New Orleans is one of the earliest places of jazz development in North America, in the form of Dixieland - a style of jazz. Jazz in general is a large branching genre of music which incorporates lots of improvisation, and was primarily developed by African-Americans street musicians (they were brought to North America as slaves). Many of the most influential African-American jazz musicians originate from New Orleans, such as Louis Armstrong and Wynton Marsalis.
Louis Armstrong is possibly the most influential artist in jazz history. In his teens, he picked up the cornet and began learning music by listening to the jazz pioneers at that time. His most important early works were played by the Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven bands, examples would be “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue,” or “Wild Man Blues.” His incredible improvisation, technique, harmony, and swing feel all contributed to his success.
Wynton Marsalis is one of the most famous musicians alive today. He has done extensive work in both classical and jazz genres. At just age 14, he was playing trumpet with the New Orleans Philharmonic. In 1980, Marsalis joined the Jazz Messengers (a band led by Art Blakey, also a significant jazz figure). He has since assembled his own band, and also leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
There's tons of street musicians playing jazz in New Orleans. It'll be nice to just walk around the city and immerse ourselves in music. We may even run into a well known musicians - who knows?
The New Orleans Jazz Museum is a must visit for us while we are in New Orleans. It contains exhibits featuring different parts of jazz history and culture, it'll be interesting to see what we can learn there.
There's also the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, an event which happens annually and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. This time, it's happening from April 29th to May 8th. Will make sure to not miss that.
While in New Orleans, we will be staying at the Maison de la Luz, a popular luxury hotel. As for dining, there are again plenty of options, and we haven't really found anything which seems interesting from our research, so we will explore the options once we get there.