Where to Hear Live Music in New Orleans (tips from locals) (2024)

It seems like there's always someone playing live music somewhere in New Orleans throughout the day and well into the night. The trick is to know exactly where to find all these live performers!

As a local tour guide, I wrote this article to provide travelers with ten ways to get the best musical experience in New Orleans, including free options.

In this post, I will cover the best ways to find excellent music inside and outside of the French Quarter, indoor and outdoor, recorded and live, traditional and innovative.

• Live Music Calendars
• Free Live Music
• Music, Arts, and More Tour
• Music Venues
• Jazz Music/Jazz Brunch
• Everything Else
• Other Things to Do in NOLA

LIVE MUSIC CALENDARS

Because we have so much live music, a calendar can be a huge help. WWOZ, our local listener-supported heritage station, can be a great planning tool.

The station provides a comprehensive daily schedule of local live music called the WWOZ Livewire, announced on air every odd hour and also listed online.

It's most useful for those who already are somewhat familiar with the local music scene and can recognize the names of bands and venues, but if it's your first time, the app version can be a huge help.

It provides a map showing where music is happening near you and also allows you to filter the list by style - providing a list of jazz, blues, funk, zydeco, or whatever else tickles your fancy.

At the time of writing, this app is only available on Apple devices.

Offbeat Magazine also offers a daily shortlistingof music events.

And you can check the music section of a local paper like the Gambit Weekly to see what’s making headlines in local music.

Need a soundtrack for your trip planning? You don't have to be in New Orleans to experience good local music.

Our local listener-supported, commercial-free radio station, WWOZ, can be streamed from anywhere at WWOZ.org. (While you're in town, you can tune in at 90.7 FM.)

WWOZ is a great way to get a sense for the variety of local music - you'll hear plenty of jazz, but they host shows dedicated to blues, Celtic and Latin music, bluegrass, and current artists who aren't easy to categorize.

New Orleans Live Music Map

If it helps to visualize this in terms of where you can find live musicians performing in the city, use this map to pick the locations you'd like to visit and search this post for more details about each one!

FREE LIVE MUSIC

Yeah, I know why most of you are here, so why not get down to brass tacks right away?

There is so much live music in this city throughout the year that it's actually quite easy to stumble upon events where you can enjoy a jazz performance.

1) Street Music

One of the easiest ways to stumble into this situation is street music, which happens when small bands and other groups of musicians set up a small area in public to play their music.

This isn't technically free, because they are of course playing for tips, but if you just walk by on the way to another attraction, where's the harm in enjoying some tunes along the way?

Street music may not be entirely free, but there are often genuinely free options.

2) Free Concerts

The New Orleans Jazz Museum (housed in the Old US Mint), part of the Louisiana State Museum system, and St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square both host free concerts.

You'll find the Jazz Museum has regular concerts every Tuesday at 2 pm that are entirely free to attend. Just go to the third floor!

They also host other live musical performances throughout the week, so make sure to check their calendar.

While you're at it, check the St. Louis Cathedral calendar, as they often have Christmas concerts during the colder months.

3) Armstrong Park/Congo Square

Just outside the French Quarter in the Treme neighborhood, you can find Armstrong Park.

It not only hosts a free Jazz in the Park festival from 4-8 pm every Thursday in the fall and spring but also is the home of Congo Square, a congregating site for African drummers, who casually gather to play together most Sunday afternoons, preserving a centuries-old tradition.

4) Bars With No Cover Charge

There are several bars in the French Quarter that not only host live music, but they also have no cover charge, meaning you can come in and enjoy the music for free if you'd like!

We recommend at least grabbing one drink to show your appreciation, but no cover charge means it isn't necessary.

One of the best spots for this is Kerry's Irish Pub, but you'll find that many places on Bourbon Street and even Frenchmen won't require you to pay a cover charge.

5) Hear Jeremy Davenport for Free

Did you know you can actually hear Jeremy Davenport perform for free just about every time you visit New Orleans?

