Frenchmen Street

Attendees on Frenchman Street during Night Summit on the opening day of Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo by Stephen McCarthy / Collision

Just outside of the French Quarter in the Marigny neighborhood, music of all different kinds pours out from the clubs along Frenchmen Street.

Business on Frenchmen Street began back in the 1940s. Multiple retail shops sprung up along the street, and according to Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune, it was even referred to as “Little Canal Street” (“Jazz lives on Frenchmen St”, October 19, 2003). However, during the 1960s, the businesses relocated to the suburbs, and Frenchmen Street’s low rents began to bring in bars and small restaurants. But as far as music was concerned, Professor John H. Baron said in a personal interview on November 7, 2011 that “nothing was on Frenchmen fifty years ago.” The street began to truly establish itself as a music destination in the late eighties to nineties with Dream Palace and Snug Harbor at the forefront. “[Snug Harbor] was the first [music club] of Frenchmen that caught our [locals] attention,” stated Professor Baron. Since Snug Harbor’s inception, many more venues have opened, including Café Negril, The Blue Nile (formerly Dream Palace), the Apple Barrel, The Spotted Cat, and d.b.a.

Within just the past fifteen years, a new music scene emerged on Frenchmen Street and has created quite a buzz. Howard Reich wrote that according to Kenneth Ferdinand, owner of Frenchmen Street coffeehouse Café Rose Nicaud, “Frenchmen Street is where you go when you don’t want the hocus-pocus and overproduction of the clubs on Bourbon Street.”

Music Scene

Part of the reason for Frenchmen Street’s success is that it draws locals, meaning that the music played there isn’t as poppy and commercial as that of Bourbon Street. Reich wrote that according to the late blues singer and guitarist Coco Robicheaux, “It’s our own little Bohemia away from Bourbon Street.” A large amount of musical diversity is offered on Frenchmen Street. “There is, right now, a lot going on there, and a lot of variety going on. Usually any evening you can walk up and down that street and find at least one club that you’d like to linger a little bit to hear something,” said Professor Baron. In contrast to the atmosphere of Bourbon Street, Frenchmen Street’s environment fosters more creativity and experimentation amongst musicians. In “The Other Bourbon,” published in Next American City in Winter 2007, Mike Sabel wrote that any given night on Frenchmen Street, one can hear many different genres including various subgenres of jazz, soul, reggae, blues, rockabilly, and zydeco.

Sabel said that according to Gabriel Vasquez, percussionist with the Latin band Otra, “I’d rather work a day job than play that Bourbon Street kind of stuff because I would just get burnt out. On Frenchmen Street, you can play with different bands, different styles.” Otra’s bassist, New Orleans native Sam Price stated that Frenchmen Street “is what Bourbon Street used to be like back in the day. Thriving. Lots of music.” Sabel also writes that saxophonist Brent Rose said “you walk up and down this street and you have fifteen to twenty musicians you know, all doing different stuff every night. It’s inspiring, it spurs creativity, it stirs the pot.” But despite its vibrant culture and music scene, certain challenges and obstacles threaten Frenchmen Street’s future.

Changing Musical Direction

According to some, the music itself being played on Frenchmen Street is beginning to change. When asked whether music on Frenchmen Street will ever follow the same path as that of Bourbon, pianist Jesse McBride stated on November 30, 2011, “For me, it [music on Frenchmen] has definitely gone in that direction.” When McBride first came to New Orleans in 1998, he said that “if you wanted to deal with some jazz, [Frenchmen Street] is where you’d go.” But apparently after Katrina, many of Frenchmen’s seasoned players moved away, with younger, more amateur, players filling the void. According to McBride, owners of the clubs on Frenchmen began to play slightly more mass-appealing music to make more money. Still, while there may have been some change in the music being played on Frenchmen, it’s not even close to the pop stylings of Bourbon Street.

Legal Troubles

Frenchmen Street also faces various legal obstacles. In fact, many of the venues do not even possess licenses for live music. Spotted Cat has had troubles regarding its liquor license, and the popular Café Hookah closed because it was unable to obtain a license “to become a bar where smoking with food is allowed under the Smoke Free Law,” John Swenson wrote in “Another Troubled Street” in Offbeat magazine in April 2009.  Also, the music scene of Frenchmen Street arose in an area not sanctioned by the government for entertainment. In recent years, Reich says many locals have been lobbying to have Frenchmen officially zoned for entertainment so that venues can operate legally, safeguarding a bright future for the street. Reich wrote that according to Scott Aiges, director of music business development for former Mayor C. Ray Nagin, “Basically our zoning is out of whack with our culture, so our job is to fix the zoning by designating Frenchmen Street between Esplanade and Royal as an official arts and culture district.” Swenson says that another worry is that Frenchmen Street’s tourist draw might grow out of control, resulting in another Bourbon Street, though certain organizations such as the Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association (FMIA) and the Frenchmen Street Arts and Cultural Overlay (FSACO) work to prevent this from happening.