1870 Milneburg Port declines but Jazz flourishes
In 1870, the port declined when it lost much of its cargo to the New Orleans, Mobile and Chattanooga Railroad After 1870...the area (Milneburg) evolved into an entertainment district, as the city's passenger train, the Smoky Mary, carried more middle-class visitors to the resort. Entertainment included jazz, with Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Danny Barker performing. An Excerpt from the 1999 Land Use Plan New Orleans City Planning Commission. Pictured is Sidney Bechet, a child prodigy in New Orleans. He was such good clarinet player that he featured by some of the top bands in the city, when he was still a child. Bechet's style of playing clarinet and soprano sax dominanted many of the bands that he was in. He played lead parts that were usually reserved for trumpets and was a master of improvisation. In 1939, Bechet played saxophone & sang with Jelly Roll Morton's New Orleans Jazzmen.