Irvin Mayfield and NOJO Play the Van Wezel Tonight

Sarasota, FL -- Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) hit the road for a 12-city tour which will make a stop at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, tonight, February 11. 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.

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.

Tickets are $20-$45 and are available at VanWezel.org, the Box Office, or by calling 941-953-3368.