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Irvin Mayfield

Irvin Mayfield, born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1977, has established himself as the next musician to embody and represent the great New Orleans jazz trumpeter legacy. Mr. Mayfield has become a fast-paced pioneer in several endeavors. Beginning with his New Orleans-styled version of a Latin jazz band, Los Hombres Calientes, which he co- founded with Bill Summers. He also leads his own band, the Irvin Mayfield Quintet. In addition to his numerous recordings, he recently founded the Institute of Jazz Culture at Dillard University and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, a non-profit institution geared toward jazz performances, education and interpretation. Irvin Mayfield was unanimously appointed in September 2003 to the post of cultural ambassador for the City of New Orleans by the United States Senate, the United State House of Representatives, the Governor's Office of the State of Louisiana, the Louisiana State Representatives, the Louisiana State Senate, the City of New Orleans, the New Orleans City Council and the New Orleans Aviation Board, establishing himself as a musician who embodies and represents the great New Orleans jazz legacy, as well as becoming an international jazz and cultural spokesperson. If all this wasn't enough, Mayfield is also the Artistic Director for Arizona's Chandler Jazz Festival, in which he plays a significant role in assisting the development of jazz audiences. His various collaborative ventures have made Mr. Mayfield a popular composer for special events, such as the New Orleans Museum of Art's (NOMA) commissioned musical tribute to the renowned African American artist, Gordon Parks. The result was a collaborative effort between Mr. Mayfield and Mr. Parks, entitled the Half Past Autumn Suite, which premiered (and later recorded with Mr. Parks, Wynton Marsalis and the Irvin Mayfield Quintet and released by Basin Street Records) in a live performance by the Irvin Mayfield Quintet during a retrospective exhibit of Mr. Parks' work, and which was organized by the Corcoran Gallery and presented at NOMA. In October of 2003 Mayfield kicked off Dillard University Institute of Jazz Culture's 2003-2004 season with the world premier of his newly commissioned composition, Strange Fruit, featuring The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and The Dillard University Concert Choir. Strange Fruit is a ninety minute, nine-movement triad chronicling the lives of an interracial couple in the 1920s and the subsequent social and political consequences they endure after their affair is discovered. Strange Fruit was inspired by the Without Sanctuary exhibit that chronicles the history of lynching in the United States.

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Book Excerpts

Traditional New Orleans Jazz, Conversations with the Men Who Make the Music

Read "Traditional New Orleans Jazz, Conversations with the Men Who Make the Music" reviewed by Thomas W. Jacobsen


This article, adapted by the author, appears in Chapter 5 of Traditional New Orleans Jazz, Conversations with the Men Who Make the Music by Thomas W. Jacobsen (LSU Press, 2011). Irvin Mayfield: Boy Wonder Sometimes people live long enough to fulfill the promise of their youth, and sometimes they don't. Some individuals eventually achieve their youthful dreams of success, but many certainly do not. Such is life.The following conversation, recorded on March ...

234
Album Review

Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra: Strange Fruit

Read "Strange Fruit" reviewed by Jack Bowers


If there is any justice, Irvin Mayfield's powerful cantata that lays bare the taboo of interracial love and the horrors of lynching in the Jim Crow South should assume an honored place among the celebrated masterpieces of early 21st Century music. That probably won't happen, as justice is almost as scarce today as it was then, but it should. Strange Fruit is a monumental work, as celebratory as it is somber, a deeply emotional experience whose recitation of unpleasant truths ...

509
Interview

Irvin Mayfield: Hombre of Hot Music and Vital Education

Read "Irvin Mayfield: Hombre of Hot Music and Vital Education" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke


For a young trumpet player, New Orleans native son Irvin Mayfield is a busy man, yet in a particularly interesting way. He performs in a variety of groups, which isn't out of the ordinary for a working musician these days. But he also serves--with great pleasure, mind you--as a cultural ambassador, not only for his city, but for jazz music.Mayfield, 27, believes in the art form he learned in the Big Easy, and he isn't afraid to put ...

175
Album Review

Irvin Mayfield: Half Past Autumn Suite

Read "Half Past Autumn Suite" reviewed by Steven Robinson


Trumpeter Irvin Mayfield's Half Past Autumn Suite was commissioned by the New Orleans Museum of Art as a tribute to Gordon Parks on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition of his work. The suite was intended as a tribute to Mr. Parks, who is not just a great photographer, but also a writer, filmmaker, poet, and - as shown on this album - an able pianist.

