As a “little” post-script… My heritage is rooted in Black America with ancestral ties to an Algonquin triibe of the mid-Atlantic. I heard Spanish & Portuguese at home, & my prayers are in Hebrew… My warmest memories were Dodger games with my Japanese step-dad and jamming to Eric Clapton... *while* being schooled on Muddy Waters. Tell me, is there a name for this?…more so, does there really need to be? 🤷🏽♀️ We often rely on labels because we are either: 1.) too uncomfortable with the truth or 2.) too comfortable to seek it out… 🤯 May we be courageous to *live* beyond labels - & inspire others to do the same -musically & beyond… 🙌🏽 #BAM #BlackAmericanMusic #jazzweloveyou_buuut #whatsinaname #timetoswing #time_to_up_our_game #humanitywins
Those nights with Emmet make the rest of the week bearable. I like watching Kyle more as he drums with such intelligence and expression. Listening hard from Scarborough, UK.
*Hashtag Meets History* 🎶 #️⃣🌎🙌🏽 0:00 This Guy’s In Love With You (B. Bacharach, Hal David) 7:10 Introduction of the Band 9:48 The Backwards Step (Nicholas Payton) 21:16 Star Eyes (Gene de Paul, Don Raye) 36:58 Sonnymoon for Two (Sonny Rollins) 49:07 Relaxin’ With Nick (Nicholas Payton) 56:28 You Go To My Head (J. F. Coots; lyr. Haven Gillespie) 1:09:45 Jazz Is a Four-Letter Word (Nicholas Payton) 1:19:03 Stablemates (Benny Golson) 1:33:40 Othello (Nicholas Payton) 1:40:56 I Want to Stay In New Orleans (Nicholas Payton) 1:49:12 Jam Session with Nicholas Payton & Cats *More than a clever hashtag, **#BAM** (Black American Music) is not intended to isolate…but to educate.* Will I still passionately refer to our ‘jazz’* family? Yup, I shall… -but with a ferocious awareness of the narratives that sustain this music. We study transcriptions & we labor to reproduce the notes of our heroes - *but who birthed that first soul-melting passage?* From where did it derive? *The oral tradition & experience of Black America is the centerpiece on which this music exists…* and Nicholas Payton implores us not to forget it. *The genre that we love is the language of a people, who endured a history of silence, servitude, & social injustice.* -- It echoes every ache & exhilaration that they could not, otherwise, express... *Before it was an artform, it was a form of survival.* -- And it speaks to *each* one of us. Last night, we all marveled at *Nick Payton* as a *‘musician’s musician…’* *His horn, his keys, his chops, his bass work - everything that he touches - reveals how deeply he inhabits the music.* Damn it, even his kicks match his horn. He masterfully maneuvers between instruments with an urgency of *tradition.* Yet, in all of this, we call it “jazz”… a one-syllable label, with a questionable etymology… *but it's a four-letter word that we’ve grown madly in love with.* Yeah man, I agree - *we can do better…* *The name may be detached from reality - But we aren’t.* *Jazz, we love you baby…* *but **#BAM** (Black American Music) honors humanity.* To our global family, our jazz family…our BAM family: *May we grow in consciousness, champion the history, & always love this music for the ‘right reasons’* …🙌🏽🌎🎶🌍. Emmet, Russell, Kyle, Mr. Nicholas Payton,...and all you cats -- thank you.
Thank you *so* much, James - this is amazing to me. 🤯 my relative was married to Sonny in ‘57…the same year this was recorded at the Village Vanguard….my god, this song had to be for her...🥺…
Brilliant! Thats what I call Live Jazz! Emmet you are amazing to be hosting these live streams. Your band is so tight and the Sound and Video are Excellent. I have not seen all your concerts but this was with Nicholas is my favourite so far... Shalom and Peace from Australia! 🙂
Payton does everything right, and it's not academic. The bits of Clifford Brown are startling, uncanny - so real. He and the bass and drums are directly conveying the Music in 2021, despite societal ruination. The bassist has the spirit of Paul Chambers without copying PC. Fresh water from a mountain spring.
I love your music and all the musicians that you’ve had selected to play with you it is great I think you should do a concert with one of my favorite saxophonist Nicole Glover she’s really good and I love your trio setting as well it is fantastic.
This is my favorite of all the volumes so far! The songs provide a reminiscence of Miles' quartet of the 1960s, yet it is more than that. It's been such a terrific experience during the pandemic to see and hear all these fabulous recordings. Many kudos to the team and to the band! Will we see Elena Pinderhughes, Christian Scott, or Robert Glasper (Rhodes + piano on the same set) in any of the subsequent volumes?
It's great that you're getting such a wide variety of players on here. What a great series. Can I make a suggestion for a couple of my favorite tenor players? Ralph Bowen and Tim Ries. Very different players obviously, but I feel like they'd both be great to play with. And in the case of Ralph, he'd benefit from the visibility as I feel like he's such an underrated talent. Anyway...cheers to you all for providing such high quality and enjoyable content!
To Nicholas Payton: You''re of the two or three greatest trumpet players alive today. You scared me to death when CT brought your teenage self to Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase. You gravely disappointed me when you failed to take advantage of Grace Cathedral's magical acoustics, which other musicians did to great advantage, by playing a keyboard instead, something at which you are FAR less skilled. Don Byron, who set up the gig, DID play the acoustics, and it was a GASS (as his work always is -- he has killed me in many varied musical situations). I can count the number of trumpet players who have done anything meaningful as keyboard players or singers without taking my shoes off, and you ain't one of them. CT, Chet, Bix, and Ray Nance did. Don't quit your day gig!e, by playing a keyboard. Your singing is as good as Rahsaan's was to set up the mood of a performance, and nothing more. And your playing on this set knocked me out, as it always does when you're not screwing around.