The Ritz-Carlton named their lounge after him, and he plays there during the following schedule:

• Wednesday & Thursday: 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm
• Friday & Saturday: 8:00 pm - 12:00 am

While you don't have to pay anything to drop into the lounge and experience the music, we do recommend grabbing a drink or leaving a tip if you enjoyed the live jazz.

6) Music Festivals

Lastly, a festival is not a festival in New Orleans without live music, and many of our fests have no admission fee.

The aforementioned WWOZ Livewire can be helpful in figuring out what festivals may be happening while you're here, or you can consult local publications like the Gambit Weekly.

MUSIC VENUES

Bourbon Street Music Venues

Bourbon Street is legendary and a destination for most New Orleans visitors and music is part of its story.

For a long time, that meant local traditional jazz; while you'll still find some of that, these days the fixtures are karaoke and cover bands, mostly playing classic rock from Jimmy Buffett to Journey.

There are always a few reliably jazzy spots - the Jazz Playhouseat the Royal Sonesta New Orleans and Fritzel's Jazz Pub in particular, for more loungy and raucous vibes respectively - and more locally-rooted music venues like Preservation Hall, 21st Amendment, or the Bombay Clubare often just block or so away from one another.

If you're here for nightlife and bar hopping with local music as a side dish, Bourbon Street can fit the bill.

Fritzel's Jazz Pub

Frenchmen Street Music Venues

Frenchmen Street, located in the Marigny neighborhood, has the highest concentration of local-flavored music in town.

Concentrated into a three-block strip just outside the French Quarter, Frenchmen Street is lively every night of the week, picking up steam as early as mid-afternoon on weekends, and has no mandatory closing times.

Because it offers so many choices in a compact space, it's easy to go to Frenchmen Street without a plan and make spontaneous choices about where to go based on what you hear.

Many Frenchmen Street venues serve food in addition to drinks and music, so it can be a destination for dinner as well as nightlife - and these particular venues are often friendly to an under-21 crowd until 9 or 10 in the evening.

While some of these bars have covers, many just have a one-drink minimum, especially on weeknights.

A note on budgeting: tipping is a big part of music culture in New Orleans, and often audience tips constitute most or all of a band's compensation for their time, especially if there's no cover.

What time does music start on Frenchmen Street?

The best live music venues on Frenchmen St. offer shows starting at 6 pm, 9 pm, and 11 pm. As such, you can expect to hear a lot of great local musicians in this area from the early evening to midnight.

Highlights on Frenchmen Street include:

Snug Harbor, is a sit-downticketed theater that is home to local and touring heavyweights of traditional and modern jazz (such as a weekly show by Ellis Marsalis), and which also includes a restaurant separate from the music space.

Shows are usually at 8 and 10 and often sell out, so reserving in advance is a good idea.

The Spotted Cat Music Club is a small iconic bar with as many as five bands a day, including jazz, swing,and blues, starting as early as 2:00 pm and continuing until 2:00 am.

DBA is a bar with a broad selection of beer and spirits, plus a high-caliber eclectic local music schedule, usually with a cover on weekends.

Read our article on 12 Places to Hear Live Music on Frenchmen Street (https://freetoursbyfoot.com/frenchmen-street-new-orleans/)

NEW ORLEANSSTREET MUSIC

Street performance has a long history in New Orleans, and many of the city's greatest local musicians cut their teeth in the outdoors.

Typically, this scene is concentrated in the French Quarter - Jackson Square, Royal Street, and to a lesser degree Bourbon Street - but you'll also find some on Frenchmen Street.

You'll hear a mix of traditional jazz, jam bands, African instruments, brass bands, cover bands, singer/songwriters, solo violinists, and more.

Prime times are spring and fall, Thursdays through Sundays, and late morning to early evening.

For a self-guided tour of street music, try starting in Jackson Square and then walking up Royal Street toward Canal; besides the music, you'll find plenty of cafes, shops, and restaurants along the way.

Bear in mind that most street musicians treat what they do as a career, but are not compensated by the city, they receive only what passerbys leave for them.

For this reason, it's worth thinking of street music as an affordable option rather than a free one, especially if you want to take photos or videos of the performers.

Many are also selling CDs if you want to bring the memory home with you.

