Irvin Mayfield’s musical career has been occluded by his personality, which has distracted critics from his strengths as a conceptualist and organizer adept at surrounding himself with exceptional talent. Mayfield has been overshadowed on the local depth chart by some legendary older trumpeters, and though he has never been shy about his ability, at this point Mayfield has actually been undervalued as a soloist.

Watching Mayfield develop the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and work with some of the city’s best musicians in his Wednesday jazz workshops at Snug Harbor has left little doubt about his abilities as a leader. He has the skills as a writer, arranger and organizer to match his maturation as a soloist. Now in his 30s, Mayfield is enjoying a moment of artistic arrival with NOJO’s Book One, an impressive collection of the orchestra’s live performances.

This album has an emotional power and depth of writing/arrangement content that invites comparison to similar efforts by such past giants of jazz orchestration as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Charles Mingus, but Mayfield balances the big band material with some contemporary R&B and even an Afro-Cuban jazz composition. It’s all about New Orleans, from its inspiration to its performance, as Mayfield fashions specific roles for some of the most talented individual voices in the city right now, getting outstanding performances out of vocalists Johnaye Kendrick, Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown and John Boutte; clarinetist Evan Christopher; and trumpeter Barney Floyd among others.

Blues lies at the heart of Mayfield’s concept and provides a narrative context for the album with the sultry theme of “7th Ward Blues,” which opens the proceedings with an expressive introduction from the rhythm section of bassist David Pulphus, who is outstanding throughout these proceedings, drummer Adonis Rose and Victor “Red” Atkins on piano. The theme pits clarinet and trumpet against each other in glorious interplay before a series of soulful blues turns from Derek Douget on tenor saxophone, Ronald Westray on trombone and Mayfield on trumpet.

Kendrick, an impressive young vocalist who just finished her residence with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in New Orleans, delivers a beautiful turn on “In Love All Over Again,” which features a screaming, crying trumpet solo from Mayfield at its climax. Elsewhere he is content to turn the spotlight on others. Christopher shares writing and arrangement credits on the outstanding “Creole Thang,” in which his supple clarinet surfs through NOJO’s majestic sonic waves in Bechet-like grandeur. Floyd’s trumpet goes ballistic on the Super Chief tempo of “Somebody Forgot to Turn the Faucet Off (Probably Steve)” a harkening back to the excitement of Basie and Ellington train songs. Speaking of Basie, it’s shades of Jimmy Rushing when Brown takes the microphone for “Richie Can Count,” the entertaining take on the current financial crisis with its memorable call-and-response chorus of “Bail me out, boy!” Finally, Mayfield employs Boutte’s vocal skills to full measure on the inspirational “Move On Ahead,” one of the best-written post Katrina anthems we’ve heard yet.