<p>Join Rangers from the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/jela/index.htm">Jean Lafitte National Historical Park &amp; Preserve</a> to learn about the rich cultural history that makes New Orleans such a special place. </p>
<p>Each talk is "Ranger's Choice." The topics will vary by day and by ranger.</p>
<p>This ranger talk takes place at 10:00 am at the National Park Service French Quarter visitor center - 419 Decatur St, New Orleans, LA.</p>
<p>Free.</p>
<p>No reservations required.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3 style="padding-left: 210px;"> </h3>
<p> </p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"> </p>

A National Park Service ranger hat on a picnic table

Ranger Talk at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Saskia Walker and Isabel Chase</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wednesday at 1:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p>Vocalist <strong>Saskia Walker</strong> moved to New Orleans in 2019 from her home town of Rome, Italy, to explore its vibrant musical landscape. She has since worked with many notable musicians in recording studios like Esplanade Studios, and live performances at the Spotted Cat, the Maple Leaf at d.b.a. on Frenchman Street.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

Saskia Walker and Isabel Chase at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jazz Piano Hour with Larry Sieberth</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wednesday at 3:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p><strong>Larry Sieberth</strong> is a multi-talented solo pianist, sideman, accompanist, composer, and producer who is most at home in the jazz idiom but who adeptly performs across the musical spectrum.</p>
<p>Sieberth has played in numerous combos over the years; his ensembles have ranged from small avant-garde groups to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. He currently tours and performs with Gerald French and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band and with jazz singers Germaine Bazzle and Lena Prima (daughter of Louis). He has performed with a wide variety of local and internationally-known musicians, including Johnny Adams, Charles Neville, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Tony Dagradi, Johnny Vidacovich, Herlin Riley, Victor Goines, Don Vappie, Gatemouth Brown, Badal Roy, Hamid Drake, the Corpus Christi and Baton Rouge Symphonies, and Jason Marsalis.</p>
<p>Sieberth is an accomplished composer, music director and arranger, with credits including “Bessie,” the Emmy-winning HBO film starring Queen Latifah, “The Warehouse Revisited,” and “Mudbound,” a Grammy-nominated film.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

Larry Sieberth at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jazz Piano Hour with Josh Paxton</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wednesday at 3:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p><strong>Josh Paxton</strong> studied piano with Ellis Marsalis, and the keyboard master’s style is a combination of New Orleans' deep piano traditions inflected with modern jazz twists, classical technique, and a funky rhythmic drive. He’s toured with a wide range of artists ranging from Bruce Hornsby to the Wild Magnolias, and currently can be found with a number of top bands, including chanteuse Debbie Davis, with Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, and bouzouki maven Beth Patterson in the ZouKeys. He is an expert on James Booker, and a staple at WWOZ Piano Night.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

Josh Paxton at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Saskia Walker and Kyle Roussel</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wednesday at 1:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p>Vocalist <strong>Saskia Walker</strong> moved to New Orleans in 2019 from her home town of Rome, Italy, to explore its vibrant musical landscape. She has since worked with many notable musicians in recording studios like Esplanade Studios, and live performances at the Spotted Cat, the Maple Leaf at d.b.a. on Frenchman Street.</p>
<p>Pianist <strong>Kyle Roussel</strong> represents the best of the next generation, an exciting young player who holds down the keyboards for the history-steeped Preservation Hall Jazz Band and as a sideman for numerous jazz, gospel, and funk bands across New Orleans.</p>
<p>Roussel got his first professional call from drummer Shannon Powell, and other established musicians soon took notice of the young Roussel’s keyboard prowess and versatility. He spent nearly three years touring the world with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and now holds down a full-time gig with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. He’s performed with The Headhunters, Christian Scott, Delfeayo Marsalis, John Boutte, Donald Harrison, Jr., Bonerama, Topsy Chapman, Mia Borders, Khris Royal, and even hill country bluesman Cedric Burnside.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

Saskia Walker and Kyle Roussel at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Saskia Walker and John Royen</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wednesday at 1:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p>Vocalist <strong>Saskia Walker</strong> moved to New Orleans in 2019 from her home town of Rome, Italy, to explore its vibrant musical landscape. She has since worked with many notable musicians in recording studios like Esplanade Studios, and live performances at the Spotted Cat, the Maple Leaf at d.b.a. on Frenchman Street.</p>
<p><strong>John Royen</strong> rules the stride piano, bringing the syncopated sounds to clubs and festivals around New Orleans and across the globe. The veteran pianist has performed with a Who’s Who of traditional jazz, from Pete Fountain and the Dukes of Dixieland to Duke Heitger and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