Additionally, the Crescent City Farmer's Market offers free, live music 4 days a week, with the market taking place on Wednesdays at the French Market.

A daytime tour of the French Quarter is also a great way to encounter some street music alongside some history and sightseeing, and we offer several name-your-own-price tours per day.

We encounter and interact with street music performers on most of our tours.

Here is a video of one of our greatest street music ambassadors, Doreen Ketchens, who has been playing with her family in the French Quarter since 1987.

You can usually find them on weekend daytimes at Royal and St. Peter, just outside Jackson Square.

MUSIC, ARTS, AND MORE TOUR (FREE TOURS BY FOOT)

Join Free Tours by Foot for a walk through the Tremé, French Quarter, and Marigny neighborhoods as we explore the creative history and culture of New Orleans, enhanced with audio and visuals throughout.

TIP: also available in a GPS-enabled audio tour format.

From jazz, funk, bounce, and blues to gospel masses to jazz funerals, from Southern Gothic literature to rap, from fine art galleries to street art, New Orleans brings the expressive side out of localsand visitors alike – whether as a career, or just one day a year.

Our musicians, artists, and writers allrange from world-famous to well-kept secrets, but all of them share New Orleans as a muse – and their lives and stories are often as fascinating as their work.

On this tour, we’ll make our way from the birthplace of jazz to the definitive strip of music clubs in New Orleans today.

We’ll pass the homes and haunts of great writers, see art hung from fences and gallery walls, and walk the paths of the greatest free show in the world, Mardi Gras.

Besides sharing the art of live storytelling, your guide will help you plan what music and cultural events to attend while you’re in town.

Included in the tour:

• Monuments of musicians and traditions in Louis Armstrong Park
• Congo Square, the colonial home of African music and dance
• Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts
• Bourbon Street music clubs past and present
• Street performance in Jackson Square and Royal Street
• The Presbytère, home of the Louisiana State Museum’s Mardi Gras collection
• Royal Street art galleries
• Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre
• Former homes of writers William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and Francis Parkinson Keyes
• The Old U.S. Mint, home of a preeminent Louisiana folk art collection
• Street art in Faubourg Marigny
• Frenchmen Street, the most concentrated district for local music
• And an audio survey of what’s going on in the city while you’re here

Tour information

Reservations: REQUIRED. Click here to reserve. Groups of 10 or more persons should visit ourgroup inquiry page.

Where:Mr. Gregory's Coffee Shop 806 N. Rampart St.

DURATION: 2 hours, 1 mile in length

When:2:30 pm Friday and Saturday (or anytime you like with our GPS-enabled audio tour)

Cost: This tour is free to take, and you get to decide what, if anything, the tour was worth when it’s done. A name-your-own-price tour is a tour for anyone’s budget.

Save more money in New Orleans with atourist concession passand consider aswamp tourand a plantation tour.

DIXIELAND JAZZ

A rollicking, danceable jazz, called Dixieland jazz or traditional jazz, is New Orleans' historic signature sound, and we still take great pride in it today.

Chances are that any daytime walk down Royal Street or nighttime stroll on Frenchmen will bring you in the hearing a trad jazz band.

Preservation Hall Band

Where do locals go to listen to live jazz in New Orleans?

Only a few venues specialize solely in Dixieland jazz, the best known of which is Preservation Hall, a nightly destination for short sets presented by their iconic house band.

For a longer set paired with dinner, Palm Court Jazz Cafe can be a good choice. Another popular choice is the Maple Leaf Bar, a jazz club located on Oak Street, just north of Audubon Park.

During the day, Café Beignet in Musical Legends Park on Bourbon St. hosts a traditional jazz band to entertain those taking a break from walking the famous bar strip.

Finally, if a steamboat ride on the Mississippi doesn't sound appealing enough by itself, the Steamboat Natchez sweetens the deal by hosting the Dukes of Dixieland on board.

JAZZ BRUNCH

Since Commander's Palace coined the tradition in 1973, jazz brunch has been a favorite way to start a late unrepentant morning in New Orleans, and it's as much of a special occasion for locals as for visitors.

