located at 618 Frenchmen Street, in historic Faubourg Marigny near the French Quarter. The building is 1880’s vintage, and the musicians who play here swear the cypress wood music room in which they perform is one of the warmest-sounding spaces in New Orleans. Lots of greats have played this venue: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Jimmy Buffet and Stevie Wonder. It’s no wonder why folks pack this place.
The beautiful thing about the Big Easy is you don’t have to haunt a great jazz club to hear the music. It’s all around you. Some of the city’s street musicians really are budding stars, waiting for a break. On Friday nights, grab hold of a lamp post so the crowds don’t level you, close your eyes and take it all in – the music, the smells, the passion of one of the planet’s great cities.
Thinking of booking a trip to New Orleans? Louis Armstrong New Orleans International is nicely connected. Southwest Airlines is a major player.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: prayitno)
