Even until recently this writer always thought of Nicholas Payton as a talented trumpeter in the New Orleans tradition but as Payton has proved on previous releases. he’s become quite an adept jazz pianist, an ability he didn’t disclose to his bandmates Ron Carter, George Coleman, and Karriem Riggins prior to these sessions. Not only does Payton play piano and keyboards brilliantly, sometimes here he plays them simultaneously as he does in his live shows. This is no surprise to those who have heard his live 2019 Smoke Sessions Relaxin’ with Nick. Yet, this one is truly special for Payton who is fulfilling a lifelong dream.
The album Payton cites as the most important catalyst for his beginning a music career was Miles Davis’ Four and More, released in 1966 but recorded two years earlier at Lincoln Center. Payton has long wanted to recruit the legendary Ron Carter, who played on that album, for his own piano album. Not only did he bring Carter aboard but was able to tap the saxophonist from that date, George Coleman, to play on a couple of these tunes. He honors the pianist of that recording, Herbie Hancock, by covering “Toys,” one of several where Payton plays both piano and trumpet. The outlier (if you want to use that term) is contemporary drummer and longtime collaborator Riggins, who, along with the leader adds R&B, funk and hip-hop flourishes to the music, to keep it from being a throwback. While this is clearly Payton’s statement and not a tribute, he confesses to the notion that as long as he’s been leading bands, he’s always looked for Carter’s style of bass playing and Hancock’s style on piano in his choices for those respective instruments.
Payton and company open in a trio format with his “Hangin’ and Jivin’,” setting a funky Ramsey Lewis-like Fender Rhodes groove to the beats of Carter and Riggins. The piano fades and Payton begins playing trumpet at the 4:20 mark, his New Orleans heritage immediately evident in his tone and phrasing. The tandem of Carter and Riggins keep the groove remarkably steady, eventually helped by Payton’s comping on the keys while playing his horn. Coleman makes his entrance on “Big George” blowing sultry tones in this gorgeous ballad to an acoustic accompaniment that features the leader on piano. Payton indicates in the liners that he didn’t feel that Coleman got as much credit as he deserved in handling Miles’ changes and chord progressions so on both the tunes where Coleman plays, Payton inserted several four-bar turnarounds to highlight Coleman’s deft skills. He even calls it out in the title of the second tune, “Turn-a-Ron,” which features spirited exchanges between the two legendary Miles sidemen.
Carter leads into “Levin’s Lope,” the title of which references his middle name. Payton is again on Rhodes, later also playing trumpet, riding above the bassline of “Cyborg Swing” from his Quarantined with Nick album. Keith Jarrett’s beautiful “No Lonely Nights” has the intimacy of just Payton and Carter as a duo. The delicate sounds continue into the two-part “Lullaby for a Lamppost,” dedicated to New Orleans music legend Danny Barker. It begins in funeral procession style in the first part becoming more celebratory as it builds on the Rhodes and trumpet where he sustains some glorious high notes in Part 2 in true New Orleans tradition to a terrific Carter walking bassline.
“Q for Quincy Jones” first appeared on Payton’s 2015 Letters album, here beginning as a swinging acoustic piano trio piece. In keeping with the pattern of so many others, the leader switches to a soulful trumpet mid-piece. “Gold Dust Magic” is from Payton’s orchestral work of the same name, which premiered with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra earlier this year. Surely those colors are familiar ones in New Orleans. The NFL’s New Orleans Saints bear them as well. In this trio version, Payton returns to his combination of Rhodes and trumpet, as the tune climaxes in an explosive Riggins drum solo.
The closer is Herbie Hancock’s “Toys” which first appeared on 1968’s Speak Like a Child and almost ten years later on V.S.O.P. Payton begins on Rhodes before switching to piano and finishing with an especially searing, bending note trumpet excursion, doing his best to emulate his idols, and earning a prized accolade from Carter who can be heard “It don’t get no better than that, Nicholas” at the end of the track to which Payton responds humbly, “Thank you, maestro.” In the liners, Payton consistently expresses his gratitude at having these legends join him. – “…If you really want to play this music. It’s ancestral. And these people – living, or on the other side – can pass through you at any moment if you’re open to it.”
It’s often said that music can bridge cultures. It can bridge generations too. The sparkling testimony of that lies herein.
