New Orleans trumpeter Nicholas Payton returns
By Roscoe Crenshaw
For The St. Louis American
It hardly seems like five years ago that Nicholas Payton graced the Jazz at the Bistro stage. Since that time, he has expanded musically, with a potpourri as diverse and flavorful as his hometown New Orleans’ gumbo.
Born in New Orleans on September 26, 1973, the acclaimed ‘Young Lion’ trumpeter began gigging at eight years old, played with the All-Star Brass Band, a traditional youth group that performed across the U.S. and abroad, and studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and the University of New Orleans, under the tutelage of the renowned Ellis Marsalis, patriarch of the Marsalis musical family.
The gifted Payton has played or recorded with Joe Henderson, Clark Terry, Jimmy Smith, Greg Tardy, Tim Warfield, Mark Whitfield, Rueben Rogers, Adonis Rose. Stefan Harris, Russell Gunn, Christian McBride, Greg Osby and many others; and, at age 19, was Elvin Jones’ musical director.
My initial sonic encounter with Nicholas was in the ‘90s at Just Jazz in St. Louis’ Hotel Majestic. There, he set the stage for some exhilarating experiences to follow. Later, his full, pure sound on trumpet and flugelhorn, impeccable technique and astonishing range were always on display: at The IndigoRoom (now The Formula) on Washington, sitting in at Spruill’s with Willie Akins or on one of his trips to Jazz at the Bistro.
Payton became a leader in 1995, with his CD, From This Moment. In 1996, he recorded Gumbo Nouveau, then collaborated with the legendary trumpeter Doc Cheatham in 1997 for Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton. Payton Place, in 1998, as one scribe put it, “marked the beginnings of his expanding compositional palette.” In response to Nicholas’ next effort, Nick @ Night, writer Chris Hovan observed, “It’s a promising sign that the revivalist movement once fronted by Wynton Marsalis has now given way to a manifold and more healthy jazz outlook.”
The 2001 big band recording, Dear Louis, (a tribute to Louis Armstrong) marked the introduction of Payton’s vocals on disc – with “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You” and “I’ll Never Be The Same.”
But in 2003, Nick’s first Warner Bros. release, Sonic Trance, signalled the unfurling of a much broader spectrum of expression. Gregory J. Robb describes it as sounds “produced in a group context using an entire age of special effects that we thought were dead and gone. They are unleashed and indulged as a child pillages a play store.” And A. Scott Galloway hears the use of “groove and hip hop, electric keyboards, upright bass, drums, percussion and a mystical bag of special effects for trumpet” as a formula to
“send imaginations on a liberating journey.”
With regard to his continually evolving artistic approach and ideas, the Grammy Award winner muses, “I would like to think I am in a constant state of development,” and elaborates that he is just trying “to play jazz that is indicative of the times in which we live and that has more to do with embracing the elements of the music of my youth, as opposed to playing jazz through a concept of thirty, forty, fifty years ago.”
On the often-controversial subject of hip hop – which he has incorporated into some of his music – Payton offers: “I think the problem is that most of what we see and hear is not necessarily the best representation of what’s going on in the creative side of the field. And I think, sometimes, some of the negative imagery that comes along with some of the popularity, some of the things that we see, has branded it as not being artful. I think it’s completely fresh and innovative, and I’m trying to draw from that because I
come from that culture.”
The astute, multi-faceted Nicholas Payton is adept at playing several instruments. Drummer Montez Coleman recently extolled his skills on the upright bass to me – skills that I can affirm, having witnessed them firsthand, after hours at Jazz at the Bistro.
His talents – be they conceptual or compositional, or his superb trumpet chops – are so vast that only the sky must be the limit. I can’t wait to check out his next moves.
The Nicholas Quintet plays Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington, January 18-21 at 8:30 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. each night.
