Walking down the main part of Bourbon Street, from the Iberville Street end, it's less like NCIS New Orleans and more like the Malia Strip, complete with raucous fishbowl and hand grenade drinkers (or as the sign outside a bar in the adjoining Toulouse Street put it: "Tourist Trap Death Alley").
But if you make it about halfway down Bourbon Street though, keep an eye out for the Maison Bourbon, an oasis of largely Trad Jazz in a near desert of Drum and Bass. The sign outside makes its mission clear, when it says it's "Dedicated to the preservation of Jazz".
They've got a decent selection of beer and spirits, reasonably priced for the US (when we visited it was $8 for a pint of Blue Moon) and there was live Jazz every night; which you could watch from a conference-style seated area or from your seat at the bar. Talking of which, the bar staff were great, and the polite request that you ordered a minimum of one drink, was more than easy to comply with.
It was our first trip to New Orleans and we found this place on our first walk around. Glad we did.