One of the brightest new trumpet stars to come out in the 1990s, Verve recording artist Nicholas Payton combines references to his New Orleans heritage, the Young Lions’ brand of hard bop, and a warm sound. Born in 1973, in New Orleans, Louisiana, son of a musical family, he has been playing Jazz for over twenty years, since he was only eight.
A lifelong son of New Orleans, Payton is well aware of the shadow of Louis Armstrong. His homage to Satchmo comes not only in his choice of instruments, but in last year’s celebrated Louis Armstrong Centennial tour.
Yet Payton’s homage goes beyond imitation. He reinterprets Armstrong’s work through elegant reharmonization, and rearrangement, including parts for bass-tuba, conga, djembe, agogo bells, and cuica.
Payton has an enormous musical vocabulary. When he's not torching hard bop or playing lyrical traditional jazz, Nicholas Payton likes to make it funky. From his guest appearance on legendary B-3 Hammond organ man Jimmy Smith's 1995 album, Damn!, to his cover of the Stylistics' “People Make the World Go Round" on his top-selling 1997 CD, Payton's Place, Payton's no stranger to the smooth and slinky grooves of '60s and '70s-inspired soul. His Cheney Hall performance will be one of the first regional appearances (after the Newport Jazz Festival) of his quintet “The Soul Patrol”. Under this configuration, his strong and vibrant traditional jazz style finds a new groove, and reaches out to a new audience. The Soul Patrol line up currently consists of sax great Tim Warfield, Adonis Rose on drums, Guitarist Peter Bernstein and Hammond B-3 organist Larry Goldings. Cheney Hall is Connecticut’s oldest operating theatre, located ten minutes from Hartford in downtown Manchester. The seating capacity is just 335, making for an elegant, intimate, acoustically exciting performance.
Cheney Hall is Connecticut's oldest operating theatre. It is located at 177 Hartford Rd., Manchester CT about 10 minutes from downtown Hartford. Tickets are available by calling (860) 647-9824 or online at www.cheneyhall.org. The Theater seats 335, making for an intimate, acoustically exciting performance.
This show is the first of the 2002 “Milltown Jazz Series", which also includes performances by The Christian McBride Band (Sept 28) and Avishai Cohen and the International Vamp Band (Oct 13). Tickets for the entire series are $50 (General admission) or $70 (VIP).
For more information contact All About Jazz.
