New Orleans has produced more than its share of great jazz trumpeters, from pioneers such as Buddy Bolden, Freddie Keppard and Louis Armstrong to recent figures such as Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard and Nicholas Payton.
So the latest Crescent City player to reach for trumpet stardom, 23-year-old Irvin Mayfield, faces inevitable comparisons. Payton’s brilliance as soloist and Marsalis’ versatility as bandleader-composer in particular set a remarkably high standard for those who follow.
But even if it were possible to forget (temporarily) the achievements of Payton and Marsalis, Mayfield’s show over the weekend at the Old Town School of Folk Music would have proven a mixed blessing. For though there was no denying the energy, drive and charisma that Mayfield brought to everything he played, he still has a ways to go to match the level of improvisation that some members of his own band routinely achieve.
At his best, Mayfield stands as an enthusiastic player who has improved significantly during the past three years. When this listener first heard him, in 1998 during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, he already was working in a variety of ensembles across the city.
But whether he was appearing in Los Hombres Calientes (with drummer Jason Marsalis and percussionist Bill Summers) or fronting his own New Orleans band, Mayfield brought to his solos a nearly manic dynamism that often threatened to veer out of control. The young man badly needed to bring some focus and direction to his playing.
His show at the Old Town School on Friday night demonstrated how far he has come, for Mayfield avoided many of the excesses of his earlier work. Rather than blasting his way from one musical climax to the next, he often tried to vary the tone and timbre of his statements. And though the influence that Marsalis has had on his playing and composing is unmistakable, especially in Mayfield’s use of soaring lyric lines and stylized blues trumpet effects, the younger player at least acquitted himself well in this neoclassical jazz language.
Yet Mayfield also leaned on cliched turns of phrase and empty technical displays that suggested a lack of solid, original musical ideas. He may have enjoyed the ovations he drew by repeatedly telegraphing one fast riff or another, but such applause-begging effects were unworthy of a trumpeter of Mayfield’s promise.
To his credit, Mayfield featured some accomplished sidemen, yet the work they produced sometimes rendered Mayfield’s efforts simplistic by comparison. Reedist Aaron Fletcher’s solos, for instance, conveyed the emotional intensity and harmonic sophistication that consistently eluded Mayfield.
And when guest alto saxophonist Donald Harrison picked up his horn, the level of improvisation immediately rose. The sheer rhythmic variety, melodic spontaneity and chordal sophistication of Harrison’s post-bebop playing reminded at least one listener of how much Mayfield and his young colleagues have yet to learn.
Still, Mayfield’s ability to connect with an audience — through the vigor of his playing and the congeniality of his patter — made him an appealing stage presence. The question is whether he eventually will develop a more substantive and creative music.
