Modern New Orleans

There's more rich musical history in New Orleans than virtually any other place on Earth, but don't think for a minute that the Crescent City is stuck in the past. Their music scene's like the city itself — you never know what's coming next. Rappers like Mystikal may be a long way from zydeco, but the fat, greasy beats powering megahit "Shake Ya A*s" are still part of a family tree reaching back through the Meters to the boom of a second-line bass drum. Anybody who's seen HBO series Treme has an idea how much hot music's happening in post-Katrina New Orleans, and they sure know John Boutte, whose jumping "Treme Song" opens the show every week. Trombone Shorty's face has graced Treme too — his blend of Big Easy funk, brass-band sass, and unstoppable energy on tunes like "Hurricane Season" has made him the hottest New Orleans export since jambalaya.

Fish-head rockers and electronic shockers do it New Orleans-style, in Next Steps.

There's a lot more to the musical makeup of modern-day New Orleans than brass bands and zydeco accordion-pumpers. The roots-rockin' Subdudes stir up a sound that owes as much to the Stones as it does to the swamp on "All the Time In the World." The Radiators came up with the name "fish-head music" for the blend of Southern rock, blues riffs, and Crescent City soul you can hear on their first hit, "Like Dreamers Do." But if it's electronica you're after, put in a call to Telefon Tel Aviv, whose ambient tones on "Fahrenheit Fair Enough" offer an idea of what might've happened if Brian Eno came from Orleans Parish instead of East Anglia.

In Deep Cuts, the funky forefathers who blazed the trails turn up to show how it's done.

The new New Orleans artists aren't the only ones who know how to tear it up — the stalwarts of the scene still pack a powerful punch. George Porter, Jr. was the bass ace for founding funk fathers the Meters, and he still makes that groove stand up and salute when he steps up front for "All I Do Everyday." It's been more than three decades since the Dirty Dozen Brass Band first breathed new life into an old tradition, and judging by their scrappy strut through "Down By the Riverside," they've still got lots of blowing to do. But don't let the Pine Leaf Boys fool you with "Zydeco gris-gris" — they may sound like old-time Cajun kings, but they're really a bunch of fresh-faced twentysomethings with a sense of history and some hot licks to boot.

In decades past, New Orleans has been everything from the birthplace of jazz to a hotbed of heavy-duty R&B. But the Crescent City has never been one to rest on its laurels — a steady stream of innovators has been heating things up in the land of Cajun fiddles and brass bands. Some are Next Big Things finding new routes for the classic sounds, like the Pine Leaf Boys and Trombone Shorty, and some have started their own NOLA traditions, like Juvenile and Eric Lindell. Add in the New Orleans legends who still have something new to say, and you've got yourself one big, steaming, spicy pot of funk, jazz, rock, rap, and more, just waiting to be tasted. So bring your appetite, because we've been trolling through it all to come up with the sounds that resound in today's New Orleans — the sounds Katrina couldn't keep down.