Education
Biography
A sought-after and versatile jazz trumpeter in New Orleans, Ashlin Parker plays with large and small ensembles nationally and internationally.
Ashlin shared in the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra’s album, Book One. Following the album, Book One, Ashlin has recorded with numerous artists, including Ellis Marsalis, Harold Battiste, Dmitry Mospan (Moscow), James Partridge (London), Terence Blanchard (film soundtrack), and Jason Marsalis (film soundtrack).
Ashlin leads the Trumpet Mafia that made their festival debut in 2015 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He plays with numerous ensembles, such as the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Bill Summers and Jazalsa, The Next Generation Big Band, Vivaz! and the Moscow-New Orleans Project, as well as groups led by Roland Guerin, Adonis Rose, Derek Douget, and Leroy Jones. He has played with musicians such as Jason Marsalis, Herlin Riley, Vincent Gardner, Brice Winston, Kermit Ruffins, Nicholas Payton, Igor Butman, Aretha Franklin, Anthony Hamilton, and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
Ashlin has been traveling and performing internationally since his undergraduate days of playing at the St. Louis Jazz Festival (Senegal) and the North Sea Jazz Festival (The Netherlands) with university jazz bands. After graduation, he continued international travel with the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, performing with, arranging for, and leading jazz ensembles on cruises throughout the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Central America, and the Mediterranean. Since graduate school, Ashlin has played with extraordinary musicians in a number of national and international tours and festivals, including the Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (Tours to Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, various European countries, and throughout the United States), the Adonis Rose Band (Tour throughout Brazil), the Roland Guerin Quintet (Ingolstädter Jazztage, Germany), Steve Masakowski and the New Orleans Modern Jazz Masters (Jus Jazz, India), The Session (Aberystwyth MusicFest and Pershore Jazz Festival, UK), The New Orleans Brass Revue (JazzAscona, Switzerland), and the Moscow-New Orleans Project (Usadba Jazz Festival, Moscow).
As a band leader, Ashlin has led ensembles in an array of settings and cities, including Radiance of the Seas (Royal Caribbean Cruise Line), the Chandler Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, numerous clubs and performance venues in Charlotte, NC and New Orleans, and fourteen home games of the NBA New Orleans Hornets (2011-12). Since 2008, the Ashlin Parker Quartet has regularly performed in New Orleans’ premiere clubs and hotels such as Snug Harbor, Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse, and the Jazz Market. Since the fall of 2014, his new band, The Trumpet Mafia, has played at Tulane University, Snug Harbor, Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse, the Jazz Market, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Members of the Trumpet Mafia can be found in New Orleans, New York, Switzerland, Russia, and Japan.
Ashlin has been teaching various aspects of jazz, including improvisation, theory, repertoire, arranging, and performance preparation in private lessons, courses, summer institutes, jazz camps, and master classes for more than ten years. He has been leading the jazz trumpet studio in the Music Department at the University of New Orleans since January 2011.
Ashlin holds the Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from Shenandoah University Conservatory (2005) and the Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of New Orleans (2009).