Most people go to New Orleans for the food. What they end up describing afterward, however, is the sound.

The brass bands on Frenchmen Street are part of that sound. Another part is the way every good restaurant, café, and corner bar in the city curates its music as carefully as its menu. Once you start noticing, you can’t stop.

It’s one of those small details that determines how a place feels before you can explain why. Read on to find out where to hear it, how much a night out costs, and how deliberate it is.

Frenchmen Street: Where the Sound Is the Point

Frenchmen Street is located in the Faubourg Marigny, a short walk downriver from the French Quarter. Locals will send you there when you ask about the best music venues. Bourbon Street gets the tourists and the daiquiri bars. Frenchmen gets the jazz.

The strip runs about three blocks and has the highest concentration of live music venues in the city. There’s Snug Harbor, the Spotted Cat at 623 Frenchmen Street, d.b.a. across the street at 618, the Blue Nile at 532, Café Negril, and the Maison. You can settle into one of them for the whole night, and many are worth it.

A better approach is to arrive without a plan. Music spills out of open doorways along the entire strip, so you can walk until something catches your ear. At the Spotted Cat, the band plays on a low stage against the front window. People on the sidewalk press up against the glass to watch, as the band is close enough. The rooms are small, the bands often play for tips rather than a fee, and nobody here treats the music as background noise.

That’s what’s great about Frenchmen Street. The music leads, and…

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