Library donations to Irvin Mayfield jazz project questioned

[Miguel]

August 2015:

Irvin Mayfield, staffer resign public UNO jobs

NEW ORLEANS -- Fresh off a 10-nation tour and facing a federal investigation into his handling of public library donations, Grammy-winning trumpeter Irvin Mayfield has resigned as a professor at the University of New Orleans.

Meanwhile, WWL-TV — which reported in May that Mayfield and his business partner, Ronald Markham, had changed the rules of the city's public library support foundation to steer at least $863,000 to their Jazz Orchestra — found archived city documents indicating that the Jazz Orchestra took a portion of a $125,000 grant for organizing the grand opening of the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts and used it to pay its musicians for a Jazz Fest concert and for recording the album that won the Grammy.

...NOJO spent $101,731 of its grant to pay a ballet company, a public relations firm, a graphic designer and musicians — including Irma Thomas, Jeremy Davenport and the NOJO band itself — for participating in the event. But records from 2010 also show that the $23,269 left over was used to pay its own musicians for two unrelated performances in 2009: the recording of the Book One CD that won a 2010 Grammy Award, and a Jazz Fest concert.

...Mayfield, who does not have a college degree, has been teaching a humanities class called "New Orleans as Discourse" as well as a music class. Seven students had signed up for the humanities class but nobody had registered to take the music class, said Charles Taylor, director of the music department.

http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/local/in.../31439805/