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| Irvin Mayfield and The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra Kick Off 12-City Tour Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) hit the road for a 12-city tour beginning in Miami, FL on February 5 and wrapping up in Fairfield, CT on February 22. In addition to Mayfield on trumpet, the 18-piece Orchestra includes such respected musicians as Victor Atkins on piano and Ed "Sweetbread" Petersen on saxophone. Jazz music was born in the City of New Orleans, and NOJO shares this tradition throughout the country. NOJO has headlined all of America's major performing arts venues and clubs, and continues the tradition with stops at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Opelika Performing Arts Center, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Kimmel Center, The Music Center at Strathmore, Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, Quick Center for the Arts and others. Over the years, NOJO also has performed at the world-famous Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, The Chicago Theatre, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Ravinia Festival in Chicago, The Dakota Club in Minneapolis and returns to Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York for two days during this tour. In August, NOJO makes its debut at the iconic Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. "It is a pleasure and an honor to share the legacy of New Orleans with music lovers across the nation, " said Mayfield, founder, artistic director, trumpeter and Cultural Ambassador. "We hope to not just offer a great performance, but to present a memorable musical experience that gives attendees more than a taste of the sounds and spirit of the Big Easy." The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra creates Jazz to enhance life, transform place, and elevate spirit through the tenets of truth, love and beauty. As a performing arts organization, NOJO's goal is to strengthen the business of Jazz through performances, tours, recordings, education and media platforms. NOJO is the first and only performing arts institution committed solely to the development of an Industry for Jazz in the city that created it. Irvin Mayfield, 37, is a Grammy and Billboard Award-winning artist with 15 albums to his credit. Mayfield is the founding Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and currently serves as Artistic Director of Jazz at the Minnesota Orchestra. He is a professor at the University of New Orleans, where he also serves as Director of the New Orleans Jazz Institute. In 2009, Mayfield 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. Mayfield 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. A passionate advocate for New Orleans and for the arts, Mayfield is Chairman of the Board for the Soledad O'Brien & Brad Raymond Starfish Foundation, as well as the New Orleans African American Museum of Art, Culture and History. He is also Chairman Emeritus of the New Orleans Public Library and serves on the boards of Louisiana State University's Department of Psychiatry and Health Science, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, Tulane University's School of Architecture, Unity of Greater New Orleans, the Urban Libraries Council, and the Youth Rescue Initiative. The complete 2015 Spring East Coast NOJO Tour includes: 2/05/2015 Miami, FL Arsht Center / 8:00 pm 2/07/2015 Atlanta, GA Emory University Emerson Concert Hall / 8:00 pm 2/08/2015 Opelika, AL Opelika Center for the Performing Arts / 7:30 pm 2/11/2015 Sarasota, FL Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall / 8:00 pm 2/12/2015 Tampa, FL Straz Center for the Performing Arts / 8:00 pm 2/14/2015 Wilmington, NC U of North Carolina @ Wilmington / 7:00 pm 2/15/2015 Chapel Hill, NC U of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill / 7:30 pm 2/17/2015 Philadelphia, PA Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts / 7:30 pm 2/18/2015 Bethesda, MD The Music Center at Strathmore / 8:00 pm 2/19/2015 Pittsburgh, PA Manchester Craftsmen's Guild Concert Hall / 7:00 pm and 9:30 pm 2/20/2015 NYC Jazz at Lincoln Center / 8:00 pm 2/21/2015 NYC Jazz at Lincoln Center / 8:00 pm 2/22/2015 Fairfield, CT Quick Center for the Arts / 3:00 pm In addition to touring, NOJO has been busy recording, running its youth education initiatives in partnership with the University of New Orleans and building the first performance space developed specifically for Jazz in the city that created the music – the Peoples Health New Orleans Jazz Market. The Jazz Market features a flexible, 340-seat performance hall, a practice and education wing, and a bar named in honor of Jazz legend Buddy Bolden. The Market will also function as a community center with access to free wi-fi, a digital Jazz archive, daytime programming, and informal meeting space. NOJO will celebrate the Jazz Market's grand opening in April. write your comments about the article :: © 2015 Jazz News :: home page |