New Orleans is one of my favorite places to visit.

There's the amazing food, the voodoo traditions, and of course, the music.

The music is literally everywhere in New Orleans, but there's one place a couple blocks away

from the French Quarter where a lot of this music was born, a place with a history that

goes back hundreds of years, a small square that was once a refuge for enslaved peoples.

To this day, it's a sacred place that's honored every Sunday.

My name is Baudelaire, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange,

incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, we visit Congo Square in New Orleans, and we sit down with a Congo Square legend

to hear how at the center of all the history is the rhythm of a drum.

More after this.

Congo Square!

It is most fitting to celebrate in Anujez in New Orleans the birthplace of the music.

And personally, I'm deeply humbled to stand here in Congo Square.

The exact physical location where so many of the greatest artists, composers,

thinkers gave shape, form, and substance to jazz.

That voice belongs to jazz legend Herbie Hancock, speaking to a crowd of thousands

at the very first celebration of International Jazz Day in 2012.

Quincy Jones, the Bridgewater Humaskella, and Lionel Loewakie were there too,

as well as local legends like Terence Blanchard, the Tremay Brass Band, and Kermit Ruffins.

They all came to Congo Square in the heart of New Orleans to honor the space that was so important

to the creation of jazz.

...