Music tour category
Jazz tours start in New Orleans, where jazz was born and still plays every night, from Preservation Hall to the brass bands that march on Sunday afternoons.
Jazz came together in New Orleans around 1900, out of the drums of Congo Square, the brass bands of the social clubs, the blues and the ragtime of the dance halls. Louis Armstrong learned the cornet here; Jelly Roll Morton played in the Storyville parlors.
Unlike most musical birthplaces, New Orleans never turned its music into a museum. Preservation Hall plays traditional jazz every night in a room with wooden benches. Frenchmen Street has a dozen clubs on two blocks. Brass bands lead second line parades through the neighborhoods from late summer to spring.
Our jazz tours go from a single day with a local musician to five days in the Marigny, and to festival trips for French Quarter Fest, Jazz Fest and Satchmo SummerFest. Chicago's Green Mill, the jazz room of the 1920s, is on our Chicago tour, and the Blues Highway starts in New Orleans.
Each tour has reserved seats where seats exist and a guide who knows which band is playing where on the night you are in town.
Reserved seats for a set of traditional jazz.
One night, three bands, with a guide.
Congo Square and the Tremé, with a local musician.
French Quarter Fest, Jazz Fest and Satchmo SummerFest.
5 tours
New Orleans, Mississippi Delta, Memphis and Chicago
New Orleans, Clarksdale, Memphis, Chicago
The Great Migration route in nine days: from New Orleans jazz up through the Delta and Memphis, then overnight on the City of New Orleans train to the Chicago blues.
From $4,590 per person, double room
See the tourNew Orleans
New Orleans
Five days in the city that invented jazz, staying in the Marigny a block from Frenchmen Street, with Preservation Hall, a brass band night uptown and the Natchez on the river.
From $2,390 per person, double room
See the tourNew Orleans
New Orleans
Five days timed to the big New Orleans festivals: French Quarter Fest in April, either weekend of Jazz Fest, or Satchmo SummerFest in August, with tickets and shuttles included.
From $3,490 per person, double room
See the tourChicago
Chicago
Four nights of Chicago music: the Chess studio by day, Buddy Guy's club, the North Side blues bars and the Green Mill, where Capone's booth still faces the door.
From $1,990 per person, double room
See the tourNew Orleans
New Orleans
A day with a local musician: Tremé and Congo Square in the morning, the Jazz Museum after lunch, and three clubs on Frenchmen Street at night.
From $189 per person, lunch included
See the tourLand prices per person sharing a double room.
Top destinations
Questions
Mostly not. Bourbon has cover bands; the jazz is on Frenchmen Street, at Preservation Hall and in a few hotel bars.
Yes, anyone can walk behind the band. We plan a Sunday around one when a club parades.
Chicago has the Green Mill, and Detroit has Baker's Keyboard Lounge on the Motown tour.
Email us
Write to a travel advisor with the tour, the date and whether you want us to book flights. We answer within one business day with seats and the exact price. Nothing is charged until you decide.
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