Today, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield expanded his Mayfield entertainment brand, this time to Canal Street. On a windy eighth-floor patio, he and Ted Selogie, General Manager of the J.W. Marriott Hotel, announced that they have partnered up to develop the Irvin Mayfield I Club.

Expected to open in July, the I Club will be an intimate club located on the Common Street side of the J.W. Marriott Hotel. With a lobby entrance on Canal Street and a street level entrance on Common Street, it occupies the space that was once home to the Marriott’s French Henri restaurant. With expansive dark wood on the interior, I Club resembles a tall, richly appointed study.

The I Club will be Mayfield’s second club after Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse, but he entered into negotiations with J.W. Marriott before the Royal Sonesta, his partner for the Playhouse. Mayfield boldly declared it “America’s greatest jazz club,” and he plans on making the I Club “America’s greatest music club,” which will offer “New Orleans music in a luxury setting,” he said.

“We’re the only music venue in the city with valet parking,” he joked.

Rather than define “New Orleans music,” he named artists he plans to present, such as Amanda Shaw, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Los Hombres Calientes and Mia Borders. In addition to live local musical talent every Wednesday to Saturday night, the I Club will feature small-plate dining prepared by award-winning executive chef Lou Sander. Happy hour starts at 5 p.m. and ends once shows begin at 8 p.m. Depending on the performance, ticket prices will range from $8-$20.

Selogie envisions the club’s development and the Marriott’s partnership with Mayfield as a step in the right direction for the business of music of music in New Orleans. The club starts “a new paradigm in the city, where the artist is partner.”