The Band That Gave the Maple Leaf Its First Saturdays

The Maple Leaf Bar opened on February 24, 1974 with Andrew Hall’s Society Jazz Band onstage. What began as an opening-night booking quickly became something much more important to the new Oak Street room.

The band kept coming back every Saturday for seven years. Before the Maple Leaf accumulated decades of New Orleans music history, its identity was being built one weekend at a time by a local group and a crowd that knew where to find them. The room would eventually become associated with generations of New Orleans players, but its first tradition started on opening night and simply refused to stop.

Explore the Maple Leaf Bar venue guide.

Sources: Maple Leaf Bar