NORWICH – The Chenango County Council of the Arts, Norwich, will bring the flavor of New Orleans to central New York on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 5 p.m., when Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra All Stars perform “Home for the Holidays.”
The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Inc., was incorporated in December 2002 by founder and artistic director, Irvin Mayfield, the Grammy nominated, Billboard Award winning trumpeter and composer and the officially appointed Cultural Ambassador for the City of New Orleans. The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) is a spirited, swinging, band steeped in the tradition of New Orleans jazz, blues, swing and spirituals. NOJO performs and presents educational programs that draw upon the rich musical and cultural traditions of New Orleans and is the premier major performing and presenting jazz institution based in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Under the leadership of Irvin Mayfield, NOJO has created a permanent national performing arts and education organization to celebrate America's native musical form in the city of its birth. As a touring ensemble, NOJO is regularly presented at the country's most prestigious venues, with performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Chicago's Ravinia Festival, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Seattle's Benaroya Hall, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, UCLA's Royce Hall, SFJAZZ at The Palace, and Miami and Orange County's new Performing Arts Centers. In 2007-2008, NOJO will make its debut performances in the Orchestra Halls of Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota, as well as Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, UC Davis’ Mondavi Center, the University of IL-Krannert Center and Omaha’s new Holland Performing Arts Center.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, NOJO has become a cultural beacon for a troubled city steeped in rich cultural traditions. In addition, Tulane University announced in January 2006 that it would serve as the new home of NOJO in New Orleans.
At only 30 years old, Irvin Mayfield has quickly established himself as one of the most decorated and recorded Jazz musicians of his generation. Mayfield is a versatile trumpeter, bandleader, composer and arranger, recording artist, a passionate spokesman for the rich history and cultural significance of Jazz and the city that birthed it. Appointed the Cultural Ambassador of the City of New Orleans in 2003 by the United States Senate, Congress and other governmental agencies, his name has become synonymous with the still-unfolding legacy of America’s only indigenous music.
Even after Katrina—especially after Katrina, which took the life of his father, Irvin Mayfield, Sr.—this tireless Renaissance man considers Jazz nothing less than the manifestation of all that American democracy represents. Within the freedom so intrinsic to Jazz, Mayfield sees the story of America. In its myriad rhythms and personalities, he finds the oversized soul of New Orleans. He is the recipient of the Elysian Trumpet, hand-crafted for him by David Monette in honor of his father, who was found after the storm on Elysian Fields Avenue, and all those who lost their lives in the storm. Inlayed with jewels and images of New Orleans and of the Hurricane itself, the priceless instrument has been blessed by representatives of three of the world’ s religions, including the Archbishop of Canterbury during his historic visit to New Orleans last September
