I'm proud of this album, it was the disc that takes honour of place in starting my Blog [1st January 2010], and this is its fourth appearance in my Blog, for me this is one of the greatest Jazz albums ever made, a wonderful mix of tunes, and a small group of Artists red hot with ideas, and all recorded in a wonderful clarity of sound, a big thumbs up must go to the rhythm section, Adonis Rose on drums, so well caught in the mix, vital for a truly great Jazz album, but especially the Bassist Reuben Rogers is a real star, the Bassist is the forgotten man in a Jazz Ensemble, but here he brings up ideas and sounds right to the fore, especially at some of the intros, and that's one of the great things about this disc, it's teeming with ideas in its intros, they are truly inspired, all of the Artists create a perfect canvas for Payton to paint his ideas on, he composed three quartets of the tracks on this album, and he's one of the great Jazz composers.
Nicholas Payton is American, born in 1973 makes him 39 today [wow! i didn't realise he's still so young], he recorded this disc in 1997 & 1998, one of the great joys of this album is the way the whole thing's been laid out visually, some nice thought has gone into it, the design is by Giulio Turturro, the whole booklet inner is a joy to read and look at, the front / back photographs are stunning [by Barron Claiborne], using rich and eye popping colours, and managing to use all four of the major colours of red / yellow / blue / green, nice sharp head and shoulders shot of Payton, the addition of a trumpet from the right adds the visual musical dimension, the whole thing's perfect.
Well looking at the last time i played this album [18th March 2012], i find that it's exactly the same three tracks that come up trumps again, 1, 5 & 9, and i would very much like to just concentrate on the very best of these three, which was track 5 'Concentric Circles', here's a synopsis,
5 Concentric Circles - Starting with an Adonis Rose drum intro [0:00-0:18], just listen to the sharp snap of those toms, so superbly caught, and he really gets the vibe going, Saxophonist Tim Warfield takes the first solo [1:00-2:25], and Pianist Anthony Wonsey throws in some excellent chords at the right time to challenge Warfield, next up is Payton himself [2:26-4:03], and it seems that all the musicians start pushing the envelope of creativity, which pushes Payton all the more, and there's a point near the end of his solo where he gets really frantic, rapid fire notes high in the treble [3:47], now i like that!, Pianist Anthony Wonsey is up next [4:03-5:25], and Adonis Rose has some very nice casual drumming which adds so much to Rose's solo, and then Drummer Adonis Rose himself gets a superb solo in [5:25-6:18], and you can just hear the sheer range of different sounds he can make, a great but short drum solo, superbly caught by the mikes, and Payton comes back in on trumpet just at the ideal moment with a re-appearance of the theme [6:18+], and there's a nice subtle touch of a last bass twang from Reuben Rogers right at the very end, tremendous track, loved it.
Here's Nicholas Payton's album Payton's Place on the AllMusic website, you can listen to 30 second samples.
Nicholas Payton is American, born in 1973 makes him 39 today [wow! i didn't realise he's still so young], he recorded this disc in 1997 & 1998, one of the great joys of this album is the way the whole thing's been laid out visually, some nice thought has gone into it, the design is by Giulio Turturro, the whole booklet inner is a joy to read and look at, the front / back photographs are stunning [by Barron Claiborne], using rich and eye popping colours, and managing to use all four of the major colours of red / yellow / blue / green, nice sharp head and shoulders shot of Payton, the addition of a trumpet from the right adds the visual musical dimension, the whole thing's perfect.
Well looking at the last time i played this album [18th March 2012], i find that it's exactly the same three tracks that come up trumps again, 1, 5 & 9, and i would very much like to just concentrate on the very best of these three, which was track 5 'Concentric Circles', here's a synopsis,
5 Concentric Circles - Starting with an Adonis Rose drum intro [0:00-0:18], just listen to the sharp snap of those toms, so superbly caught, and he really gets the vibe going, Saxophonist Tim Warfield takes the first solo [1:00-2:25], and Pianist Anthony Wonsey throws in some excellent chords at the right time to challenge Warfield, next up is Payton himself [2:26-4:03], and it seems that all the musicians start pushing the envelope of creativity, which pushes Payton all the more, and there's a point near the end of his solo where he gets really frantic, rapid fire notes high in the treble [3:47], now i like that!, Pianist Anthony Wonsey is up next [4:03-5:25], and Adonis Rose has some very nice casual drumming which adds so much to Rose's solo, and then Drummer Adonis Rose himself gets a superb solo in [5:25-6:18], and you can just hear the sheer range of different sounds he can make, a great but short drum solo, superbly caught by the mikes, and Payton comes back in on trumpet just at the ideal moment with a re-appearance of the theme [6:18+], and there's a nice subtle touch of a last bass twang from Reuben Rogers right at the very end, tremendous track, loved it.
Here's Nicholas Payton's album Payton's Place on the AllMusic website, you can listen to 30 second samples.
