Dillard University and All That Jazz
New Orleans-based HBCU seeks to set itself apart with creation of new jazz institute, orchestra
By Kendra Hamilton
The notion simply didn’t compute: New Orleans — the birthplace of jazz; producer of jazz greats from Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong to the Marsalis clan; perhaps the only city in America where jazz remains a living cradle-to-grave experience and form of expression — does not have a jazz orchestra.
At least it didn’t compute to Dillard University president Dr. Michael Lomax or to Irvin Mayfield, the 25-year-old trumpet wunderkind who has been artist-in-residence at the New Orleans-based historically Black college since September. But fortunately, the pair was in a position to do something about it.
