Washington Post: Nicholas Payton's Nonesuch Debut "Fresh and Inspired"

Nicholas Payton, the headliner at last weekend's Main Street Jazz Fest in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, had performed at the New Orleans JazzFest the week before; it was in that city, his hometown, where Payton recorded his Nonesuch debut, Into the Blue, last fall.  The Washington Post's Mike Joyce says the new album "boasts relaxed, self-assured performances" and calls it "a summing-up of sorts, an album that recalls some of Payton's previous acoustic and fusion-inspired work yet manages to sound fresh and inspired---even surprising."

A highlight of the album for Joyce is "the trumpeter's wonderfully evocative interpretation" of music from Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score for Chinatown. "Warm, spacious, and burnished," writes the reviewer, "Payton's balladry is hard to beat," with additional highlights coming from a "funk-charged romp" ("Nida"), a "smoldering Latin-tinged groove" ("Triptych"), and the "fiery, post-bop coda" ("The Charleston Hop (The Blue Steps)").

To read the review, visit washingtonpost.com.

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