Today marks the release of Nicholas Payton's Nonesuch debut, Into the Blue, and, writes Pop Matters' Will Layman, for the renowned trumpeter, who has "had an unusually ripe and attractive sound" from the very beginning, the new album feels "like a self-discovery." The site gives Into the Blue an 8 out of 10 and notes both the genuineness and the variety apparent on the album that combine to make something new:
Into the Blue was recorded in New Orleans with Payton's regular group, but it is not a recital that uses the delta city as a gimmick. Rather, the feeling here is one of letting go---Payton seems just to be playing, letting his horn speak plainly and naturally in a variety of settings ... This amalgam of sources, however, has now been filtered through Payton's own conception, and the cross-breeding has produced something pleasingly new. Nicholas Payton, it would seem, has grown up before our ... ears.
Layman compliments Payton's solo playing, finding "a cinematic feeling" in the songs that allows each solo to seem "like a journey over a tumbling landscape." He also praises the pairing between the trumpeter and pianist Kevin Hays, which creates "a sense of precision and fullness that gives the disc stylistic range." Approaching that diversity of styles, the entire band, says Layman, is able to "make all these transitions with utmost ease ... Nothing is cluttered or overplayed." Furthermore, he credits producer Bob Belden, who has helped to bring about a number of Miles Davis reissues from the 1960s and '70s, with finding "ways to encourage Payton to explore his Miles-ian side without resorting to explicit Davis mimicry."
The Pop Matters review concludes:
Into the Blue is Nicholas Payton's most mature and fully realized album because it breaks new ground without abandoning the past. By invoking both his personal history (the clarion cry of his early playing as well as the groove-based recent work) and some of the history of the music, Payton has built something that knows what it is about. ... [He] has put himself in a superb position to define himself as a mature jazz artist. And now we know: he is as much a storyteller as he is a player, and
that creates certain anticipation for more great music to come.
To read the full review, visit popmatters.com.
Click here to add the Into the Blue CD directly to your Shopping Cart for $16, along with the album MP3s at no additional cost.
