What’s being hailed as the “Palace of Jazz” should be open by the time you peruse this issue of OffBeat. The Storyville District, a $3 million entertainment complex at Bourbon and Iberville streets in the French Quarter, was scrambling toward a Dec. 29 start as “Grapevine” headed to press.

The concept, the brainchild of New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival producer Quint Davis, aims to bring traditional dance hall and bordello-style jazz back to Bourbon Street, where it hasn’t exactly flourished the last few decades. Local restaurateur Ralph Brennan, architect Arthur Davis (Quint’s dad) and New York jazz impresario George Wein are name partners in the project. Sixteen other silent partners also are involved.

Rick Gratia, managing partner of Brennan’s Redfish Grill, also will preside as manager of operations at The Storyville District, which isn’t so much a district as it is a 10,000-square-foot complex housing food and beverage areas, live music parlors, a large room for big-name local artists and other functions. Previously the space was part of the flagship, now-defunct D.H. Holmes department store, which fronted Canal Street. Access to Storyville will be possible through Redfish Grill and Chateau Sonesta Hotel.

“Obviously the Bourbon Street location is very important,” says spokeswoman Charlee Williamson. “Bourbon Street has evolved into something that it didn’t used to be. Quint is putting jazz back on Bourbon Street and working to keep local musicians playing locally in New Orleans on a daily basis.”

Williamson says some 15 to 25 musicians will perform at the club daily in solo and band settings. Another 80 full-time workers will be hired. Locals and tourists alike may be interested to know that at least initially, the club won’t be instituting cover charges or one drink minimums. That could change, however, depending on the makeup of the crowds and whether or not the foot traffic during music events brings about enough food and beverage sales to pay the artists. Though the club opens its doors to the public Dec. 29, an invitation only, grand-opening gala is set for Jan. 7.

Williamson says though Storyville will emphasize jazz music, the club also will embrace diversity. “Though they are focusing on jazz that’s not to say there won’t be some blues and brass bands and other forms of music from time to time. “They are crying not to get pigeonholed into anyone form. Just as you can’t really qualify New Orleans food you can’t qualify New Orleans jazz,” Williamson says, adding that the menu will encompass Louisiana dishes and combinations of New Orleans cuisine with other culinary styles.

Louisiana Music Commission executive director Bernie Cyrus says the planned December openings of Storyville and Levon Helm’s Classic American Cafe on Decatur Street means good news for local musicians and music lovers alike.

“Storyville, being in the first block of Bourbon Street, will give the area kind of a hook from the flow of the Decatur Street scene. The effect could be a much larger mix of people going back and forth hear authentic New Orleans music,” Cyrus says.

For those unfamiliar with New Orleans’ bawdy history, the original Storyville was a red-light district on the northern edge of the Vieux Carre that opened at the turn of the century. Cabarets, bordellos, cafes and dance halls fostered a fledgling style of music called “jass” which took root and developed into what we now refer to as jazz.

NYNO Records, a 3-year-old label founded by Allen Toussaint and Josh Feigenbaum, shuttered its New Orleans office in November. Feigenbaum says it was more cost-efficient to run NYNO out of New York City, where he presides over MJI Broadcasting and its 120 employees. “We have more staff in New York and we just decided it made more sense to run everything up here,” he says. “It wasn’t indicative of anything going on in New Orleans, it just wasn’t necessary to keep an office there.”

NYNO was founded as a channel to record and distribute the music of New Orleans artists. Toussaint produces recordings for the label at his Crescent City. Studio, Sea-Saint. He’s also working on a solo piano project for NYNO that’s expected to be released next year.

“We have substantial infrastructure in New York which can support the NYNO activity much more comfortably than a satellite office in New Orleans,” says Feigenbaum. “Some of the work of promoting and publicizing will continue to be done with freelancers in New Orleans.”

NYNO has released a dozen records by local artists, including Toussaint, James Andrews, SistaTeedy, Grace Darling, Newbirth Brass Band and the late Raymond Myles. The rising demand for live music in the New Orleans continues to make an impression on bands from outside the area; even at the grassroots level.

Pops Carter and the Funkmonsters of Denton, Texas, a rhythm and blues outfit fronted by an 50-year-old Louisiana native, blew into town in early December for an art gallery soiree but the fun didn’t stop there. After the gig, Pops hooked up with local guitarist Eric Green at Noiselab Studios to cut some harmonies for Green’s debut album. The next night found Pops and Funkmonsters guitarist Chris Tracy, as well as their erstwhile drummer Jesse Hall, jamming with State Street Blues Band harpist Smilin’ Nick Nolfe for two sets at Checkpoint Charlie’s Sunday blues jam.

Pops loved New Orleans so much and was received so well he didn’t want to leave—despite the mishap that occurred hours after his arrival when somebody stole his rental car containing 50 copies of his new studio EP, some computer equipment and a suitcase from its parking spot in the 4700 block of Camp Street near an Uptown-area nightspot. The perpetrator(s) even made off with Pops’ winter coat, a necessity this time of year in North Texas.

As Pops headed home, the. State Street Blues Band featuring Baton Rouge stalwarts “T-Bone” Singleton, T.J. Black and Nolfe, a recent transplant to the Crescent City, got bookings outside of Red Stick and plan to wind their way downriver for a Jan. 15 throwdown at Samuel’s in the lower St. Charles corridor.

A lethal combination of Louisiana swamp blues and the postwar Chicago sound, the “State Streeters” also have been taking steps toward reaching a wider, regional audience outside of their home base, lining up gigs in New Orleans, Lafayette and Prairieville.