“Payton is a sensational young player whose vocabulary encompasses the clarion tones and bluesy growls of Louis Armstrong and the fluidity and fire of modern masters…” ----San Francisco Chronicle.

Nicholas Payton

Nicholas Payton has followed a path from acoustic mainstream to electrified hip-hop, garnering Grammy and other recognition along the way. Having set the jazz world on its collective ear with his “Sonic Trance” band, he has returned to his acoustic roots with the Grammy-nominated Dear Louis and his “Tribute to Miles” quintet. Payton brings his current quartet to the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, November 21-26.

New Orleans native Nicholas Payton was surrounded by musicians growing up (his mom sang opera, his dad was a respected jazz and classical bassist) and began playing trumpet at age 4. “Discovered” by Wynton Marsalis, young Payton played with Marcus Roberts and later Marsalis’ bands; attended the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and University of New Orleans, and in 1991, played with Jazz Futures II along with Roy Hargrove. At only 21 he joined Elvin Jones, eventually becoming the band’s music director; he also did stints with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. Along with numerous recordings and appearances as a sideman and leader, Payton toured and recorded a set of duets with the late Doc Cheatham, for which he won a Grammy (at age 24) for his performance of “Stardust.”

Nicholas Payton

Revitalizing the jazz traditions of his native New Orleans, Payton has been acclaimed throughout the past decade for his “crackling spirit and the fiery chops of one of this generation’s most gifted trumpet players” (Isaac Josephson, Jazz Times), issuing six recordings that included his reworkings of Louis Armstrong (the Grammy-nominated Dear Louis) and Herbie Hancock. Feeling that he had exhausted the potential of his working quintet, Payton shifted gears with Sonic Trance, a new ensemble fusing hip-hop, rock, African rhythms, funk grooves, and R&B. “I wanted to draw on my own experiences as opposed to playing jazz in the form it was 30, 40, 50 years ago.” The resulting open-ended compositions have been compared to the effects attained by Miles Davis on Bitches Brew. Which is only fitting as Payton has been touring in 2006 not only with Sonic Trance (which was nominated for a 2004 Grammy in the Contemporary Jazz category), but with a quintet and quartet in “Tribute to Miles.”

Most recently, Payton has called upon either Danny Grissett on piano or Mike Moreno on guitar, with Essiett Essiett or Vicente Archer on bass, and Sylvia Cuenca or Simon Lott on drums. But regardless of his sidemen, any opportunity to hear Nicholas Payton is golden. Even the legends know one of their own when they hear him:

“I haven’t heard anyone like him since Louis Armstrong”—Doc Cheatham

See the Nicholas Payton Quartet at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, November 21-26; two sets each night at 8 and 10 pm, Tuesday-Thursday; 9 and 11 pm Friday-Sunday, with a 4 pm matinee on Sunday afternoon. Information at www.jazzshowcase.com