Saskia Walker and John Royen at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jazz Piano Hour with Leslie Martin</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wednesday at 3:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p><strong>Leslie Martin</strong>, a native of Chauvin, Louisiana, is a fluid and adaptable pianist at home as both a bandleader and a sideman, performing capably across genres ranging from jazz to Cajun, to country to rock. He has played with a host of high-powered artists including Pete Fountain, Jon Batiste, Lena Prima, Germaine Bazzle, and Jewel Brown. In addition to his work as a solo artist and sideman, Martin can also be heard on tour with the indefinable, raucously joyful group The Squirrel Nut Zippers.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

Leslie Martin at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jazz Piano Hour with CR Gruver</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Thursday at 3:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p><strong> R. Gruver</strong> is a keyboardist, educator, and bandleader who can usually be found performing with the hard-touring New Orleans Suspects or as head of the New Orleans School of Rock youth program. His musical stylings emerge from a multitude of influences ranging from Little Feat to Professor Longhair.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

CR Gruver at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Saskia Walker</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wednesday at 1:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p>Vocalist <strong>Saskia Walker</strong> moved to New Orleans in 2019 from her home town of Rome, Italy, to explore its vibrant musical landscape. She has since worked with many notable musicians in recording studios like Esplanade Studios, and live performances at the Spotted Cat, the Maple Leaf at d.b.a. on Frenchman Street.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

Saskia Walker at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jazz Piano Hour with Hannah Kreiger Benson</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wednesday at 3:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p><strong>Hannah Kreiger-Benson</strong> directs Research and Programs for the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans, focusing on the cultural economy, the ways the cultural landscape is shaped by legal and power structures, advocating for resources for the cultural community, and the history of Frenchmen Street. She is also a full-time musician on piano, trumpet, and vocals, and is the music director for the all-female supergroup N.O.B.A.B.E and the multi-disciplinary Van Ella Bordella. She is a Board member for the Musicians' Council on Fair Wages, Culture Aid NOLA, and the Camel Toe Lady Steppers, an adjunct professor of piano skills and musician life-skills at Loyola University,a member of the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund Working Group, and a voting member of the Recording Academy.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

Hannah Kreiger Benson at 419 Decatur St

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jazz Piano Hour with Shea Pierre</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Thursday at 3:00 pm</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p><strong>Shea Siraj</strong> <strong>(Shea Pierre)</strong> is a pianist, composer, and producer from Louisiana whose music reflects lineage, freedom, and deep spiritual searching. His sound sits at the intersection of ancestral tradition and modern expression. Rooted in the soil of Louisiana, Pierre began performing at the age of four, growing up surrounded by gospel and the oral traditions that shaped generations before him. Over time, he developed an artistry that is meditative, soulful, and unafraid.</p>
<p>Mentored by Ellis Marsalis and Donald Harrison, Pierre absorbed the values of integrity, storytelling, and mastery that run through Black American music. The late Ahmad Jamal once referred to him as “the effortless pianist,” a phrase that captures both his technical fluidity and the spiritual ease embedded in his playing.</p>
<p>Shea has toured and recorded internationally with a wide spectrum of artists including Cheif Xian Atunde Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott), Donald Harrison, The HeadHunters, Fatoumata Diawara, Ledisi, Karl Denson, Weedie Briamah, Delfaeyo Marsalis, and Herlin Riley.</p>
<p>As a producer and composer, Pierre continues to push beyond category, creating works that blur the line between the concert hall, the studio, and the sacred space. His music invites listeners inward—toward reflection, movement, and connection. It’s less about genre and more about spirit: a living conversation between past and present, between discipline and release, between the known and the infinite.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>