Mostly, jazz brunch is a weekend institution, but the Court of Two Sisters is known as the only daily jazz brunch in the city, making this tradition available to mid-week work travelers - or just anyone willing to treat a Tuesday night like a Saturday.

A few strong choices for jazz brunch include:

• Commander’s Palace – Garden District institution and originator of jazz brunch, serving elevated Creole cuisine. Dress code. Saturday and Sunday.
• Antoine’s or Arnaud’s – comparable to Commander’s. Saturday and Sunday.
• Court of Two Sisters – jazz brunch seven days a week in a restaurant with a beautiful courtyard.
  Atchafalaya – an excellent, more affordable/casual modern Cajun/Creole restaurant near the Garden District, serving brunch Thursday through Monday, with music Saturday and Sunday.
• Backroom at Buffa’s – a very casual choice in the Marigny, with an excellent music calendar day and night and throughout the week. Sunday only.
• House of Blues Gospel Brunch – not a jazz brunch, but a way to combine breakfast with another beloved local genre of music. If it’s a choice between getting brunch and going to church, this is your way to do both. Sunday only.

Where can I hear jazz during the day in New Orleans?

You can usually catch live jazz being performed on the streets of New Orleans from morning to early evening. The best music venues also open up starting at around 4 pm - 6 pm.

EVERYTHING ELSE

SECOND LINE PARADES

A second line - a parade on foot, led by a band - is New Orleans' way of commemorating any kind of important event, from funerals to weddings.

For much of the year, there's a good chance you'll spot one by chance in the French Quarter - they're a popular component of destination weddings - but some are pre-planned, publicized annual events that participants prepare for all year.

Part parade, part festival, these second lines are mobile parties thrown by social clubs, with costumes, food vendors, bar stops, and a brass band leading the way.

They occur most Sunday afternoons throughout the year, with the exception of summer; WWOZ provides details on each week's second line at https://www.wwoz.org/programs/inthestreet.

MUSIC STORES

At the end of your trip, there's no better way to preserve the memory than bringing your new favorite band home with you - or you might find a great album for a music-loving friend.

If so, don't miss Louisiana Music Factory on Frenchmen Street - they've got a great selection with an emphasis on Louisiana artists, including a substantial collection of new and vintage vinyl, all in the midst of Frenchmen Street's live performance corridor (they even offer live performances).

Euclid Records in the Bywater is a local legend, and if you're staying uptown, Peaches Records on Magazine also has a respectable local music section.

MUSIC FESTIVALS

We have more festivals in south Louisiana than there are days of the year.

If you've got a hankering to pay us a visit, but you're not sure when is the best time, knowing your festival options can make the choice easier - or harder, but in a good way.

Spring and fall are the prime festival seasons (and the best times of year to be outside in general).

Music lovers worldwide make the pilgrimage to the Jazz and Heritage Festival (Jazz Fest), which takes place the last weekend of April and the first weekend of May each year and combines a few out-of-town headliners with the cream of the local crop.

If Jazz Fest prices are daunting, consider French Quarter Fest - a weekend of food and music spread across the French Quarter in early April with no admission fee.

Beyond these, there's a fest for just about every locally farmed or fished ingredient, plus festivals for neighborhoods, music genres, colors - we'll take any excuse.

Bear in mind that while admission is often free, they'll get you on food and drink prices.

What Does Reddit Think?

A lot of very knowledgeable people use Reddit every day to discuss a myriad of topics, including subjects like this!

While you're not always going to get the most accurate answer from Reddit users, you will sometimes find some very authentic points of view which can help you make a decision about where to go for live music in New Orleans.

A lot of locals prefer Frenchmen street, and they do tend to have better performers and some very fine establishments in the area, so it's not difficult to see why.

As you can see, many people recommend Frenchmen first and foremost, but there are a few other recommendations here that are also worth considering, including street music in Jackson Square.

While it's no Reddit, we do have a pretty great Facebook Group for New Orleans Travel Tips where you can ask any question you might have and our group members might just have an answer!

Related Articles:

• Music, Arts, and More Tour
• 12 Awesome Places to Hear Live Music on Frenchman Street
• Other Things to Do in New Orleans