by Micah Magee

Irvin Mayfield is barely legal. Talented, dedicated, extremely intelligent and armed with some killer trumpet skills, the twenty-one year old composer is to be taken very, very seriously. Mayfield's arrangements for his group Los Hombres Calientes, which combine African-based rhythms with acoustic modern jazz, and the precise articulation of the Irvin Mayfield Quartet, which will perform as part of the Austin Jazz and Arts Festival, have already won him international recognition as one of New Orleans' top musicians -- no small accomplishment in a city home to Terrence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, and the Marsalis clan. Despite this early success, Mayfield has a deep appreciation of the network of ideas and personalities supporting his art. Unlike the majority of young people recognized in popular media, Irvin Mayfield seems to transcend his ego in favor of a vision of self inexorably linked with collective history and environment.

"I am a part of something that's real old and at the same time real young. That's what jazz is. It's the paradox. The paradox is that I can sit here and have a conversation and talk about different things that a 90-year-old person can relate to, I can talk about and learn from them, and at the same time I can be twenty-one," Mayfield explained over the phone recently as he prepared for a Los Hombres gig in Tokyo. His international career began over seven years ago with a two-week trip to Germany in high school, an experience which expanded his perception of his work. "For a fourteen-year-old black male from New Orleans, going to an all-black high school, doing something like that was what started me to be open minded and start trying to figure out what other things support what I am doing, what other things are going on in the world.

"I think that a lot of times you can do a lot of hard work in one thing," he continued, "and it is your ignorance of the other things around it, that support it, that makes it a struggle to get to that one thing as easily or as efficient as you need to. That's the importance of understanding a lot of different types of art and how they work together -- understanding other fields. Being a musician is only one part of existence, of what you do. Being a great musician, that doesn't necessarily mean because you are a great musician you are a great man. And just because you are a great man doesn't mean you are a great musician.

"It's like a guy who is a great musician and then he never falls in love or has problems in his relationship, you know, what's the point of that? It's all about life. I would hope that everyone's existence on earth, they want to enjoy a pleasant and wonderful life. In that sense, I think you want to be well-rounded. I think that is a very important thing, for someone who is doing hard work."

Irvin Mayfield is definitely a well-rounded individual. In addition to his work with Los Hombres and the Irvin Mayfield Quartet, he arranges baroque and classical music and can swear in thirteen different languages (including Greek). He has studied under and played with the some of the best musicians in his field. Terrence Blanchard, the Grammy-nominated trumpeter, has been a mentor and a teacher since 1996. Staying with another idol, Wynton Marsalis, on his first visit to New York led Mayfield to better understand the demanding lifestyle required of a serious trumpet player.

"I would hope that when they hear me they don't put their head down, you know?" Mayfield said when asked what he would like to give back to those who have augmented his education. "I think that is the best thing anyone could ever do for a mentor or a teacher. When they are coming in, I want to be playing, I want them to be proud and say 'yeah, you sound good.' Of course you always want them to give you advice on what to work on, but you don't ever want them to leave saying 'Man, what the hell was he doing?' "

Judging by the quality of work demonstrated on their recordings and the overwhelmingly positive critical response, it is unlikely that anyone in Austin will be asking themselves that question when the Quartet comes to town. With Jason ("the youngest") Marsalis' conversational drums, Victor Atkins III's piano melodies, and the grace of Edwin Livingston's much-missed bass, the Jazz Fest appearance could be nothing less than a stellar show.

For those who were fortunate enough to hear Edwin Livingston play during his three-year stay in Austin, it is also an opportunity to follow his development since he left for New Orleans last March in search of apprenticeship opportunities. Through hard work, reliability, and fine musicianship, Livingston has found excellent people to learn from and to play with in the relatively short period since his departure. Around the time that Edwin Livingston moved to New Orleans, Irvin Mayfield was recording with Wes Anderson, Wynton Marsalis' saxophonist, in New York. When Mayfield got back to town, he met Livingston through the new band that Wes Anderson was assembling.

"You know, Ed has a certain look to him, a very unique and nostalgic kind of look. That's the first thing I noticed about him," Mayfield said. "Talking to Delfayo Marsalis, he was highly impressed with the way Edwin Livingston was playing. Every time I would call a bass player for a gig Delfeyo Marsalis would say, 'Man, you need to call Ed Livingston, call Ed Livingston.' So I got these tours and my record started taking off and I started working more and I needed to find a bass player who could be committed and so I said, well, I'll give Ed a call. The first time I heard him [with Wes Anderson's band] I really wasn't paying attention because we had just gotten back from New York and it was a different band with a different sound. But when I got to hear him play at my house I could not believe that I had let him sit around that long -- which wasn't that long -- but immediately he should have been playing with me, I feel."

