New Orleans Piano
Guide #1 · 13 entries — If you want to understand New Orleans music, start at the piano. The sound, the professors who made it, and the living players carrying it now — with links to hear the music, and buy it.
New Orleans Trumpet
Guide #2 · 10 entries — If you want to understand New Orleans music, start at the trumpet. It carried the melody when jazz was born, became the first solo voice the music ever had, and still leads the parade today — with links to hear the music, and buy it.
New Orleans Trombone
Guide #3 · 12 entries — If the trumpet carried the melody when jazz was born, the trombone was the voice underneath it — and then it stood up, walked to the front of the parade, and took over the stage. This is the tailgate line, from Kid Ory to the players carrying it now.
New Orleans Clarinet
Guide #4 · 9 entries — When jazz was born, the front line was three voices: the trumpet on top, the trombone underneath, and the clarinet weaving between them — fast, vocal, and impossible to ignore. This is that middle voice, from Sidney Bechet to the players carrying it now.
New Orleans Drums
Guide #5 · 12 entries — If New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz, the drums are its heartbeat — the second-line parade beat, the backbeat that became rock and roll, the funk pocket that rewired popular music. This is that beat, from the studio drummers who invented it to the players carrying it now.
New Orleans Singer/Songwriters
Guide #6 · 12 entries — New Orleans has always written its own songs — and, more often than not, sung them itself. This is the line of writers who put the song and the voice in one person, from the R&B 45s of the 1950s to the club stages and living rooms where the city's songs are still being written now.