New Orleans is seen as the cradle of jazz - but it's the city that almost broke on the back of Hurricane Katrina. Then-mayor Ray Nagin appointed a young trumpeter as cultural ambassador of New Orleans - Irvin Mayfield.
Wallace Chapman talks to Irvin Mayfield about his city and its music.
Mayfield is professor and artistic director at the New Orleans Institute of Jazz at the University of New Orleans, and founder of the 16 piece New Orleans Jazz Orchestra which he is bringing to NZ, with Memphis-born star Dee Dee Bridgewater, for the Wellington Jazz Festival on June 4.
Photo: Irvin Mayfield by Greg Miles.
