Matt Nicholas Payton was born and raised in New Orleans. His parents are both musicians,his father is a Bassist, his mum sings opera and plays piano.Off course within a family of that nature he took up music and received his first trumpet at 4 but really did not take things seriously till he was round about 11, when he was playing street parades,in the' All Star Brass Band" and anywhere else possible.At the time of recording this album he is 22 which was released back in 1996 but recorded in 95. The band is a Sextet with Nicholas (trumpet),Jesse Davis (alto Sax),Tim Warfield (tenor sax),Anthony Womsey (piano).Reuben Rogers ( this man has the longest fingers no wonder he plays bass) and Adonis Rose (drums). All young and some of these musicians have already supported are a who's who of contempary Jazz,Christian McBride,Joshua Redman,Wynton Marsalis,Roy Hargrove,Aaron Goldberg,even Diana Krall and the list goes on.

Classic New Orleans tunes,predominately by Pops (Loius Armstrong) given a contempary Hard Bop treatment and a nice fairly laid back album is the result, well constructed and played beautifully.No vocals just Jazz and even though the traditionalists might say "Oh no" it is not a problem for this modern revamp of some of the most famous tunes in Jazz.

We begin with "Whoppin" Blues" and every body has a crack at this Nicholas first,Jesse on alto is next all great solos and then along comes Tim warfield on tenor and he begins his solo with a quick flash of "When The Saints Come Marching In" and I always get a kick when musicians put snippets in. The theme is played between each solo of the tune.The next one up has already had a little prelude on the previous by Tim Warfield and yes it is "When the Saints" Louis Armstrong played this at practically every concert and the version Nicholas provides is fairly laid back and subdued but it does not take away from the tune at all and actually is refreshing to hear it done differently."Wild Man Blues" comes along and commences with a lovely solo from Nicholas and he keeps a hold of the tune the whole time.All are great repesentations of these classic New Orleans numbers and for track 5 we get a great snappy version of 'Way Down Yonder In New Orleans" but one of the standouts is "Weather Bird". Nicholas Payton's trumpet soars with that New Orleans flavour. The album finishes up with quite a great cover of "St. James Infirmary". One other mention is track 7 "I got a Right to Sing the Blues" which he will redo again on his next album with Doc Cheatham and both are different to each other. This one is a little more contempary but the other with Doc Cheatham is more in a traditional manner.

Of all the albums I have heard recorded by Nicholas Payton it is always the New Orleans flavoured ones that I have liked best. Maybe it is his home town and being taught how to play there but whatever the reason he does them beautifully and this one is no exception.