JAZZ NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

Experience the Roots of Jazz in New Orleans

New Orleans, LA – Celebrating the origins of jazz, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park allows visitors the opportunity to learn more about the cultural history of the people and places that helped shape and develop one of America’s indigenous musical art forms. The park features exhibits, live performances and lectures with local musicians and historians. Every week, park rangers present a variety of programs that involve everything from interactive demonstrations to lectures where visitors can just sit back and learn. On Saturdays, the park hosts a variety of musicians to explore the origins, development and progression of New Orleans jazz. Children are also invited to bring their own instruments for workshops with local brass bands. Regular performers and guests include the Treme Brass Band, Storyville Stompers, Evan Christopher and Tom McDermott. There are many opportunities to learn what goes on behind the music and local historians, musicians and participants from around the city explore topics such as jazz funerals, second-line parades and Mardi Gras Indians. There are also maps and information available for self-guided jazz history walking tours in six neighborhoods. Leading visitors throughout the French Quarter and the Central Business District, the tours step back into history and past some of the old jazz clubs, birthplaces and landmarks of the past century. The park and the New Orleans Jazz Commission began videotaping oral histories of local music legends in 1998 to collect and preserve the memories and oral traditions of New Orleans musicians. The collection of interviews is available at the visitor’s center and includes more than 100 musicians such as Lionel Batiste, Deacon John Moore, Wardell Querzergue and Clive Wilson. The park also traces the roots of jazz from the African dancing and drumming of Congo Square in the 1780s to the contemporary jazz of today. Exhibits document the lives and history of such legends as Charles “Buddy” Bolden, “Papa Jack” George Vetiala Laine and Sidney Bechet. Perhaps the most famous of all, Louis Armstrong helped to popularize the polyphonic ensemble style of New Orleans and elevated the jazz solo to unprecedented artistic levels. The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park visitors center is located at 916 N. Peters St. in New Orleans. Operating hours are Tue.-Sat. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. year-round except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. For more information, call (504) 589-4806 or visit www.nps.gov/jazz. The New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation promotes the city as a leisure tourism destination throughout the year. Annually, NOTMC’s marketing campaigns include strategic print, broadcast, and Internet advertising and public relations. Web sites: www.NewOrleansOnline.com; www.NewOrleansMuseums.com; www.HearNewOrleansMusic.com.

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