Jazz Solo on Frenchmen Street

story and photos by Kayte Deioma

When it comes to exploring a city’s nightlife, as a woman traveling alone I am more likely to choose a seat at the theatre than the bar or nightclub scene. I love to go out dancing with friends or a date, but if I go to a nightclub alone I usually feel, well, alone. But when a friend said that Frenchmen Street was a good place to go out on your own at night in New Orleans, I decided to check it out.

Patrons sit outside Cafe Brasil on Frenchmen Street in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, LAUnlike Bourbon Street, where you’ll find good music, but a great number of people are set on getting blitzed and there’s a certain sleaze factor, Frenchmen Street, located just outside the French Quarter in Faubourg Marigny, is all about the music. Although popular with locals, it has become a nightly haven for volunteers and relief workers to relax and unwind to good music after a hard day of gutting houses and trying to solve big problems. The half a dozen jazz clubs in a two block area, have a laid back bohemian feel.

Rebecca Barry and the FEMA No Checks, with  Sugar Bear on bass at the Apple Barrel on Frenchmen Street in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, LA At small storefront establishments you can hear the music as well from the street out front as inside. With no cover charge, it’s easy to grab a seat or a corner of the bar to enjoy a solo drink and blend into the musical groove. At theApple Barrel I found Rebecca Barry and the FEMA No Checks, with Greg Madison on guitar and Sugar Bear on bass accompanying Rebecca’s vocals and sax. I recognized Sugar Bear from the Market Café that same morning where he had been playing with two other musicians. A couple doors down I found Sugar Bear’s morning compatriots, Pierre Pichon and Rafael Bas, playing with Java Swing at the Spotted Cat.

Fredy Omar con su Banda perform at Cafe Brasil on Frenchmen Street in Faubourg Marigny, just outside the French Quarter in New Orleans, LA. Brent Rose on Sax and Fredy Omar.At Café Brasil on this Wednesday night, Fredy Omar con Su Banda were playing Latin jazz for fans spinning around the lightly crowded dance floor. I had met Omar a couple days before working at the Habitat for Humanity Musician’s Village building site. Omar was the first musician approved for a house at the site and he was putting in his sweat equity hours. Hanging out listening to the music, I recognized Habitat site supervisor Eli Grove. Some of the volunteers from Common Ground Relief were out on the dance floor. While New Orleans has always had a small town feel, the sparseness of the current population makes it that much more common to run into familiar faces when you’ve been in town a week.

Native New Orleanian Harold Toussaint delivers award-winning fried chicken and roasted chicken at the Praline Connection Southern Creole Soulfood Restaurant on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans, LA“Café Brasil is the incubator,” says Harold Toussant, a New Orleans native who waits tables at the Praline Connection, a New Orleans soul food restaurant across the street. “We know that every musician has a gift. Even if it is a little rough, people will be patient for them to develop the gift.” According to Toussant, those that have already polished their gift graduate to playing Snug Harbor, a block down and across the street. Snug Harboris known as the city’s premiere jazz club for up and coming artists as well as established names.

Frenchmen Street is located in Faubourg Marigny across Esplanade Avenue from the French Quarter. It meets Esplanade just below Decatur Street.

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