Nicholas Payton
Encyclopedia
Nicholas Payton is a jazz
trumpet
player from New Orleans
, Louisiana
.
and sousaphonist
Walter Payton
, he took up the trumpet at the age of four and by the time he was nine he was playing in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band
alongside his father. Upon leaving school, he enrolled first at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
and then at the University of New Orleans
, where he studied with Ellis Marsalis
.
After touring with Marcus Roberts
and Elvin Jones
in the early 90s, Payton signed a recording contract with Verve
; his first album, From This Moment, appeared in 1994. In 1996 he performed on the soundtrack of the movie Kansas City, and in 1997 received a Grammy Award
(Best Instrumental Solo) for his playing on the album Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton. After seven albums on Verve, Payton signed with Warner Bros. Records
, releasing Sonic Trance, his first album on the new label, in 2003. Besides his recordings under his own name, Payton has also played and recorded with Wynton Marsalis
, Dr. Michael White, Christian McBride
, Joshua Redman
, Roy Hargrove
, Doc Cheatham and Joe Henderson
.
In 2008, Payton became part of The Blue Note 7
, a septet
formed that year in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records
. The group recorded an album in 2008, entitled Mosaic
, which was released in 2009 on Blue Note Records
/EMI
, and toured the United States in promotion of the album from January until April 2009.
He also plays piano, and sometimes uses both instruments simultaneously, accompanying his right-handed trumpet with left-handed chords.
Payton is also a prolific blogger. In a blog entry titled "On the Difference Between Prejudice and Racism..." Payton theorizes that blacks cannot be racist because a prerequisite to racism is power, and that whites have power over blacks in all areas except "...at the basketball court, on the bandstand, or in the bedroom." Payton also suggests that being white is the result of a recessive gene, and that racism is a white survival instict to avoid being "...reclaimed by its natural colored state."
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
player from New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
.
Biography
The son of bassistDouble bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
and sousaphonist
Sousaphone
The sousaphone is a type of tuba that is widely employed in marching bands. Designed so that it fits around the body of the musician and is supported by the left shoulder, the sousaphone may be readily played while being carried...
Walter Payton
Walter Payton (musician)
Walter Payton, Jr. was an American jazz bassist and sousaphonist.Payton was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He played with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the French Market Jazz Hall Band and the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, and led his own group called the Snap Bean Band...
, he took up the trumpet at the age of four and by the time he was nine he was playing in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band
Young Tuxedo Brass Band
The Young Tuxedo Brass Band is a brass band from New Orleans, which was influential on the New Orleans jazz scene in the years after World War II....
alongside his father. Upon leaving school, he enrolled first at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, or NOCCA, is a professional arts training center for secondary school-age children. NOCCA is located in New Orleans, Louisiana. The school offers instruction in creative writing, dance, media arts, music, theatre arts, and visual arts, with a summer culinary...
and then at the University of New Orleans
University of New Orleans
The University of New Orleans, often referred to locally as UNO, is a medium-sized public urban university located on the New Orleans Lakefront within New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It is a member of the LSU System and the Urban 13 association. Currently UNO is without a proper chancellor...
, where he studied with Ellis Marsalis
Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
Ellis Marsalis is an American musician. He can usually be seen performing on Fridays at Snug Harbor jazz bistro in New Orleans.- Life and career :...
.
After touring with Marcus Roberts
Marcus Roberts
Marcus Roberts is an American jazz pianist who has achieved fame as a stride pianist committed to celebrating classic standards and jazz traditions. Roberts has also distinguished his solos by accompanying himself with walking basslines...
and Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
in the early 90s, Payton signed a recording contract with Verve
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
; his first album, From This Moment, appeared in 1994. In 1996 he performed on the soundtrack of the movie Kansas City, and in 1997 received a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
(Best Instrumental Solo) for his playing on the album Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton. After seven albums on Verve, Payton signed with Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
, releasing Sonic Trance, his first album on the new label, in 2003. Besides his recordings under his own name, Payton has also played and recorded with Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, Dr. Michael White, Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...
, Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.-Biography:...
, Roy Hargrove
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002...
, Doc Cheatham and Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
.
In 2008, Payton became part of The Blue Note 7
The Blue Note 7
The Blue Note 7 are a jazz septet formed in 2008 in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records. The group consists of Peter Bernstein , Bill Charlap , Ravi Coltrane , Lewis Nash , Nicholas Payton , Peter Washington , and Steve Wilson .The group recorded an album in 2008, entitled Mosaic,...
, a septet
Septet
A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry....
formed that year in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
. The group recorded an album in 2008, entitled Mosaic
Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records
Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records is the 2009 debut album by The Blue Note 7.-Overview:The Blue Note 7 was formed in 2008 in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records...
, which was released in 2009 on Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
/EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, and toured the United States in promotion of the album from January until April 2009.
He also plays piano, and sometimes uses both instruments simultaneously, accompanying his right-handed trumpet with left-handed chords.
Payton is also a prolific blogger. In a blog entry titled "On the Difference Between Prejudice and Racism..." Payton theorizes that blacks cannot be racist because a prerequisite to racism is power, and that whites have power over blacks in all areas except "...at the basketball court, on the bandstand, or in the bedroom." Payton also suggests that being white is the result of a recessive gene, and that racism is a white survival instict to avoid being "...reclaimed by its natural colored state."
Discography
- 1994 - From This Moment (VerveVerve RecordsVerve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
) - 1995 - Gumbo Nouveau (Verve)
- 1997 - Fingerpainting: The Music Of Herbie Hancock (Verve) with Christian McBride and Mark Whitfield
- 1997 - Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton (Verve)
- 1998 - Payton's PlacePayton's PlacePayton's Place is a jazz album released in 1998 by trumpet player Nicholas Payton.-Track listing:# "Zigaboogaloo" – 5:53# "The Three Trumpeteers" – 5:26# "Back to the Source" – 6:27# "A Touch of Silver" – 5:12# "Concentric Circles" – 7:08...
(PolyGram Records) - 1999 - Nick@Night (Verve)
- 1999 - Trumpet Legacy (MilestoneMilestone RecordsMilestone Records is a United States based jazz record label, founded in 1966 by Orrin Keepnews and Dick Katz in New York City. The company was incorporated into Fantasy Records in 1972, since then it has been used for reissues as well as for new recordings....
) with Lew Soloff, Tom HarrellTom HarrellTom Harrell is a renowned American post-bop jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer and arranger.-Biography:Tom Harrell was born in Urbana, Illinois but moved to the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of five. He started playing trumpet at eight and within five years, started playing gigs with...
, and Eddie Henderson - 2001 - Dear Louis (Verve)
- 2003 - Sonic Trance (Warner Bros. RecordsWarner Bros. RecordsWarner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
) - 2004 - Live in New York 1.24.04Live in New York 1.24.04Live in New York 1.24.04 is the second recording, and first live recording, by Nicholas Payton's electric jazz band Sonic Trance. It was recorded live at the 2004 International Association for Jazz Education conference in New York City....
(Kufala Recordings) with Sonic Trance - 2006 - Mysterious Shorter (Chesky) with Sam Yahel, Billy Drumond, John Hart, and Bob BeldenBob BeldenJames Robert Belden is an American saxophonist, arranger, composer, bandleader and producer. He is noted for his Grammy Award winning jazz orchestral recording titled The Black Dahlia. He is also a past head of A & R for Blue Note Records.Belden was born in Evanston, Illinois, and raised in...
- 2008 - Into The Blue (NonesuchNonesuch RecordsNonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
) - 2011 - Bitches (In+Out Records) http://www.nicholaspayton.com/news.html
External links
- Nicholas Payton Official site
- Biography from JazzTrumpetSolos.com
- Interview with Nicholas Payton for jazzInternet.com
- "In Conversation with Nicholas Payton" by Ted Panken, (Jazz.com)
- Nicholas Payton: Live At The Village Vanguard - slideshow by NPRNPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...