Up-tempo
Despite personal and cultural losses from Hurricane Katrina, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and his big band keep the beat and the hope.
By PHILIP BOOTH
Published October 13, 2005
During PBS's hurricane relief concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield turned in a somber version of Just a Closer Walk With Thee. He dedicated it to his father, who chose to stay at the family's New Orleans home rather than evacuate and has been missing since.
"The day after the storm was when my mother last talked to him," said Mayfield, 27, who has relocated to Baton Rouge with his mother and other relatives. "She left him at home. Like most New Orleanians, he thought, "I'll be here, deal with a couple of hours of no power and then everything will be back to normal.' At this point, I've got to start dealing with the reality of the worst but hope for the best."
Mayfield, artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, was sorely tempted to cancel the 19-piece big band's long-planned national tour. But despite storm-related personal and financial struggles, he knew he couldn't.
"I'm not really a religious person, but I just believe that it's right and that the Lord is just going to take care of us. Even with my dad missing, I'm still looking forward to it because I know this is what he'd want me to be doing."
When the band gathers onstage to close the Clearwater Jazz Holiday on Sunday night, it's certain to be a memorable performance.
"Clearwater's going to be the first stop of the tour," Mayfield said. "When we get onstage that night, that's going to be the first time we've played together since before the hurricane. I think it's going to be very emotional."
Since September 2003, Mayfield has been the official cultural ambassador for New Orleans and Louisiana, meeting dignitaries and helping pump up the city's music business.
Now, since Hurricane Katrina, he has become something of an evangelist, spreading the gospel of Crescent City music - jazz and otherwise - during a time when many are fearful for its survival.
"It's not only that New Orleans needs to rebuild New Orleans. America needs to rebuild New Orleans. It's not an Irvin Mayfield issue, or a Kermit Ruffins issue, or an Ellis Marsalis issue. It's an American issue. As Americans, what are we going to do to protect one of our cultural meccas, to protect what we are, to protect who we are?"
Mayfield's homegrown New Orleans Jazz Orchestra specializes in big band arrangements of traditional New Orleans jazz, blues, swing and spirituals.
"They can smell gumbo and taste it when we play," he said about the group, the resident ensemble of historically black Dillard University's Institute of Jazz Culture, founded by Mayfield in 2002.
"This ain't your Grandma's orchestra," he added. "It's weird for us to see people sitting down and clapping. We're used to playing parties."
Mayfield has gained acclaim for his work co-leading Los Hombres Calientes, a Grammy-nominated Latin jazz and funk group, and heading his own straight-ahead jazz quintet. The jazz orchestra's hometown performances of Mayfield's Strange Fruit, a 90-minute chorale about lynching in the Old South, commissioned by Dillard University, was praised by the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Mayfield has become a go-to guy for displaced New Orleans jazz musicians, many of whom have lost irreplaceable instruments.
"Before, it was just me going and giving some speeches," he said about his role as cultural ambassador. "Now, it's turned into me representing all the musicians and trying to help them make a living. My phone is ringing and people are asking, "What are politicians going to do for me? How am I going to make a living?' "
The nonprofit New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, of course, is also in financial straits. The first installment of a $500,000 grant from the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana was due to arrive Sept. 1. After Katrina, and the layoff of 3,000 city employees, there's little hope the orchestra will see any of it.
The fall tour, the group's first, is planned for concert halls in the Midwest and New England. Mayfield opted to proceed as planned, despite the financial risk. The Clearwater Jazz Holiday was added to the tour after the New Orleans-based Coolie Family Gospel Singers were forced to drop out.
The festival organizers hired the jazz orchestra and Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers. Those artists were chosen after Jazz Holiday board members received suggestions from several bay area jazz enthusiasts, including Bob Seymour at WUSF-FM and Jimmy Lyons at WMNF-FM.
Mayfield hopes to make up for the lost grant via donations from audiences and contributions to the Web site (www.thenojo.com)
"We didn't cancel any of these dates," he said. "I think everybody knows this is the right thing to do.