Jazz Music

The rhythms of jazz go back to Congo Square in New Orleans, one of the only places in the South where Africans and free people of color could gather, play music and dance in the days before the Civil War. While conceived in Congo Square, jazz grew up in Storyville, the notorious red-light district. From there, it traveled upriver to the rest of America by steamboat. Then legends like New Orleans native Louis Armstrong gifted it to the whole world. Read more about Louisiana's jazz music.