Welcome to the Ken Burns Jazz Event!
March 29, 2017 - April 2, 2017
This uniquely American music comes to life in its birthplace, New Orleans, on a one-of-a-kind Tauck Ken Burns Event. Explore the past, present and future of jazz in the city that gave it birth, featuring live jazz throughout- including private performances by Ellis Marsalis and Donald Harrison, a private Preservation Hall performance, a private jazz filled gala dinner cruise aboard the Steamboat Natches, plus an opportunity to meet filmaker, Ken Burns.
The Ken Burns Jazz Event is hosted only once every few years. CapRadio is providing a special opportunity for 24 CapRadio travelers to attend this special event. Reservations will be based on double occupancy with a very limited amount of single reservations. CapRadio travelers will be part of a select group of Tauck clients who will all be included at this special event.
Make a Reservation
Presented by Tauck
Tauck has created Tauck Events as theme driven, one of a kind travel experiences. These experiences are in a class by themselves:
Based in one destination with multi night stays at 1 hotel - no packing or unpacking.
Tauck has partnered with Ken Burns to craft collaborative events based around the themes of Ken's films, with an opportunity to meet Ken Burns.
Tauck Events feature exclusive access to places and experiences you can not do on your own.
Small group sightseeing tracks that are educational, participatory and mind-broadening.Go behind the scenes at key sites and venues, often off-the-beaten track. Exclusive Private Gala Evening Events held in premiere venues.
Personalized Concierge Service
Tauck Events are guided by Tauck Tour Directors - the best in the business. Warm, caring, attentive, professional and knowledgeable ~ Every detail is handled from arrival to departure. Days are well choreographed.
Reserve your 2017 reservation - risk free, with no cancellation penalties.
Reserve your place with a deposit of $600. This deposit is nonrefundable. However, when you purchase Tauck's trip protection, your deposit, as well as any payments made toward your trip will be fully refundable, if you need to cancel. You may include the Tauck trip protection of $259 per person when we make your reservation.
The full price of this exciting exclusive Tauck event is $4890 per person based on double occupancy and $5558 per person based on single occupancy.
If you are making your own air arrangements, please do not book your flights until this trip pricing and schedule is finalized. The start and end cities may change.
We look forward to traveling with you! Registration now available.
Make a Reservation
Please complete the online registration. After you register, you will be contacted by Gloryvette Lichtman of Cruise Planners. Once we have confirmed your registration, you will then be asked to deposit $600 per person to secure your registration. Pending availability, registrations will be accepted until November 21, 2016. Final payment will be due on December 29, 2016.
Questions
Please contact Gloryvette Lichtman [email protected] 916-985-2900.
ITINERARY - The Tauck Jazz Event
Day 1 - Arrive New Orleans - The Tauck Jazz Event begins
The Home of Jazz
In his preface to the companion book to his documentary series Jazz, Ken Burns quotes essayist Gerald Early: “When they study our civilization two thousand years from now, there will only be three things that Americans will be known for: the Constitution, baseball and jazz music.” Today, Tauck and Ken Burns welcome you to the hometown of jazz... for an unprecedented five-day celebration of the past, present and future of the music about which one of its major innovators – legendary pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington – once said “is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.” A transfer is included from New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport to The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans.
Your one-of-a-kind jazz odyssey begins early this evening at the event’s elegant home base, The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans, at 5:00 PM with an open-bar cocktail reception including an “informance” on the history and various styles of jazz by Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots. Then it’s on to Arnaud’s, in the heart of the French Quarter, for a Welcome Dinner featuring that legendary establishment’s classic New Orleans cuisine and... of course... more jazz, as a trio performs during dinner!
Meals: D Lodging: The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans
Day 2 - Roots of Jazz
Where Jazz was Born
As Ken Burns tells it: “Somewhere in the late 19th century, something happens, where you know it isn’t the blues… you know it isn’t all these other slave hymns and complex African polyrhythms that the slaves brought… it isn’t the ScotchIrish Protestant hymns or the folksongs… the Viennese waltzes, or even the syncopation of ragtime…. it is a gumbo, a mixture of all these different things… born in the most cosmopolitan city in the United States, New Orleans.” “It” was jazz...and today you’ll explore its roots in its birthplace, New Orleans, in some of the areas of the city where that “gumbo” was blended, brought to a simmer and seasoned throughout the early decades of the 20th century.
Visit Basin Street Station, where local guides tell the stories of Basin Street – the cultural crossroads of New Orleans – as well as of the Storyville red-light district and homegrown jazz pioneers including Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. Take a walk through historic St. Louis Cemetery #1, where you'll see notable above-ground graves and learn about the city's iconic jazz funerals.
Enjoy lunch at a historic spot in one of Louis Armstrong's old neighborhoods. Then delve into jazz history with a presentation by Tulane University jazz historian Bruce Boyd Raeburn, Curator of the university’s Hogan Jazz Archive, and see actual instruments played by Satchmo, Bechet, Dizzy Gillespie and other giants of jazz – along with other artifacts from jazz history – in a special viewing of the Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collections in The Performance Space at the Old U.S. Mint. After some free time in the afternoon, tonight’s extraordinary gala evening at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts features a keynote address by Ken Burns; an open house with New Orleans cuisine (with a chance to visit with Ken) and music by current NOCCA students; and an exclusive performance by pianist Ellis Marsalis, jazz educator and patriarch of the “First Family of Jazz,” and an ensemble of talented young musicians.
