Shelton State to Host Ashlin Parker at Jazz Festival
March 11, 2026 – Shelton State Community College will host the Seventh Annual West Alabama High School Jazz Festival on Saturday, March 28, 2026. Per tradition, the festival will be a full day event starting at 9:00 a.m. in the Bean-Brown Theatre on the College’s Martin Campus. Free and open to the public, the day’s festivities will conclude with a finale concert at 7:00 p.m. featuring the Shelton State Jazz Ensemble and guest artist Ashlin Parker.
A sought-after and versatile jazz trumpeter in New Orleans, Ashlin Parker performs with large and small ensembles nationally and internationally. His solos have been described as lyrical and fiery, featuring brilliant vibrato, lightning staccato runs, and superb legato phrasing. Whether leading his own groups or contributing to a front line, he brings energy, bite, and zest through dynamic interplay with fellow musicians. He has performed throughout the world, including Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, and Wales.
Ashlin is the founder of Trumpet Mafia, an internationally recognized ensemble that debuted at the 2015 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and has since appeared annually at major festivals, including Satchmo SummerFest, where the group has led the festival’s closing Louis Armstrong tribute. Trumpet Mafia won OffBeat Magazine’s 2017 Best of the Beat Award for Emerging Artist of the Year and has been praised as “an immensely talented band.” From 2014 until 2020, Ashlin was a performing and recording member of the Ellis Marsalis Quintet, performing extensively until Mr. Marsalis’ passing.
He plays regularly with Trumpet Mafia, Dumpstaphunk, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Bill Summers and Jazalsa, and Pat Casey and the New Sound, and has appeared with artists such as Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Aretha Franklin, Wynton Marsalis, Dr. John, and Brian Blade. Since 2009, he has recorded on more than 30 albums with artists including Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Fermin Muguruza, and Kermit Ruffins, contributing featured solos on numerous projects.
A dedicated educator for more than fifteen years, Ashlin teaches improvisation, theory, repertoire, arranging, and performance preparation through private instruction, master classes, and university teaching. He serves on the faculty of the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music and as Professor of Practice at Tulane University and previously taught at the University of New Orleans. A Grammy Award recipient as a member of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, he holds degrees in Jazz Studies from Shenandoah University and the University of New Orleans.
Participating high school bands will perform selections for audience members and participate in master class sessions with Parker. All performances are free and open to the public, including the finale concert.
For more information about the Seventh Annual West Alabama High School Jazz Festival, contact Lillian Wesley at 205.391.2399 or lwesley@sheltonstate.edu.
