NEW ORLEANS — Bourbon Street may be better known for drunken carousing and strip clubs than culture and class, but New Orleans trumpeter Irvin Mayfield says it’s still the perfect place for jazz.
NEW ORLEANS — Bourbon Street may be better known for drunken carousing and strip clubs than culture and class, but New Orleans trumpeter Irvin Mayfield says it’s still the perfect place for jazz. New Orleans jazz belongs on the streets, especially the city’s most famous street, just as much as in the concert halls and dapper clubs of places like New York and Chicago, he said. That’s why Saturday night, across from a row of strip joints and sports bars, he will add to the French Quarter’s music offerings by opening Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse. The club will offer live performances by New Orleans musicians in a cozy environment that he hopes will appeal to locals and tourists alike. "Jazz belongs on Bourbon," said Mayfield, 31, sipping coffee at a bistro table in the club, which is just a few steps inside the Royal Sonesta Hotel. The hotel asked Mayfield to be a partner and lend his name to the club, which was formerly a music and burlesque venue called The Mystick. Redecorated, it is a plush and sophisticated room with a bar, couches and bistro tables. French doors open to a lush courtyard where patrons — and music — can spill out onto an outdoor patio. The club is in a room that has offered live music since the Sonesta first opened in 1969. It has high ceilings and a slightly raised stage. Famed New Orleans musicians Fats Domino and trumpeter-bandleader Al Hirt have performed there, Mayfield said. The room’s smallish size and wood floors with carpeting enhance what Mayfield called great acoustics. "They can just come in and play" without speakers and microphones. Mayfield said he recognizes that many locals and those who frequent the city like the mysterious, "hidden treasure" aspect of New Orleans and its best-kept-secret clubs. And he says he’s not trying to change that. "We just also want to offer that quality authentic experience to all the visitors who come here, and we want to make it as accessible and as easy to find as possible," he said. There are clubs on Bourbon Street that offer jazz, such as Fritzel’s and Maison Bourbon Jazz Club, the place where Harry Connick Jr. got his start. But Mayfield said there is both room and need for more. "Visitors are looking for jazz when they come to New Orleans, and a majority go to Bourbon Street," he said. "It’s the street they go to, and they make the assumption that jazz, that all New Orleans’ assets will be ready and available there." ______ In photo: Trumpeter Irvin Mayfield poses for a photo at his new nightclub "Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse" on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Monday, March 16, 2009. Bourbon Street is certainly known more for its racy strip clubs and drunken buffoonery than culture and class, but Mayfield said it’s still the perfect place for jazz.
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