Best Jazz Bars
in New Orleans

Snug Harbor is the finest jazz venue on Frenchmen Street and one of the best in the country. Ellis Marsalis played residencies here. Charmaine Neville holds the stage regularly. The room is split between a listening venue upstairs and a bar and restaurant on the ground floor, and both spaces are worth your time. Friday and Saturday headline shows sell out. Book in advance. The menu is New Orleans bistro: straightforward, generous, and well-matched to the drinks list. Admission runs $20 to $35.

DBA operates as a serious bar first and a music venue second, which means the drinks are good and the cover charge is minimal or absent. The music runs from 6pm to 2am most nights, covering jazz, funk, brass band, and blues depending on who is on. The bar pours an excellent selection of Louisiana craft beers alongside the standard cocktail offering. Walk-in always. No dress code. No pretensions. The sidewalk fills up on weekends and becomes its own kind of party.

A narrow, two-room bar and small plate restaurant that programmes jazz every night from 6pm. The food is ambitious for a music venue: Spanish and southern-influenced small plates that actually hold up to the drink list. The cocktail programme is serious. The musicians are locals playing original work rather than standards, which makes Three Muses one of the places on Frenchmen Street where you are most likely to hear something new. No reservations, walk-in only, arrive by 7pm for a seat.

Preservation Hall has operated as a shrine to traditional New Orleans jazz since 1961, and whatever you think about its tourist-facing reputation, the music inside is consistently exceptional. The Hall holds 100 people standing. The sets are 45 minutes. The musicians are lifetime professionals who grew up in the tradition they are performing. There is no bar inside and no air conditioning, which keeps visits focused. VIP tickets at $50 include reserved seating. Standard entry is $20 and the queue forms an hour before doors.

Inside the Royal Sonesta hotel sits one of the French Quarter's most serious jazz rooms. The stage hosts Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra regularly, alongside rotating acts from the city's working jazz community. The room holds 200 people. The drinks are hotel-bar priced but the service and quality are appropriate. This is where visitors who want serious jazz in comfortable surroundings should start. Cover charge applies most evenings.

Kermit Ruffins is New Orleans jazz made flesh. He plays trumpet, runs a BBQ smoker at his shows, and performs with a band that has been together long enough to communicate without looking at each other. His regular shows happen at multiple Tremé-area venues depending on the season. The admission is low, the atmosphere is entirely non-tourist, and watching Ruffins work a room is one of the genuine pleasures of New Orleans nightlife. Check his schedule before you visit.

The Spotted Cat is a small, always-crowded bar that books swing, jazz, and gypsy jazz acts from 3pm daily and runs music until 2am without interruption. There is no cover charge. The bar is cash only. The cocktails are strong and simple. The dancing that breaks out in the small dancefloor area in front of the stage on Friday and Saturday nights is spontaneous rather than choreographed, which makes it one of the most purely joyful rooms in the city.

Named for Professor Longhair's song and opened in 1977 to give him somewhere to play, Tipitina's is the city's most important large music venue. Capacity is 800. The stage has hosted every major name in New Orleans music for nearly 50 years. Jazz nights sit alongside funk, R&B, and brass band on a calendar that rewards following carefully. Sunday afternoon shows are all-ages and tend toward the most adventurous programming. Admission ranges from $10 to $35.

Bacchanal is New Orleans's finest wine bar, a BYOB discovery shop, and a live music venue rolled into a rambling Bywater compound. Musicians play in the courtyard from 6pm nightly, covering jazz, blues, and brass band depending on who has been booked. The wine list is extraordinary. The food is simple and excellent. The crowd is the most mixed in the city by age, occupation, and aesthetic. Arrive by 6:30pm to get a table in the garden.

The Palm Court books traditional New Orleans jazz with the consistency and seriousness of an institution while retaining the warmth of a family-run restaurant. The courtyard is open for dining. The stage is active from Wednesday through Sunday. This is the room where people who have been coming to New Orleans for 30 years bring their children for their first real exposure to the city's musical tradition. The food is Creole and dependable. The music is trad jazz played by people who have been playing it their whole lives.