You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Nicholas Payton's new release "Smoke Sessions"

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

First Take Friday! Join the listening room as Adam and Peter listen to the first track, Hangin' in and Jivin', off of Nicholas Payton's new release Smoke Sessions.Listen to the tune hereWatch the You'll Hear It episode with Nicholas Payton as a guest hereHave a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeSupport the pod by spreading the word with the link youllhearit.com Learn more about Open Studio Pro: openstudiojazz.com/proInterested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Twitter | Instagram

Hey, Adam. Yes. Guess what today is? Is it first take Friday? Dang, man, I don't know what to say. I can read your mind, man. Also, we talked about it right before we started. That's true.

And Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Music, advice, inspiration, and group listening, especially on Friday. I'm so glad we're doing this, man. You know, we used to do, what was it, the listening session. The listening session, which is probably going to come back in 2022. Yes. We even told our dear listeners about big plans for 2022, but we're going into a whole new space.

we might be doing some stuff there. I don't know. Yeah, I think it's going to come back. And actually, we'll invite everybody most Mondays at 4 p.m. Eastern time. That's also known as New York City time. The center of the world. Can we put it out there?

Yeah. Say New York City is the center of the world. That's why we do 4 p.m. Eastern. That's right. And 3 p.m. Central. Chicago. Yeah. Yeah.

We meet us at Chicago time by the lake for some Polish sausages. I don't know what I'm saying. Let me shut up. Okay. But we do every Monday, not every Monday, but most Mondays, when we are together here, we do a you'll hear at, live, we'd like to invite all of you. That's over at YouTube. If you like the podcast, you're going to love

them. It's such a pro-operation, too. Today's was so incredible. No, for those of you who might remember, we're on our one last week or this previous Monday, a big audio problem. We had some audio problems. But you know what? Let's not talk about that while we're trying to bring people in because next week's not going to be like that. Well, I'm very

excited about today's first take Friday. So let me ask you a question. Yes. Would you be interested? Would that be something you might be interested in? Hold on a minute. Would you be interested in a an album that features Ron Carter. Yes, I'm in. Karim Riggin.

I'm in again. George Coleman. Very much in. I haven't even mentioned the leader of the album yet. Yes. I'm already in, but who? It's Nicholas Payton. Yes.

Times four. How have you not heard this yet? I'd like the 4X this listening. This is a friend of the show. We've had Nicholas Payton on the show before. Yes, we will link to the interview because that, that interview kind of, I thought it was a really good interview. Every time I talked to Nicholas, but either, this is probably the only time I've talked

in an official capacity, but it's so. interesting. He's such a smart guy. He's such a smart guy, such a thinker of the music. I mean, it's kind of like, you know, there's other musicians we know that are smart folks, but like he's so eloquent in his, and opinionate. It's like the intersection of being very elegant, elegant, eloquent, and very opinionated that is super interesting because most musicians are one of those three. I love it. Not all three. No, you're right. And his, his like entire philosophy and the way he thinks about things that talks about music is it always, even if you don't immediately, like, agree with it, or even if maybe your first thought is like, what is this? You have to admit

that it makes you, like, rethink things that you might take for granted. Like, he just posed on Instagram a few days ago. Key signatures are oppressive to harmony. Tonal colonialism. Isn't that, I mean, key signatures are oppressive to harmony. If that doesn't get you thinking, then you're not thinking, you're not up for thinking. Every nerdy musician who, halfway woke, it's probably like, wait, what? You know what I mean? It's just, it's a fun way to think about things. And it really challenges your, your assumptions.

Well, I love his whole philosophy. And it comes through in his music, too. His playing challenges your assumptions of what's about to happen. And I'm so, when we had him on the show, remember he was talking about this session with Ron Carter and Creamergens and George Coleman. This is called the Smoke Sessions. We're going to listen to the first tune called Hanging and Jive and Hiving in and Jive and. I don't think anything on this record swings, Peter.

No, well, I mean, it all swings. Yeah, exactly. Nothing's tipping. Nothing's like, yeah, but it's like, it's such great examples of, well, you know what? We're not even going to talk about it because we're going to jump in and listen. And then we're going to talk about it. Here's hanging in and jiving. All right, can we stop for a second?

I'm already in. And you know, who's playing piano? Who's, uh, Nicholas Payton. Yeah, Nicholas Payton is, well, we've talked about before. It's an amazing pianist. He's just amazing musicians. So any instruments that he can play, which is several, I mean, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums is what I've heard in play.

That musicianship is going to come out. So let's hear it again. There you go. It's a first track. It's a bit of a statement, right? It is a statement, yeah. I'm really excited to delve into the rest. I mean, I have a little bit.

I mean, I have a little bit. But the rest of the record, you know, if we take this just as, you know, like we like, we like to look at it as you're setting the table. You're introducing your guest. you're welcoming them in. This is, to me, this is saying this album is going to be very sophisticated, but very relaxed. Like, this is your coming in. This is like,

this is like casual Friday, but don't be showing up with some, like, crappy board shows. You know what I'm saying? Casual, but you better have a little refinement. You better have some sophistication. You should have been around the block a few times. You should be around the block to know what you can and can't do and not even have a question about that.