The catalogue entry for this album states that the “the inspiration ...

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Album Review

Irvin Mayfield with Gordon Parks: Half Past Autumn Suite

Read "Half Past Autumn Suite" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The jazz suite has grown into an art form all its own. Ellington created the form in the same way Franz Josef Haydn created the string quartet. Both men did not so much create the form by stimulating its genesis as much as bringing it to its mature actualization.

Other jazz composers have contributed to this form, most recently (and successfully) Wynton Marsalis. For present consideration: trumpeter Irvin Mayfield's third contribution to the Basin Street Records library, ...

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Album Review

Irvin Mayfield: How Passion Falls

Read "How Passion Falls" reviewed by Mike Perciaccante


How Passion Falls is Mayfield's second CD on Basin Street Records and it can hold its own with all the mainstream jazz that has been released in recent memory.

The album contains ten original compositions (one track is “hidden" at the end) and deals with love and romance (what else, with a title like How Passion Falls). One of the most interesting things about this album is the song sequence. It could be called a jazz-opera because the tracks are ...

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Album Review

Irvin Mayfield: How Passion Falls

Read "How Passion Falls" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The Jeopardy answer is: “This young hip New Orleans trumpeter has jazz chops on loan from Louis Armstrong." Your response might be: “Who is Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, or Irvin Mayfield?” Maybe it’s something they put in the juleps, because there is no shortage of trumpet talent coming out of the Crescent City. Twenty-two year old Irvin Mayfield, born the same year Wynton Marsalis launched his neo post-bop revival, seizes the opportunity to eclipse his mentor and role ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Dee Dee Bridgewater & Irvin Mayfield, Tammy McCann, Joe Krown, Pink Martini, and more

Jazz this week: Dee Dee Bridgewater & Irvin Mayfield, Tammy McCann, Joe Krown, Pink Martini, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

With the weather taking a timely spring-like turn, it's a very busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a couple of touring headliners in town plus visits by some lesser-known but worthy musicians from jny: NYC, jny: Chicago, jny: Boston and jny: New Orleans. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, March 16 Singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield (pictured, top left) will perform for the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro. ...

Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Dee Dee Bridgewater and Irvin Mayfield

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Dee Dee Bridgewater and Irvin Mayfield

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Today, let's look at some videos of singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, who are coming to St. Louis to perform starting Wednesday, March 16 and continuing through Saturday, March 19 at Jazz at the Bistro. Already well-established as individual artists, Bridgewater and Mayfield joined forces for the first time in 2015 to collaborate on the album Dee Dee's Feathers, which features the two of them with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and assorted guest stars playing songs ...

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Performance / Tour

Irvin Mayfield And The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra Kick Off 12-City Tour

Irvin Mayfield And The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra Kick Off 12-City Tour

Source: Carolyn McClair Public Relations

IRVIN MAYFIELD AND THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ ORCHESTRA KICK OFF 12-CITY TOUR FEBRUARY 5-22, 2015 NEW ORLEANS, LA – Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) hit the road for a 12-city tour beginning in jny: Miami, FL on February 5 and wrapping up in Fairfield, CT on February 22. In addition to Mayfield on trumpet, the 18-piece Orchestra includes such respected musicians as Victor Atkins on piano and Ed “Sweetbread” Petersen on saxophone. Jazz music was born ...

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Event

Stephanie Jordan, Irvin Mayfield, Kermit Ruffins, And Leah Chase Share Stage With Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

Stephanie Jordan, Irvin Mayfield, Kermit Ruffins, And Leah Chase Share Stage With Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

Source: Sylvain Music Notes

Liberty Bank Celebrates the Holidays and its 40th Anniversary with The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra NEW ORLEANS - Liberty Bank and Trust will celebrate the holiday season and their 40th Anniversary with a special holiday musical extravaganza featuring the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and some very special guests. “A Liberty Bank Christmas" with the LPO will take place on Saturday, December 8, 2012, 8 p.m. at Xavier University' Convocation Center, their new 4,000 seat arena, located at One Drexel Drive. Guest artists ...

