Nicholas Payton

Nicholas Payton

MY FAVORITE THINGS
Nicholas Payton
How can any musician born in 1973 have absorbed the entire jazz tradition as comfortably as trumpeter Nicholas Payton has? By whatever means, Payton has found a way to fully assimilate performance styles reaching all the way back to jazz's New Orleans origins and all the way forward to today's cutting-edge sounds. During his whirlwind career, this New Orleans native has stood as an equal next to both Wynton Marsalis and the 90-plus-year-old master {|Doc Cheatham|}, among many others. His latest release, NICK@NIGHT, finds the virtuoso instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader in top form. This brass paragon speaks with bn.com's Ted Panken about his own trumpet heroes.

barnesandnoble.com: Presuming that Louis Armstrong is your favorite trumpet player, can you pick five favorite Armstrong solos?

Nicholas Payton: Yes, Yes. "Potato Head Blues," "Swing That Music," "Stardust," "Tight Like That," and "Jubilee." He was so ahead of his time. I often think about where he got his ideas. Even he has influences, like King Oliver. But man, when he came into his own, it was unlike anything that was before him, and there's been nothing like him since. It's an enigma to me how he pulled some of that stuff out of his head like he did, because there really was no precedent for it. He had something special. He said, "Okay, this is jazz music." He set the bar. And everybody else had to follow.

bn.com:Name your five other favorite trumpeters, a record by each, and a few words about them.

NP: Miles Davis. I love just about everything he ever did, all the way from his work with Bird [Charlie Parker] up through BIRTH OF THE COOL, the things with Gil Evans, his own quintets, and through his electric period. Phenomenal musician. He's the embodiment of everything I want to represent in music, which is a certain level of seriousness and dedication. The purity in his sound, his willingness to be open and to change, to not get stagnant and be locked into the sound of his generation. He was constantly evolving as an artist, like a chameleon. Yet he retained that thing that always was recognizable as Miles throughout all those recordings. FOUR AND MORE inspired me to want to play jazz music.

Clifford Brown. I love everything about Clifford Brown's playing. He did so much in just a couple of years. The amount of trumpet that he recorded was unbelievable. He played as beautifully as anyone can ever play, and he could blow you away with his heat and fire. Complete control over his horn, yet he always retained that soul and spirit.

Fats Navarro was another one who was not here with us long but had so much to say while he was here. All his work has the same thing. Beautiful sound, from the bottom of his horn all the way to the top. I would cite the airshots he did from Birdland with Charlie Parker in 1950 right before he died.

Freddie Hubbard. At one time, Freddie could do anything on the trumpet. I get scared when I listen to him. It's unbelievable that someone could play with that amount of energy, chorus after chorus. It's nonstop. There are so many different periods where he was really playing great, it's hard to pick one recording. I'll pick Herbie Hancock's EMPYREAN ISLES, which contains the seeds of what was later to come and shows what he'd blossomed into at that time.

Booker Little was classically trained and had tremendous technical ability, but he was so very lyrical. He didn't feel he had to display his technique at every moment. He knew how to take time and pace himself. Then when he hit something that was blazing, it was that much more effective. He plays with so much taste. One of my favorite recordings of his actually isn't his record -- Max Roach's PERCUSSION BITTER SWEET. I wrote a composition called "Blues for Booker Little" as part of a minisuite dedicated to players who've inspired me for a recent concert at Lincoln Center.

For that concert I wrote a tune for Duke Pearson, who to me is one of the treasures of the jazz world. He never got the kind of notoriety he deserved. As well as being a phenomenal pianist and accompanist, Duke Pearson had the ability to write songs that were advanced on a high artistic level while always putting in a little something for the people to groove to. I love that about him. My favorite record by him is SWEET HONEY BEE.

I also wrote a tune for Kenny Kirkland called "Once in a Blue Moon." The thing I love about Kenny's playing is that there's such a sense of optimism in his music. Very uplifting. He was with us for a short time, and he only did one record. But he was a phenomenal pianist. He swung hard, always very spirited, full of energy.

bn.com: What are three of your favorite New Orleans parade bands?

NP: I have to say the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. They did so many groundbreaking things in the '80s. They were rearranging a lot of traditional tunes, incorporating a lot of funk, throwing in all sorts of different things. An incredible group. I was very much influenced by them. Also The Young Tuxedo Brass Band, which my father played in. They play great traditional New Orleans music. For the younger cats, the Rebirth Brass Band. The level of energy they can always bring to the parade to get people riled up. To this day, the Rebirth is a favorite of many New Orleanians. They're so raw and full of energy.