# Irvin Mayfield: Jazz is democracy we hear: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2021/11/21/irvin-mayfield-jazz-is-democracy-we-hear-video-photos/
- Published: 2021-11-21T15:24:53+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Irvin Mayfield, the jazz trumpet player who became a symbol of New Orleans resilience
after Hurricane Katrina, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Wednesday for steering
charity money meant for public libraries to his personal use.**

Mayfield’s musical and business partner, pianist Ronald Markham, was also sentenced
to 18 months Wednesday in federal court. Both pleaded guilty last November to a 
single charge of conspiracy to commit fraud.

Prosecutors alleged they steered more than $1.3 million from the New Orleans Public
Library Foundation to themselves, largely by funneling it through the New Orleans
Jazz Orchestra, which Mayfield founded.

Mayfield, allowed to speak before he was sentenced, apologized to the library foundation,
its donors and the New Orleans community. He acknowledged the library as a place
where he first was able to listen to jazz records as a child. That brought one of
several interruptions from U.S District Judge Jay Zainey.

![](https://i0.wp.com/media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/11/03/ap21306677634082_wide-
9dd428a4e8f4829f91e1e0ecb2daa5848e36e551-s1100-c50.jpg?resize=640%2C360&ssl=1)

Mayfield at his nightclub on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in 2009. He became a 
symbol of New Orleans resilience after Hurricane Katrina, but was sentenced to prison
on Wednesday for steering charity money meant for public libraries to his personal
use.

“The very library that got you your start … you ripped off,” Zainey said. At one
point, Zainey told Mayfield to turn and address the courtroom, where Mayfield’s 
supporters and supporters of the library system sat. “I hope you accept my apology.
I accept 100% responsibility,” Mayfield told the audience.

Attorneys for the foundation, while not speaking on what kind of sentence Mayfield
and Markham should get, said the damage done went beyond the $1.3 million. The scandal,
they said, also seriously damaged the foundation’s reputation and fund-raising ability.

Supporters of Mayfield included former New Orleans police chief Eddie Compass. Compass
urged that Mayfield be spared prison time so he can continue to care for his disabled
mother and an autistic older brother. “He still fixes his brother’s food like he
did when he was a little kid,” Compass said.

Defense attorney Claude Kelley said nothing would be gained by sending Mayfield 
to prison for a non-violent crime. He pointed to Mayfield’s mentoring of young musicians
and other community development efforts led by the musician and said Mayfield has“
and incredible capacity to really make it right.”

“Book One,” an album by Mayfield and the Jazz Orchestra, won a Grammy in 2010. But
the library foundation scandal led to his resignation as artistic director of the
orchestra in 2016 while scrutiny of his role with the library grew following investigative
reports by WWL-TV.

Mayfield was among musicians who took a high-profile role in promoting New Orleans
after levee failures and catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Mayfield’s father died in the floodwaters.

Mayfield was also a founding member of the Afro-Caribbean jazz ensemble Los Hombres
Calientes.

Prosecutors said that in addition to orchestra operating expenses and salaries for
Mayfield and Markham, library foundation money went into Mayfield’s personal bank
accounts and toward the purchase of a gold-plated trumpet.

Prior to his indictment and guilty plea, Mayfield had outlined grand plans for the
city’s libraries in an AP interview in 2008.

“A library is democracy inside four walls, the freedom to information,” he said 
then. “Jazz is democracy we hear.”

![](https://i0.wp.com/media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/11/03/ap21306677665375_wide-
344132cbf6b87ea5aba3601b63bee11cf61f278a-s1100-c50.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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