Frenchmen Notes: The Making of a Music Scene
Created by Hannah Kreiger-Benson and Laura DeFazio, founders of the Frenchmen Notes project, this tour tells the story of Frenchmen Street through the voices of those who helped to develop its sounds and scene.
Access: Walking
Distance: <0.5 miles, 10-15 minutes
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Stories 9
The Vacant Lot: Ashes to Oranges
Coors Underground (or is it Chords Underground? ....Cords?) was an old Frenchmen Street venue that was destroyed in a violent explosion in the mid-70s. It’s exceedingly hard to find any information about the place online, and not many people we’ve talked to seem to know about it. Those who do remember disagree on how to spell it, which likely contributes to the difficulty of tracking it down. Curiously, its main legacy seems to be the void it left behind: a charred vacant lot.
The Rooftop of Café Brasil: Adé Salgado Surveys The New Millennium
Famed coffeeshop-turned-music-incubator Café Brasil was a fixture on the Frenchmen Street scene between its opening in 1985 and its closure in 2006, the year after Hurricane Katrina. Although the venue is no longer in operation, it continues to loom large in the public imagination, and there’s probably no single person who shows up more in Frenchmen lore than Café Brasil’s charismatic, enigmatic owner: Adé Salgado.
The Bench: The Unofficial Landmark of a Bygone Era
Since the 1970s, Frenchmen has been home to a smorgasbord of music venues that have birthed, incubated, and showcased various facets of the local music scene. We’ve asked hundreds of musicians about their favorite spots on Frenchmen Street over the years (with an emphasis on the “musical incubator” aspect) and it’s surprising how many of them lead with somewhere that wasn’t a venue at all. It wasn’t even a place where people particularly played. It was just regular ol’ sidewalk bench.
Bicycle Michael’s: Post-Katrina Chair-Racing on a Freshly-Paved Street
Bicycle Michael’s is the oldest bike shop in New Orleans. As soon as Michael Ferrand opened it--on Royal Street, in 1983--his rent was inflated in anticipation of the 1984 World’s Fair. He was forced to relocate, a little off the beaten path, to Frenchmen Street. These days, his bike shop is a fixture in the neighborhood community.
The Christopher Inn: Soaked After the Second-Line
Sometimes referred to as the Patron Saint of Frenchmen Street and local style icon “Uncle” Lionel Batiste was a patriarch of the famed Treme Brass Band and one of the so-called “Benchmen of Frenchmen”--the eclectic crew that hung out on the bench outside the Apple Barrel to shoot the sh*t and pass along wisdom and/or dirty jokes to subsequent generations. In 2012, “Unc” passed away at the age of 80, at home at the Christopher Inn, where he lived on the corner of Royal and Frenchmen. Crowds of friends and neighbors and fellow musicians gathered on July 20th in the torrential rains, getting ready for the second-line...
Maison: Sierra Green Entertains The Entertainer
Frenchmen denizens are known for holding up their homegrown heroes rather than kowtowing to celebrity. (Think Coco Robicheaux, Uncle Lionel, Little Freddie King…) But that doesn’t mean that an internationally famous face in the audience can’t sometimes turn a regular gig into something special.
The Spotted Cat: Trombone Battle Of The Century
Young musicians on Frenchmen Street have unique opportunities to be inspired by their musical heroes on an up close and personal level. Jeremy Phipps, of the contemporary band People Museum, grew up going to Frenchmen Street and was able to witness some incredible virtuosic artistry even before he was old enough to get into the venues. Such as this mind-blowing event, observed from the sidewalk outside the Spotted Cat…
30/90, Cafe Negril, Spotted Cat: Hannah’s Three-Venue Runaround
In many places where the music industry thrives, bands and businesses are competitive, proprietary, or just plain isolated from one another. Frenchmen Street, on the other hand, has traditionally subscribed to the “borrow a cup of sugar” model…
d.b.a.: Margie Perez gets a Wonderful Surprise
Anything can happen on Frenchmen St. when the stars align! Margie Perez recounts a magic night on Frenchmen, capturing a moment in time: shortly after Hurricane Katrina, before smart phones, and populated with a few local legends who we have since sadly lost.Tour curated by: Hannah Kreiger-Benson and Laura DeFazio, Edited by Jessica Dauterive | For more, visit https://frenchmennotes.com/.