In New Orleans, scandal tarnishes a jazz star and the libraries he was asked to help
The lavish spending during this time by NOJO [The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra] has made the Grammy-winning trumpeter the target of a three-year federal probe following media reports that showed how he [Irvin Mayfield] and business associate Ronald Markham directed more than $1 million from a private foundation tasked to aid the city’s beleaguered public library system to NOJO, where both men have drawn six-figure salaries. The situation has enraged the city’s philanthropic community and shrunk library donations. A financial audit released late last year shows that NOJO paid Mayfield’s production company hundreds of thousands of dollars. An accounting of where and how money was spent was practically nonexistent.