Our History
Gallatin Street Records was formed in 2014 as a project directed towards the continued preservation and promotion of New Orleans music, art, and culture. The name was drawn from one of New Orleans' original dens of sin, a two-block stretch near the river once called Gallatin Street, that was adjacent to the New Orleans Mint. Our record label provides a way to publish the New Orleans Jazz Museum’s vintage recordings, as well as those made of performances at the museum’s current performance center.
History of Gallatin Street
For a majority of the 1800s, down stretch of what is now the French Market Place, Gallatin Street was home to all sorts of vices. Gallatin Street became a site for sailors to “let loose,” as the street was packed with cheap housing, rambunctious dance halls, and prostitution houses. At the time, prostitution was the second most profitable businesses. With the cheap housing and the port destination, many immigrant families stayed in and around Gallatin Street. Many immigrant women resorted to prostitution as a means of supporting themselves and their families.
Located between Decatur and North Peters Street, Ursuline Ave, and Barracks St, the two-block stretch was uncleaned and unregulated, leaving room for disease and danger at every corner. Crime was rampant on the street. Even police were advised to avoid the street altogether without a partner.
Despite the danger, Gallatin Street still attracted many people. Its convenient location near the Port allowed a consistent stream of people and visitors. From sailors to wealthy city men, all sorts of people visited Gallatin Street for a fun night. However, not all who visited Gallatin Street for the night returned the next morning. People were rumored to go missing on one of New Orleans most dangerous streets. One common cause of these disappearances was young men being “shanghaied,” where they were kidnapped and forced to become sailors.
In 1897, the City Ordinance created the new boundaries of Storyville, which would serve as the “red light district” of New Orleans. This establishment of Storyville took people away from Gallatin Street, as all activity was now permitted in this new area. By the Great Depression, Gallatin Street was nearly demolished in an effort to establish the French Market. While the original buildings are gone, no one has forgotten the imprint Gallatin Street has left on New Orleans.
For more information about the New Orleans Jazz Museum, visit us at our website.
Record with Us
The 3rd floor Performing Arts Center of the New Orleans Jazz Museum incorporates production, recording and web broadcasting of live music and theatrical performances, lectures, symposia, oral histories, video interviews, and curatorial panels.
From both a technical and cultural standpoint, the performance center complements the New Orleans Jazz Museum’s mission to celebrate the history of jazz, in all its forms, through dynamic interactive exhibits, multigenerational educational programming, research facilities and engaging musical performances.
The New Orleans Jazz Museum now links its ongoing collections audio digitization work-flow with that of the Performing Arts Center, including the digitization of its internationally recognized Jazz Collection.
The Performing Arts Center provides the opportunity to link artifacts and exhibits with the living musical and cultural traditions of the region through a variety of avenues.
Equipment
The centerpiece of the Performing Arts Center’s acoustic design is the slatted cherrywood panels that are used on the walls. The slats, varying in sizes and spacing, play a crucial role in the process of both diffusion and absorption. Behind those are six-foot wide plywood panels of different sizes and thickness, which provide a similar effect for lower frequencies. The acoustic panels can be rolled away when natural light is desired, and it can be modified to adjust the room’s liveness according to the type of music played, as well as the amount of energy generated and boosted by Meyer Sound speakers.
The control room houses an Avid Pro Tools HD Digital audio recording and editing system with Genelec monitors, a 7270 subwoofer and a 32-channel mixing console. In regards to our FOH mixer. We have a 40-channel Spectra DynaSonics mixing console. The video router allows us to synchronize video switching and audio for video.
Providing this almost 200-year-old building with progressive technology is the reason why Allen Eskew, architect of the venue to categorize it as simply, "The Best of Both Worlds".