Irvin Mayfield

Irvin Mayfield – born December 23, 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana – is a trumpeter, bandleader, composer and educator. His musical career began when he joined the Algiers Brass Band in the late 1980s. After he graduated from New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), he was offered a scholarship to attend Julliard School of Music. However, Mayfield chose to attend the University of New Orleans and then dropped out during his first semester. He was the co-founder of New Orleans jazz band Los Hombres Calientes, an Afro-Cuban jazz band that formed in 1998. Mayfield would go on to record five albums with the band up through 2005. Mayfield’s first proper self-titled solo album was issued in 1999. He founded the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra in 2002. They would go on to record four albums, the last of which – Live at Newport (2017) – was released after he stepped down from this position as artistic director in the midst of financial controversy. Even with these other musical projects, Mayfield continued to record solo albums including How Passion Falls (2001), A New Orleans Creole Christmas (2014), and New Orleans Jazz Playhouse (2015). Over the course of his career, he performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Sydney Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazzfestival, and others.