Overview
Hear and feel the sounds of past and present as you explore this vibrant city by foot!
This is what NOLA is all about - energy and emotion! You can feel it in the streets.
New Orleans is a city of sounds - music fills the streets and is very much an integral component of the past and present history of this city. For New Orleanians music is the breath of life, and plays a significant role in social gatherings as well as important life events. We begin this walking tour with a stroll through the city's Congo Square in Louis Armstrong Park - the birthplace of African American Jazz music and a place where music fills the air still today.
Your guide will take you back to a time when Congo Square was a melting pot and safe place for a fusion of sounds created by Africans, Haitians and Black American Indians. A bonding ritual of sorts, where you would hear the sounds of homelands far away creating a fusion of sounds and an emotional bond between those who played them. Over time these sounds evolved to create a new sound and a new genre of music known to New Orleans.
Not only is New Orleans the birthplace of American Jazz music but also home to some of the first recordings of both R & B and Rock n' Roll music and that is just where our journey continues - to Matassa's, perhaps the most famous recording studio in all of New Orleans. Learn about notable musicians of the 1950s and 1960s including Fats Domino, Little Richard, Dr. John and many more.
A walking tour of New Orleans wouldn't be complete without walking down Bourbon Street and that is just where we are headed. We will stop at Music Legends Park where we will take a break to enjoy live music that is played here daily. Musicians such as the Dukes of Dixieland, Louis Prima, and Harry Connick Jr., amongst many others, got their start here and elsewhere in the French Quarter.
Our last stop is Preservation Hall. Once an art gallery, and then a jazz hall, Preservation Hall today is an active music venue for touring artists. K'eb Mo, Alabama Shakes, and Foo Fighters have all taken the stage here. While we don't enter Preservation Hall it is a highly recommended stop for anyone visiting the city of music and the final stop of our tour.
- Refreshments will be available for purchase at Music Legends Park, though these are not included in the cost of this program.
- This tour will run rain or shine. Please dress accordingly.
Days offered: 7 days a week
Departures:- 09:00 AM, duration: 2.5 hours
- 10:00 AM, duration: 2.5 hours
- 11:00 AM, duration: 2.5 hours
