This chapter begins by discussing a lost Toni Morrison manuscript about two different parts of this neighborhood that surrounds Basin Street, Storyville, and Congo Square, and from there it sketches the early history of both of these as well as of nearby Tremé. In each of these sections, after outlining their histories, there then follows a literature-based delineation of the major themes associated with the areas. Given that African-American music is understood to have begun in Congo Square, and that Jazz itself came to widespread attention through Storyville, the function of music is a key theme through all of this literature, and, more to the point, the particular function of music to encode and preserve memory. Congo Square itself will be discussed through the travel-writing by which visitors reported on what they saw there. Next, the chapter takes up the lore around the idea of the mixed-race “seductress,” as propagated in popular fiction, that drove the rise of the red-light district in what became Storyville. This latter territory forms the basis of Michael Ondaatje’s Coming through Slaughter and Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia. From there, it discusses the major writing of Tremé through Tom Dent, Brenda Marie Osbey, and Albert Woodfox.

Shipton decribes his first visit to New Orleans in 1976, hearing such locals as Kid Thomas's band at Preservation Hall, but also encountering such musical giants as Charles Mingus during the city's Jazz and Heritage Festival. He sits in with local bands and is mentored by the drummers Chester Jones and Freddie Kohlman, ending up playing often with Kohlman on his subsequent visits to Europe. He discusses the style and instruments of traditional bass players including Slow Drag Pavageau, Chester Zardis and Frank Fields. Some of the female pioneers of jazz are discussed including Sweet Emma Barrett, Sadie Goodson and Jeanette Kimball. The chapter concludes with a memory of pianist Don Ewell.