Biography

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Live at Newport Description
Out on Digital, February 24, 2017

“The Grammy-winning artist is a tireless advocate for the city and music of New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz.”
- Ken Abrams, GoLocalProv

Irvin Mayfield, the accomplished trumpeter and advocate for all things New Orleans is back with another live album that highlights the talents and maturity of the unique New Orleans Jazz Orchestra he founded nearly fifteen years ago with a lively performance from the esteemed Newport Jazz Festival in Providence, Rhode Island.

Live at Newport contrasts the intimate sound of Mayfield’s previous release, New Orleans Jazz Playhouse (2015, Basin Street Records), a 300+ page coffee table book including seven nights worth of live performances recorded at his Bourbon street jazz club in New Orleans and featuring a small selection of members of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, by highlighting the full Jazz Orchestra in front of a massive crowd. But even in front of a large crowd, Mayfield finds a way to make the performance personal. Underscoring Live at Newport is the maturity Mayfield has achieved as a bandleader and trumpeter engaged in a decades-long career. This maturity is highlighted in moments when Mayfield speaks on the need for prison reform in his introduction to his original composition named for the infamous Louisiana prison, “Angola,” or in sharing the painful memory of his father’s death in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the renewed meaning he finds in the tribute “May His Soul Rest In Peace.”

Mayfield’s evolution as a musician and bandleader are more subtly evident in his Ellington-esque willingness to step back and highlight the talents of his orchestra members, such as Ashlin Parker’s extensive and brilliant solo on “Angola,” or “Sweetbread on the Levees,” an entire track dedicated to Dr. Ed “Sweetbread” Petersen and featuring his impassioned saxophone playing. Mayfield’s talents are further articulated in the complex arrangement of “The Elder Negro Speaks,” which features several intricate transitions and sections reminiscent of one of Mayfield’s greatest influences, Jelly Roll Morton.
Mayfield and Co. are in their element tackling standards such as the funky New Orleans Mardi Gras tune “Indians” and “I’ve Got The World On A String” featuring the easy, soulful vocal stylings of one of Mayfield’s many protégés, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown.

The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra never fails to please crowds, and in recent years they’ve accomplished this with several performances highlighting the music of famous rock and pop artists such as Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, Queen, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, and Led Zeppelin. They included three contrasting examples of these works with the Lennon/McCartney ballad classic, “Yesterday,” an ardent rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed” with the oft-featured vocals of trombonist, Michael Watson, and they close out the set with a bombastic version of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”

Live at Newport takes a well-rehearsed Jazz Orchestra, a veteran trumpeter/bandleader, and brings you through a world of jazz experiences from well-known standards, heavily orchestrated traditional New Orleans-style jazz, and jazzified rock and pop. It’s a live experience entertaining to all and is not one to be missed.

Track Listing
1. Tune Up (Rising Tide) (2:24)
2. The Elder Negro Speaks (7:48)
3. Angola (feat. Ashlin Parker) (7:52)
4. Yesterday (4:34)
5. I've Got The World on a String (feat. Leon "Kid Chocolate" Brown) (6:53)
6. Sweet Bread on the Levees (feat. Ed "Sweet Bread" Petersen) (5:41)
7. Overjoyed (feat. Michael Watson) (5:40)
8. Indians (6:43)
9. May His Soul Rest in Peace (9:40)
10. We Will Rock You / Joe Avery Blues (Second Line) (10:22)

Personnel
Irvin Mayfield – Trumpet & Founding Artistic Director

The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
Trumpets:
Barney Floyd
Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown
Ashlin Parker
Glenn Hall

Rhythm Section:
Victor “Red” Atkins
Jasen Weaver
Carl LeBlanc
Adonis Rose

Saxophones:
Khari Allen Lee
Jeronne Amari Ansari
Ricardo Pascal
Edward Petersen
Jason Marshall

Trombones:
Michael Watson
David L. Harris
Emily Fredrickson

Credits
Produced by Irvin Mayfield

Executive Producer: Mark Samuels

Mixed & Mastered by Misha Kachkachishvili
at Esplanade Studios

Recorded by Masanori Yura on August 1, 2015
in Newport, Rhode Island

Photography by Greg Miles

Cover Design by John Díaz-Cortés

Digital Booklet Design by Braden Piper

BSR 0409

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All Rights Reserved
WARNING: Any unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws

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Tour Dates

Irvin Mayfield Bio
Irvin Mayfield is a Grammy and Billboard Award-winning artist with 25 albums to his credit. Mayfield is the founding Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and currently serves as Jazz Artist in Residence for the Apollo Theater; he served as Artistic Director of Jazz for the Minnesota Orchestra from 2009-2015. In 2009, he entered into a historic partnership with the Royal Sonesta Hotel and created Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse, which brought “Jazz back to Bourbon Street” in the historic French Quarter. Mayfield was nominated to the National Council on the Arts by President George W. Bush and was subsequently appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2010; he served through 2014. He also received The Chancellor’s Award from the University of New Orleans (the highest ranking award given to a professor) in 2010 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Dillard University in 2011. He and NOJO recently opened the first space built for Jazz in the city that created the music – The Peoples Health New Orleans Jazz Market.