Meals: B, L, D Lodging: The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans
Day 3 - Jazz in the Quarter
The Epicenter of Jazz
“Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine – I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans...It has given me something to live for.” The words of New Orleans native and jazz giant Louis Armstrong. Although he hit it big in Chicago in the 1920s and later became a legend throughout the world, “Satchmo” cut his teeth right here in the French Quarter – an iconic place that will be forever identified as the capital of jazz.
You’ll encounter jazz at every turn of your journey through the French Quarter today – from a special tour with Louisiana State Museum Music Historian Charles Chamberlain at the historic Cabildo... to a private performance for Tauck guests only at one of the great shrines of traditional jazz, Preservation Hall... to a jazz brunch at the renowned Court of Two Sisters. Early this evening, attend a private performance by saxophonist, singer and composer Donald Harrison ("The King of Nouveau Swing") and the Congo Nation Mardi Gras Indians. Harrison pioneered the “Nouveau Swing” style of jazz; a producer, singer and rapper in the traditional Afro-New Orleans Culture and hip-hop genres, he is the Big Chief of the Congo Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group, and worked as a consultant, musician and actor on the TV series Treme.
Later, you'll have time to enjoy dinner on your own and a night as you please in New Orleans – the city rated #1 in the U.S. for live music, cafés, antique shops, restaurants and people-watching by
Travel + Leisure – or listen to trumpeter and vocalist Jeremy Davenport in the Davenport Lounge in your hotel, The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans.
Meals: B, L Lodging: The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans
Day 4 Jazz - Today... Tremé & Beyond
Jazz & the Story of Survival Today... Tremé
Ken Burns has commented that jazz takes the principle of improvisation “and elevates it… and isn’t that natural, that the people that invent it – the community that it was born in – should have the peculiar experience of being unfree in a free land? Well, if you’re unfree in a free land, you’ve got to improvise a lot more than anybody else.”
Today, you'll explore the Tremé section of New Orleans, the oldest neighborhood of "Free People of Color" in the U.S., and home to some of the city's most recognizable cultural legacies... and to stories of survival in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, portrayed in the acclaimed 2010 – 2013 HBO TV series Treme.
On the morning of day 4, everyone enjoys a very special breakfast at The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans featuring a fascinating presentation by Lolis Eric Elie – New Orleans cookbook author, writer and co-producer of the PBS documentary Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans,who also served on the writing team for the HBO seriesTreme.
This sightseeing track begins with a lecture on the city pre- and post-Katrina at The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans by environmental designer Nellie Watson. Then you'll head to Tremé, where you'll visit Le Musée de f.p.c., a house museum honoring the legacy of the city’s free people of color; a walking tour of the neighborhood includes a stop at St. Augustine Catholic Church, and insights on the area’s Catholic, secondline and Mardi Gras Indian traditions. And tonight, we gather together to wrap up our extraordinary jazz event in grand fashion with our private Farewell Reception and Dinner at The Orpheum Theater – New Orleans’ historic 1918 Beaux Arts playhouse, recently restored to its former glory after Hurricane Katrina – featuring an openbar cocktail reception and dinner with... of course... live performances of jazz!
Meals: B, D Lodging: The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans
Day 5 - The Tauck Jazz Event comes to a close
The Tauck Jazz Event ends at The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans.
Fly home anytime. A transfer is included from The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans to New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport; you should allow two hours for check-in.
Meals: B
ACCOMMODATIONS
The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans Night 1, 2, 3, 4 - New Orleans, Louisiana
As you enjoy the peace of the courtyard at The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans, with its gazebo, elegant fountain and lush plantings, it might be hard to remember that you’re in the heart of the city at the edge of the French Quarter. Indoors, everywhere you look are furnishings and art reflecting the grace of the Garden District’s antebellum mansions. You may find this especially true in your spacious guest room that surrounds you with luxurious touches like 100% cotton, 400 threat-count sheets, feather beds and duvet covers, an Italian marble bathroom with plush robes and generously sized towels, and fully stocked minibar. If you're in the mood for relaxation, the 25,000-square-foot destination spa – The Spa at The RitzCarlton, New Orleans – has 22 treatment rooms... and the Fitness Center has cardiovascular and strength training equipment if you’re feeling energetic. Enjoy a classic New Orleans cocktail, like the Sazerac, at the Davenport Lounge. The M Bistro uses an indigenous approach to its menu featuring the finest meats, seafood and produce from farmers in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama to provide food fresh from the farm to the table.
We look forward to traveling with you! Registration now available.
Make a Reservation
Please complete the online registration. After you register, you will be contacted by Gloryvette Lichtman of Cruise Planners. Once we have confirmed your registration, you will then be asked to deposit $600 per person to secure your registration. Pending availability, registrations will be accepted until November 21, 2016. Final payment will be due on December 29, 2016.
Questions
Please contact Gloryvette Lichtman [email protected] 916-985-2900 or Arla Gibson at CapRadio [email protected] or (916) 278-8979.