The Trumpet Mafia started in the summer of 2013 as something gloriously informal: a group of New Orleans trumpeters getting together at Ashlin Parker's apartment to share practice techniques and push each other's growth. Parker — a New Orleans Jazz Orchestra trumpeter who played on the 2009 Grammy-winning Book One and spent years in Ellis Marsalis's band — turned the shed sessions into a band: a wall of trumpets with unexpected arrangements mixing traditional jazz and hip-hop styles.
The Mafia made its festival debut at the 2015 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and has entertained crowds at that festival and others every year since. Guests have included Nicholas Payton, Maurice Brown, Marquis Hill, Keyon Harrold, and Jason Marsalis. In 2019 the whole project was featured in an educational residency at the JazzAscona Festival in Switzerland, with multi-aged participants from multiple countries.
The band documents its Jazz Fest sets through MunckMix live releases, from Jazzfest 2015 through the 2025 and 2026 festival sets, and in August 2026 played a Times Square concert with Jazz at Lincoln Center. There is no standalone band website — founder Ashlin Parker's site carries the band's story — and the single "Tell Me" (featuring Sean Jones, Shea Pierre, Jason Marsalis, and Derek Douget) is the band's calling card on record.
