A place for Payton

Jennifer K Mahal

Playing with jazz trumpeter Nicholas Payton, said a member of his

band, is a revelation.

“You have to sit down and think of the moment you felt most

restricted or like a slave,” saxophonist Tim Warfield said, “and then

he comes in and frees you. And the gratitude you have comes through

in the opportunity to express this musically.”

Payton and his five-member band will open the Orange County

Performing Arts Center’s 2002-03 Scott’s Seafood Jazz Festival with a

total of four performances today and Saturday in Founders Hall.

Besides Warfield, the band includes Adonis Rose on drums, bassist

Vincente Archer, pianist Kevin Hays and Danny Fadownick on

percussion.

“I can’t think of a word that really fits how gratifying it is to

be able to play the way he allows you to play,” Warfield said.

The son of a respected bassist and an operatic singer and pianist,

Payton has been blowing on the horn since he was 4.

“Pretty much the trumpet was my first real instrument,” he said

from his home in New Orleans. “Before that I would bang on the piano

and whatnot. There were always a lot of instruments around the

house.”

But the regal air of the trumpet grabbed Payton’s attention. At 8,

he was playing gigs with his father, Walter Payton. He went on to

join the All-Star Brass Band and to later study with Ellis Marsalis

(father of Wynton and Branford) at the University of New Orleans.

“The trumpet is a powerful instrument and calls attention,” he

said. “It can be strong and forceful, but also beautiful and pretty.”

Payton has been called one of the “young lions” of jazz. His first

CD, “From This Moment,” appeared on the Verve label in 1994. But it

was his second CD, “Gumbo Nouveau,” that he credits with generating a

lot of heat for the now 29-year-old and his band, helping them to

become working artists.

“The first couple of years, I basically made no money,” Payton

said. “When you’re a first-time artist, a lot of the gigs don’t even

pay enough to cover the expenses when you figure in the hotel and

airfare.”

He said he feels lucky that band members stuck with him through

the lean times, when he would subsidize the band by playing on other

projects. When “Gumbo Nouveau” hit the charts in 1995, it helped

Payton and his band earn a reputation as up-and-comers.

Of course Payton’s 1997 Grammy for Best Solo Jazz Performance on

“Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton” hasn’t hurt either. Other CDs

include 1997’s “Payton Place,” 1999’s “Nick@Night” and 2001’s “Dear

Louis,” a tribute to Louis Armstrong with all new musical

arrangements.

Though standards have their place in his repertoire, Payton said

he has been writing a lot of original music lately, aiming for

something freer and more open than he’s tried before. Elements of

hip-hop and rhythm and blues inform the new tunes.

“I want to explore other forms of music, not just jazz-tazz, but

other forms of music,” Payton said, “the more contemporary sounds of

youth.”

The new tunes excite Warfield, who has been playing exclusively

with Payton’s band for four years. Music, he said, can be a humbling

thing. Especially jazz improvisation, which depends on the band

members having an almost psychic sense of one another.

“The minute you think you’ve got it, something comes along and

then you think, maybe not just yet,” Warfield said. “It’s like a

relationship. There’s something new and challenging, but if you

approach it the right way, it can be fruitful.”