Biography

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Jazz has arrived. Grammy and Billboard Award winner Irvin Mayfield released his most ambitious writing project yet, New Orleans Jazz Playhouse, a 304-page coffee table book that includes seven CDs of live music recorded at his Bourbon Street Jazz club, Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse, on April 7, 2015.

The book reflects on his unique experiences as a New Orleans native, a Jazz musician, and the many influences in his life including countless musicians, artists, photographers, chefs, teachers, and other mentors. Mayfield muses on memories from his early days of touring, crafts poetic dedications to the people he respects, and occasionally cracks a joke or shares a recipe with the style and charm for which he’s become known. Unifying and grounding the various stories, poems, and essays are two central concepts that permeate the book: jazz & love. Staying true to his mission to proliferate America’s art form, and to promote New Orleans as its cultural epicenter, Mayfield always returns to the cultural mooring of jazz and intertwines this with his simple desire to spread love to the world.

Illustrating the well-crafted words of this book is a collection of some of the most culturally significant photography and artwork by master craftspeople such as John Scott, Gordon Parks, George Rodrigue, Herman Leonard, Greg Miles, and Erika Goldring.

Rounding out Mayfield’s writings are an introduction by biographer Walter Isaacson, a foreword by novelist Ernest Gaines, and an afterword by trumpeter and jazz-master Wynton Marsalis, as well as essays by Peter Kunhardt, Jr. and Andre Perry

Conceptually laid out in seven sections, each dedicated to a day of the week, the book mirrors the event it was born out of: The Love Sessions, an annual weeklong event held at Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, in which all proceeds raised were donated to a different New Orleans non-profit each night of the week. The seven CDs accompanying the books are live recordings from The Love Sessions and showcase the talents of the New Orleans Jazz Playhouse Revue: Vincent Gardner, Adonis Rose, Peter Harris, Jason Marshall, Derek Douget, and John Chin. The album also features several special guest artists including: Jamison Ross, Michael Watson, Davell Crawford, Sasha Masakowski, Steve Masakowski, Gerald French, Shannon Powell, George Porter Jr., James Rivers, Don Vappie, Leon Brown, and Ronald Markham.

“With this book and these recordings, Irvin Mayfield connects our past and present with vignettes on three muses: truth, love, and beauty. As a son of New Orleans,
as a trumpeting descendant of Buddy Bolden, as a proprietor of the most successful bona fide Jazz club on historic Bourbon Street, he is absolutely qualified to tell our story. He understands that if we are to remain ourselves, our story must be told and retold—remembered and reinvented—at each telling.”
- Wynton Marsalis

Track Listing
Disc 1
1. Angola
2. Seven Years (for Ernest Gaines)
3. Keep On Pushin' (feat. Jamison Ross)
4. Blue in Green
5. James Booker
6. L'il Liza Jane (feat. Gerald French)

Disc 2
1. Yesterday (feat. Davell Crawford)
2. Old Wyne
3. Vodou Love Call
4. Fatimah
5. Buddy Bolden's Blues (feat. Don Vappie)

Disc 3
1. Skyfall
2. The Denial
3. Back Home Again in Indiana/Donna Lee
4. Saint James Infirmary Blues (feat. Sasha Masakowski)
5. They All Ask'd For You (feat. George Porter, Jr.)

Disc 4
1. Harlis Laughing
2. Tom Thumb
3. Othello and Desdemona
4. Over the Rainbow
5. Eh La Bas (feat. Don Vappie)

Disc 5
1. You Are My Sunshine
2. The Affair
3. Marzique Dancing
4. Jasmine

Disc 6
1. Mack the Knife
2. Dianne
3. The Obsession
4. Pretty One

Disc 7
1. When My Dreamboat Comes Home
2. Love Petals
3. Someone to Watch Over Me/My Funny Valentine
4. Magnolia Triangle

Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Playhouse Revue
Irvin Mayfield - Trumpet
Vincent Gardner - Trombone
Adonis Rose - Drums
Peter Harris - Bass
Jason Marshall - Baritone Saxophone
Derek Douget - Tenor and Soprano Sax
John Chin - Piano

Featured Guests
Jamison Ross - Vocals
Michael Watson - Vocals & Trombone
Davell Crawford - Vocals
Sasha Masakowski - Vocals
Steve Masakowski - Guitar
Gerald French - Drums and Vocals
Shannon Powell - Drums and Vocals
George Porter, Jr. - Electric Bass and Vocals
James Rivers - Tenor Saxophone
Don Vappie - Banjo
Leon Brown - Trumpet
Ronald Markham - Piano

Credits
Producer and Creative Director: Irvin Mayfield
Executive Producer/Publisher: Mark Samuels
Associate Creative Director: Emily Welcker
Project/Art Design: Britton Stewart
Copy Editor: Allison Levy
Live Recording Engineer: David Farrell
Live Stage Engineer: Masanori Yura
Recorded Live at Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse
Mixing Engineer: Misha Kachkachishvili
Mixed at Esplanade Studios
Photography: Herman Leonard, Gordon Parks, Greg Miles, Erika Goldring, Jafar M. Pierre, Joshua Brasted, Stephen Siegel, Michael P. Smith, Benjamin Simmons, Chris Welcker, Matt Anderson, Josh Goleman, Jeff Strout
Paintings: George Rodrigue and Gustave Blache III
Videographer: Virgile Beddok
Cover Illustrator: John H. Clark IV
Music Assistant: Emily Fredrickson
Production Coordinator: Braden Piper
Irvin plays trumpets hand-built by David G. Monette. Irvin plays flugel horns made by Bach Stradivarius.
To gain more acoustic sound out of the bass, these recordings were made without the use of the dreaded bass direct. The recordings are 100% live and were created in Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse New Orleans.
Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse uses Steinway pianos.
Management: Tulani Bridgewater: tulani@ddbprods.com—Kawalski DDB Productions, Inc. 137 N.
Larchmont Blvd. #642 Los Angeles, CA 90004
Tel: (310) 494-4008; Fax: (310) 494-4014

Tour Dates

Irvin Mayfield Bio
Irvin Mayfield, 37, 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.