"I can't make a contribution to creative music without knowledge," Livingston said when asked about his feelings regarding his move. "Here I really have a chance to be a full-fledged sideman. I am cutting my teeth on my roadchops and the music scene in general. I have learned tremendous amounts about the influence of the music business and about working in a band and being cohesive. How a good attitude is essential to good musicianship. Also about Afro-Cuban music, thanks to large extent to Bill Summers [also a member of Los Hombres], who has played with everyone I can safely say. He is on a record with Cachao, the godfather of Cuban music -- that is just a telltale sign of how really bad Bill Summers is. He has given me priceless information."

"Edwin Livingston," said Irvin Mayfield, "is probably the most in-demand bass player or becoming the most in-demand bass player right now in New Orleans and probably on the jazz scene. He is definitely making his way up. Every time we go anywhere people are asking 'Who's the bass player?' and 'Where did you find him at?' We play in two bands and Ed works out perfect in both situations, he can switch and do a lot of different genres and styles."

Although New Orleans has the number one jazz scene in the country right now, there are certain aspects of Austin that Livingston misses very much. "The food selection in the grocery stores in New Orleans is just not happening," he said reproachfully. "I am not sure what I was expecting, but Austin has New Orleans beat in the grocery store selection. I have to drive way out of my neighborhood here to find a twenty-four hour store. And they have no produce selection whatsoever."

More importantly, Livingston had to leave behind his fiancee and some very close friends. "Being in Austin really set the stage for me to come here. I learned a great deal in those three years. I was very lucky. I played with a lot of good musicians and I keep in touch with those folks that I played with on a regular basis -- Elias Hasslinger, Tina Marsh, I still play with Hot Buttered Rhythm. That sort of friendship and musicianship you can't forget."

Despite the fond memories it generates, Austin is still working to develop a network that can support and maintain artists like Edwin Livingston on its local scene. Irvin Mayfield credited the rebound of the New Orleans scene from its depression in the '80s to a number of things which Austin struggles to provide: businesses willing to invest in music that might not be as accessible to the general public, places where people can play, the presence of independent record companies that promote jazz on the same level as major labels, an established presence of musical education for young people, and, most importantly, musicians.

"You have to have those who are doing it as a profession really living in the city," he said. "The great thing about New Orleans is that we have all the Marsalises and we have Nicholas Payton and Terrence Blanchard -- we have a lot of people who are playing on a national and worldwide, universal level and that's what keeps the scene growing. Y'all have some [in Texas]. You know, Roy Hargrove! But it's hard because you need at least four or five of those people in one place at one time all wanting to do something. Then it brings interest. Because people go where the music is, and if there is good music, people are going to go check it out. Ellis Marsalis teaching at University of New Orleans, you get more and more people who may not know anything about jazz who take a class.

"The scene wasn't like this in the '80s. Wynton Marsalis and Terrence Blanchard and Donald Harrison all had to leave. Now they were able to come back and from that the scene has grown."

Edwin Livingston maintains that the heightened competition of the New Orleans scene affects the energy and attitudes of players in the city. "Being in New Orleans, I have humbled myself and been humbled. The vibe in Austin is fairly lax and that can be a deterrence if you want to get something done. New Orleans is also relaxed, people here just take their time, period, but when it comes to jazz, gigs can be few and far between and everyone is eager to play the best at all times. You don't know who's listening. The players here have a much stronger sense of urgency about themselves when they approach an otherwise normal gig, because somebody can come along and take it. In Austin, a lot of times we were like, 'We need to be killing.' But here we have got to be on the ball. The vibe stays serious."

What Mayfield and his colleagues play, however, does not seem to struggle under the weight of musical knowledge or professional concerns. They sound as though they could fly. "I think that what excites me now is that I have a really good band." Mayfield said thoughtfully. "It feels good when I have musicians that are willing to work with me and we have a really good time. We are really enjoying it. Sometimes it can be a job, playing with musicians who are really good but don't really want to play with you and are just doing it to get exposure. But these musicians, like Victor Atkins, we are really good friends, and the band members call each other on the phone all the time and we hang out and talk about music. We're excited because we all want to go through this thing together, we're all at the same place. When I wake up in the morning, the thing I feel good about, even today, is that I'm having a rehearsal with the band."

Edwin Livingston agreed. "I am enjoying the ride. I am doing all I can here. I am concentrating on being a strong and supportive accompanist. That is my role and it is not a limiting one. As long as it lasts, I'm down for it."

Livingston said he had a good amount of film to take pictures with, hopefully enough money, and was going to try to assimilate very quickly with the local culture on his first trip in Asia. Mayfield sees the upcoming experience as an indication of how "your music brings you outside of the normal idiosyncrasies of life." The wisdom in that is applicable from either side of the stage.

The Irvin Mayfield Quartet will perform at The Clay Pit's Bombay Room, 1601 Guadalupe, at 8pm on September 15.