Shea Pierre at 419 Decatur St

<h3 style="text-align: center;">The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park</h3>
<p style="text-align: center;">in partnership with </p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.frenchmarket.org/">The French Market</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: center;">presents</p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Family Music with Johnette Downing</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">on Thursday at 11:00 am</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><strong>at our Dutch Alley Performance Space</strong></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><strong>916 N Peters St</strong></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Musician and published author </span><strong><span data-contrast="auto">Jonhette Downing</span></strong><span data-contrast="auto">’s Louisiana Roots Music for Children p</span><span data-contrast="none">rovides a culturally immersive presentation for children, school groups, play groups, and families about the rich musical heritage of the region from jazz to zydeco with interactive songs like “Who Got the Baby in the King Cake?,” “Today is Monday in Louisiana,” and “Give Me That Zydeco.”</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240,&quot;469777462&quot;:[720,3600,11160],&quot;469777927&quot;:[0,0,0],&quot;469777928&quot;:[1,1,4]}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">Johnette is the recipient of the 2017 Louisiana Writer Award. Her original Louisiana roots music is a joyful experience for children and parents alike, with plenty of opportunites for kids to two-steop and sing along. The author of twelve recordings and thirty books, she has performed on five continents.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240,&quot;469777462&quot;:[720,3600,11160],&quot;469777927&quot;:[0,0,0],&quot;469777928&quot;:[1,1,4]}"> </span></p>

Johnette Downing Family Music Series at our Dutch Alley Performance Space

<p> </p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Silver Swan Ragtime Interpreters</strong></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><strong>In Commemoration of the Battle of New Orleans</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>present</strong></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>1812—A March Through Musical History</strong></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Thursday, January 8 at 3:00 pm</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;">At the National Park Service French Quarter Visitor Center </p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">419 Decatur St, New Orleans</h3>
<p>The <strong>Silver Swan Ragtime Interpreters</strong> present: <strong>"1812—A March Through Musical History,"</strong> a program that will highlight the musical form of the military march, it's relevance to the war of 1812, earlier 18th century French and Spanish marches and their later development in the Latin American world and in the US, and ways in which the march became part of ballroom and social dance culture all the way up to the turn of the 20th century, blending in new ideas from African American music, and ending with a trad jazz classic from New Orleans.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This program is free and open to the public.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>

Silver Swan Ragtime Interpreters at 419 Decatur St

Arts and Culture

Cultural Demonstrations

Live Music

Guided Tours

Self-Guided Tours - Walking

Junior Ranger Program

Shopping

Bookstore and Park Store

Gift Shop and Souvenirs

African American Heritage

Birthplace

Music

Urban America

Email is generally answered within 48 hours.

Discover the roots of jazz at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. Located in the heart of the French Quarter, our park offers live performances, exhibits, and programs that celebrate the legacy of America's unique musical art form. Immerse yourself in the vibrant history and culture of jazz, a sound that continues to inspire the world. Join us in preserving and celebrating the music!

A young brass band musician plays a trumpet

Community Events by New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park

Exhibit titled "What Is New Orleans Jazz?"

Visitor Center Exhibit at New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park

Kids and adults playing instruments on a stage

Visitor Center Concert at New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park

Singer with jazz band, including park rangers

US Mint Concert by New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park

Rangers and others sing and play on a stage

US Mint Voting Rights Act Program at New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park

New Orleans Jazz

These are the standard hours for the French Quarter Visitor Center for New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve at 419 Decatur St, New Orleans, LA 70130.

The secondary site for New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park (Dutch Alley) at 916 N Peters St, New Orleans, LA 70116, is only open for special events.  Please see our event calendar for details.

Day	Hours
Friday	9:30AM - 4:30PM
Monday	Closed
Sunday	Closed
Tuesday	9:30AM - 4:30PM
Saturday	9:30AM - 4:30PM
Thursday	9:30AM - 4:30PM
Wednesday	9:30AM - 4:30PM

New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park

Park Photos

Activities

Operating Hours

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Ranger Talk at 419 Decatur St

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Ranger Talk at 419 Decatur St

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Saskia Walker and Isabel Chase at 419 Decatur St

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Larry Sieberth at 419 Decatur St

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Josh Paxton at 419 Decatur St

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Saskia Walker and Kyle Roussel at 419 Decatur St

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Saskia Walker and John Royen at 419 Decatur St

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Leslie Martin at 419 Decatur St

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CR Gruver at 419 Decatur St

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Saskia Walker at 419 Decatur St

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Plan

Get Involved

New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park

Info

Park Photos

Activities

Operating Hours

Weather info

Events

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