Jazz is one of those genres where if you " break , " you ’re there for biography ; living , tour musicians can be considered legends and cornerstones of the entire musical style ’s trajectory . Trumpeter Irvin Mayfield , owner of Irvin Mayfield ’s Jazz Playhouse at the Royal Sonesta New Orleans , and recent spokesperson for President Obama ’s Council For the Arts , is one of those guys . And he contends that his habitation city is n’t just a base of wind – itisjazz . We asked him why that is , and the best place to check out New Orleans malarkey on your own .
New Orleans jazz is singularly important
For Mayfield , there ’s no point stone New Orleans against other big jazz markets . " There is no comparison . New Orleans is thebirthplaceof jazz .
" The people migrated out of New Orleans and choke to Chicago first , then New York , and then the west coast . When you bet at the flight of American medicine , there ’s a relationship [ with other cities ] , but again , there ’s really no comparison . "
" No other city in the world can correspond [ New Orleans ] from a ethnical and music standpoint . "
Courtesy of Playhouse Media
“ It was n’t really until I started recording these record on - localisation – in Cuba , Haiti , Jamaica – that I recognized that New Orleans is special , ” sound out Mayfield . “ We have a alone American experience . You do n’t have ‘ Tennessee music ’ or ‘ capital of Tennessee euphony ’ . New Orleans has its own idle words dialect , there ’s the New Orleans clarinet , the New Orleans - style piano . No other city in the world can match [ New Orleans ] from a ethnic and musical point of view . "
The city’s history plays a huge part
The reason New Orleans stands in the same ethnical category some entire state of matter and nations , Mayfield tells us , is because of its singular history with the slave trade . “ Africans had a marvelous amount of freedom in new Orleans , ” Mayfield says , “ They were the first unfeigned Free People of Color , and that ’s what makes the music . For instance , in Trinidad , the hard worker possessor were very restrictive over drums , so musicians had to make drums out of steel cans ( hence : the sword drum ) . New Orleans music submit such an opportunity of freedom that the first , endemic malarkey sound in the 1800s was allowed to develop freely . "
So does the cultural mix
“ Native Americans gave us the tom Tom as the first sort of drumset , so New Orleans was the birthplace of the modern drumset , " Mayfield read . " Add that to the French , Spanish , and English - speaking settler , plus the Africans perform as free masses , and you get a really popular experience that plays out in the music . "
He goes on : " It plays out culturally , it plays out in the solid food , you’re able to sample it in the okra plant , it bring out in how we celebrate Mardi Gras . There ’s no experience like it out of doors of New Orleans , because of all the other - world influences that were allowed to stick . ”
It still all comes together in today’s jazz clubs
Mayfield turned us on to a veritable treasure treasure trove of clubs that you’re able to still access every nighttime of the calendar week . Tuesdays at the Maple Leaf Bar draw in the youth for serious , danceable unrecorded malarkey . “ It ’s a crowd of college student who are dancing for their life , with instrumentalist playing tuba , trombone , bass metal drum , the Rebirth Brass Band ” say Mayfield , “ And it ’s 11/11:30pm on a Tuesday ! ”
“ Another place to go to is Snug Harbor . Every Friday Night Ellis Marsalis , who ’s 82 eld former , is playing at 8:00pm . Every Friday . He used to be the president of Jazz Studies at the University of New Orleans . He ’s not playing the piano on Friday because he has to . He plays because he wants to , and that ’s some rudimentary New Orleans shit . ”
“ Then you got Kermit Ruffins ( who was on HBO’sTreme ) . He has the Mother - In - jurisprudence Lounge on Claiborne Ave , ” Mayfield carry on . “ He plays with his band the Barbeque Swingers , and when they gig , they commit up with a handsome ass grill that ’s connected to his hand truck . And he grill and makes red beans and rice for free for everybody . ” ( Southern Hospitality – it ’s not just a restaurant Justin Timberlake owns in New York . ) “ And then there ’s Preservation Hall ! Foo Fighters recorded there , My Morning Jacket memorialize there . And even though it ’s so vast , you could still get in for 25 bucks ! ”
Courtesy of Playhouse Media
Mayfield reluctantly come together his tilt ( because he tell he ’d be rattling off locus for days ) with the House of Blues . “ It was the first truly built House of Blues … the beginner of that and Hard Rock need to bring the provision to New Orleans 25 days ago , and that was a big business deal . ”
" A lot of citizenry come to New Orleans and reckon for jazz , but it ’s all over . You ’ve got to open your eye . "
Mayfield’s newest club at the Royal Sonesta New Orleans is a big statement
Mayfield is no stranger to afford jazz clubs – his first spot was on the thirty-third floor of the World Trade Center . “ When I started with Sonesta … we thought it would be interesting to have jazz in the center of a hotel right on Bourbon Street , ” he says . “ On Monday night , we have the old uninterrupted jazz band in the humankind , The Original Tuxedo Jazz striation . We have burlesque on Friday nights with a live band . We have the best malarky vocalizer in the city named Germaine Bazzle . There ’s different shit every Nox . ”
But when it comes to bringing NOLA to the world, Mayfield is at the center of it all
We could n’t let Mayfield get off the phone with fill us in about his role on Obama ’s Council . " By the time I got name and sanction under President Obama , it was a yield . When the chairwoman calls , you answer . It ’s an opportunity to really see what we ’re doing with the arts from a global point of view . And while I always think of New Orleans as unique , I have to say there are so many other really heavy cities that are into these things , and what I learn is that anybody great can come from anywhere . In place like LA , Harlem , even Minneapolis . It really open me up . ”
And Mayfield’s final takeaway on the scene?
" A lot of multitude come to New Orleans and expect for malarkey , but it ’s all over . You ’ve get to unfold your eyes . It ’s not gon na be as wide-eyed as just a tourist or visitor attraction . afford your eyes and get with the civilisation . ”
Linux Foundation/Flickr
NKCPhoto/Flickr
