Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr. John, once told me that when a brass band plays at a small club back up in one of the neighborhoods, it’s as if the audience–dancing, singing to the...

[Writer Tom Piazza was born on Long Island but now calls New Orleans home.] New Orleans has a personality unlike any other city, … It has its own architecture, its own vegetation, its own smells...

[Does Piazza feel jazz is an acquired taste?] If by ‘acquired taste’ you mean that jazz resists immediate enjoyment, I’m not sure I agree, … But an active understanding of the ways in which the...

It’s omnipresent, and it has seeped into the ground,

I lost all my income for the fall because I was supposed to be teaching at Loyola (University) and I also do regular lectures on jazz in New Orleans, … A number of friends helped...

In New Orleans, the funeral traditions are there to remind you that life goes on,

I don’t see how there could be any future for New Orleans without music.

I want readers to come away from the new book with an appreciation both for how complex jazz is, and yet how clear its structures are, … And I want them to come away knocked...

It’s a core element of the city’s identity. It’s a part of everything in New Orleans. It’s not just entertainment – it’s part of the way people conceive of life.