Event

Aaron Neville & Branford Marsalis Added To NOJO 10 Anniversary At Carnegie Hall

Aaron Neville & Branford Marsalis Added To NOJO 10 Anniversary At Carnegie Hall

Source: Carolyn McClair Public Relations

THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ ORCHESTRA, FEATURING IRVIN MAYFIELD AND SPECIAL GUESTS AARON NEVILLE, BRANFORD MARSALIS, DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER AND OTHERS CELEBRATES 10 YEARS, ONE NIGHT AT CARNEGIE HALL OCTOBER 8, 8:00 PM This Carnegie Hall debut is part of THE NOJO 10 concert series celebrating the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra’s 10th anniversary with 10 signature Jazz events from September through December, 2012 NEW YORK, NY: New Orleans, the colorful Crescent City, is the birthplace of jazz, and 10 years ago ...

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Recording

Irvin Mayfield - A Love Letter to New Orleans (2011)

Irvin Mayfield - A Love Letter to New Orleans (2011)

Source: Something Else!

Putting together a luxe coffee-table book honoring the city of his birth clearly got Irvin Mayfield in a nostalgic mood. Those unfamiliar with Mayfield's intriguing blend of Afro-Cuban and straight-ahead jazz with island and Mardi Gras Indian polyrhythms are the beneficiaries, as Mayfield also compiled a greatest-hits CD of his work under the same title—A Love Letter to New Orleans. The album, issued by the Crescent City's Basin Street Records, includes seven tracks highlighting his time with Los Hombres Calientes—a ...

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Interview

A Love Letter to New Orleans - An Interview with Irvin Mayfield

A Love Letter to New Orleans - An Interview with Irvin Mayfield

Source: Groove Notes

I spoke by phone today with New Orleans trumpeter and educator Irvin Mayfield about his beautiful new book, “A Love Letter To New Orleans." Mr. Mayfield talks about the beauty of being influenced by the film Mo Better Blues, musical and cultural similarities between NOLA and places like Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, and the beauty of New Orleans and the people of the city. Click below to listen to the interview, and find a link at the bottom of the page ...

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Book / Magazine

Grammy-Award Winning Jazz Musician, Irvin Mayfield Sends "A Love Letter To New Orleans"

Grammy-Award Winning Jazz Musician, Irvin Mayfield Sends "A Love Letter To New Orleans"

Source: Lura Belle Productions

Deluxe multi-media coffee-table book and CD package chronicles Mayfield's artistic quest and development into one of America's most promising young jazz musicians. A Love Letter to New Orleans is also available as a CD. A Love Letter to New Orleans will be released nationally through Amazon and select retailers on April 26, 2011. A series of local book release parties will be held at the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival on March 27 at The Palm Court Jazz Café in New ...

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Festival

Jazz Fest Diary: Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse and More

Jazz Fest Diary: Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse and More

Source: Between the Grooves with Philip Booth

Whether it's pre-Jazz Fest anticipation or something else, New Orleans feels like it's on an emotional upswing.

Mitch Landrieu, stepping down as Lt Governor and being sworn in as the city's new mayor in less than two weeks, is listening to citizens and putting together his staff; Landrieu, voted in with strong support from blacks and whites alike, is one of the good guys, a vocal proponent of the arts economy.

Saints pride is still in full springtime bloom, with ...

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Award / Grant

Irvin Mayfield to be Sworn in as Newest Member of National Council on the Arts

Irvin Mayfield to be Sworn in as Newest Member of National Council on the Arts

Source: Michael Ricci

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS LIVE WEBCAST OF ITS 169th NATIONAL COUNCIL ON THE ARTS MEETING

Jazz musician Irvin Mayfield to be sworn in as newest member of council

Washington, D.C. - The National Council on the Arts, the advisory body of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), will meet in a public session on Friday, March 26, 2010 at 9:00am. Members of the public are invited to attend in person or log on to www.arts.gov for a ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Love Letter to New...

Basin Street Records
2011

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Book One

Basin Street Records
2009

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BOOK ONE

World Village
2009

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Strange Fruit

Basin Street Records
2005

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Strange Fruit

Basin Street Records
2005

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Half Past Autumn Suite

Basin Street Records
2003

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