I mean, it was amazing to hear Nicholas Payton's piano playing. at the beginning, you get a real sense of him as a musician without, not that he's not, he doesn't have like pretty impressive chops on the piano and not just for, you know, it's like for a trumpet player. It's like, no, just as a pianist is very enjoyable to listen to. What a sound too on the piano. But he doesn't have what he has on the trumpet,

which is just like an incredible mastery, technical mastery, right? You can still hear him, especially on some of the, 16, no, it's not as like free as the trumpet, which is kind of cool to hear him, because you actually get a little bit more of his musical soul at its rawest form, you know, which is really, really fun to hear as a long-time fan. I love that.

It was very much like listening to one of his trumpet solos, and there's almost no difference. It's his voice. Right. You know? That's what I think is amazing. Like his, I mean, look, the piano, we know we've been battling this instrument or getting to know it.

For many years now, it's a harder instrument on the surface than a trumpet or a bass or almost any instrument in the sort of jazz world to be able to really get your personality, your phrasing to come out. It's the easiest thing to play a note, but it's harder to personalize it. And I think Nicholas has like, you know, some very advanced piano technique in terms of being able to phrase

in a way where his same kind of trumpet phrasing, so that sort of Nicholas phrasing actually is able to come out as well. A lot of times instrumentals that can play piano can do stuff, but they can't really sound like themselves. like they can comp and play sometimes even some flashy stuff. And Nicholas can actually play a whole lot more technical, sort of traditional technical stuff than he did on this. He almost kind of held back in a way, I can tell.

But what he did do is like for pianists to listen to that, like phrasing and the timing and being, like laying back on that melody and stuff, that's hard to do. He was breathing like a horn player. And that is something. And that's what we're always trying to do. I know. But it's literally second nature for him because he's such a great trumpet player.

and it's amazing to hear. And then just unbelievable hookup between Ron Carter and Kareem Riggins. That was really fun, you know, to hear two players of different generations that, you know, just, it felt like they'd been playing together for 10 years. It felt great, man.

Yeah, and I mean, you know, I love the, there was a little bit of tension, that good kind of tension in terms of the rhythm section between bass and drums, Kareem Riggins, and Ron Carter. I think you need that a little bit. Yeah, Ron was pushing a little bit on the beat where actually Ron was right in the beat.

Karin was laying back on a lot of the stuff. And then when they went to the swing, like that's where you really felt that organic kind of bass and drum like hookup. It was just like such a release. But it was, it wasn't like, oh, we're going to go to another groove. It was just like the natural place for it to go. It was like, ah. And then when it went in and out of it, like where Ron kind of started walking a little bit underneath.

So natural. So like just, I mean, what would you expect? But I'm really looking forward to delving this whole recording. Of course, George Coleman. is on some of the later tracks. And I was thinking back to, and I'm wondering, you know,

hopefully you can do another interview with Nicholas on this. I remember when I first met him, and this is going back to, you know, early 90s in New Orleans. We kind of connect. I remember we used to just talk about music.

We talked about like with language and the masters on musicians get that was like, it's how we just, a bunch of us hanging Victor Gohens and Jeremy Davenport, Chris Thomas, Brian Blade, Nicholas Payton,

Bryce Winston, a number of people. But like, we would just be listening to music and talking about stuff, but he had listened a lot to, of course, Miles Davis, but specifically Forne Moore. And I listened to that record a lot,

but I was especially listening to My Funny Valentine. Those two records were from the same gig. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From the same concert. And, of course, Ron Carter and George Coleman played very prominently parts in that recording. But I know he was enamored with that particular record and, like, could play all the soul.

He was like 16 years old. He could play all the Miles' souls and George Coleman's souls. I remember he was like, and I was like, I thought I loved that record. I found somebody who really loved and knew that record. But I'm wondering if, you know, there wasn't a little bit of like, wow, Ron Carter and, you know, George Coleman coming together on a recording of his. That had to have been like some full circle type of moments for sure.

I'm sure, man. Well, I mean, I remember when we talked to him for the show and he was excited about those sessions and telling us about it and how good time he was having. Yeah. Very cool. So that's Nicholas Payton, Smoke Sessions, featuring Ron Carter, Cream Wrigan's, Special guest, George Coleman, go check that out. Really, really solid first listen there.

And we'll link to pick that up, purchase, or stream or whatever. I wonder if that is Smoke doing LPs? If they are, we're going to link to that. I'm all about the LPs. I don't know about you, man. I love them, man. Well, that's what I'm saying. We've got to get our turn table in here at some point for our sessions.

You know what I'm saying? Turntable in an audience. That's the only thing that can make these first take Fridays even better. That's right. And maybe some mock tales. Some mock tales. You can't even say that with a straight face. It's hard.

Sorry, even I cringe. Well, good. Well, until Monday, I hope you have a good weekend. I hope everybody has a good weekend. Stay lifted. Stay peaceful. Stay healthy. Positive today.

Wow. Come on, man. It's the weekend. We'll pull it back down on Monday. Don't worry. Raise me on. Until Monday. You'll hear it.