Nicholas Payton - Bitches

180 Gram Virgin Vinyl Double LP! Limited Hand-Numbered Audiophile Edition - Only 999 Copies Worldwide!

Mastered & Pressed in Germany!

Grammy Winning-Singer/Songwriter!

Features Guest Vocalists Cassandra Wilson and Esperanza Spalding!!

The man with the hat and trumpet is known and appreciated as one of the most famous jazz sons from New Orleans. The fact that Nicholas Payton is dedicating his latest project to modern R&B could cause some confusion. The cornet player of neo-bop must be way off track. Oh no not at all! With guests like Cassandra Wilson and Esperanza Spalding this concept album, Bitches, is not only genre defying but also the most ambitious work of a musician who stays true to his biography and philosophy. To top it off, he proves to be a blessed storyteller.

Born into a musical family he took up his instrument at the age of four, and as a teenager toured Europe with an all-star band. Parallel to his school days he enjoyed lessons from Ellis Marsalis, in the nineties he teamed up with famous colleagues like Clark Terry, Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, and Doc Cheatham, winning a Grammy for the collaboration with the latter in 1997. One of the most recent highlights in his still young career was the historic septet called The Blue Note 7 that celebrated the 70th birthday of the Blue Note Label with a tour and a recording. He has recorded 8 highly successful projects under his own name leading up to his 9th- Bitches.

Payton explains: "Before I was into what is widely known as 'straight-ahead jazz', I was into R&B and Hip-Hop. I grew up listening to Earth, Wind, & Fire, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, and a little later on it was Prince, Anita Baker, and Run DMC. After that, it was A Tribe Called Quest, D' Angelo, and Erykah Badu, J Dilla, and Yesterday's New Quintet. What I love about these artists' records is that they are inclusive of everything. They defy all manner of genre and are beyond categorization."

Payton affirms that it was his intention to create a "modern R&B joint" with the flavor of the Seventies and Eighties, but which sounds very much like now. An album to think about, one that is provocative and stimulates on more levels than just its groove.

He pays homage on a very fundamental basis to the relationship between man and woman, touching on biblical and mythological themes of the story of the Creation, with the two forebears of mankind and their expulsion from paradise. The main characters Adam and Eve enchant each other, shatter their romantic feelings, drift away and return, reflect on love, eros, faithfulness, deceit, trust and forgiveness.

Payton conceives a very urban sound with its programmed layers and complex breakbeats on the one hand and much space of an organic kind on the other- with wonderfully inspired trumpet solos and amazingly soulful vocal qualities. He creates a NuSoul landscapes reminiscent of D'Angelo fused with the erotic deepness of Marvin Gaye, the harmonic inventiveness of Stevie Wonder and the eccentricity of Prince.

Bitches is a love story that musically chronicles the joys and heartbreak of relationship. A provocative and breakthrough recording on many levels, Nicholas played every instrument, composed all the songs, wrote all the lyrics, produced each track, and sings and plays trumpet throughout.

Beginning with "By My Side" and its majestic keyboard basses leading over to the playful innocent introduction of Eve (Esperanza Spalding) "Freesia" and the melancholy of the first separation in "Shades Of Hue" the journey continues to the sultry "Indigo" with its Latin mood and breathing cornet lines. The dialogue with the "guardian angel" Saunders Sermons and the Hip Hop-flavored up-tempo interlude "iStole Your iPhone" are followed by a magnificent threefold finale: Payton blends into one with Cassandra Wilson in a mellow ballad, grasps the spiritual stars with a gospel flavor, only to conclude with a humoresque, ironic reflection about togetherness with Chinah Blac.

"The slower material, instrumentally reminiscent of Lonnie Liston Smith & the Cosmic Echoes (circa "Love Beams") and Roy Ayers Ubiquity (circa "Gotta Find a Lover"), is tasteful and solid, but the songs with chunky synthesizers and heavy drum programming, sometimes charmingly sloppy, are the real kick." - Andy Kellman, allmusic.com

"Ferociously gifted." - New York Times

"A magnificent soloist who can add teeth to easy listening funk and bop." - Time Out New York

Features:

• 180g Double Vinyl

• Limited Hand-Numbered Audiophile Edition - Only 999 Copies Worldwide!

• Grammy Winner

• Mastered and Pressed in Germany

• Guest Vocalists Cassandra Wilson and Esperanza Spalding

• Composed All Songs, Wrote All Lyrics, Produced Each Track, Sings and Plays Trumpet Throughout

Musicians:

Nicholas Payton, trumpet, B3, piano, synthesizer, bass, drums, vocals

Cassandra Wilson, vocals

Esperanza Spalding, vocals

N'dambi, vocals

China Blac, vocals

Saunders Sermons, vocals

Selections:

LP1 - Side 1:

1. By My Side (Ildeth's Blues)

2. Freesia

3. Shades of Hue

LP1 - Side 2:

1. Truth or Dare

2. Togetherness Foreverness

3. Indigo

4. You Are The Spark

LP2 - Side 3:

1. The Second Show (Adam's Plea)

2. Flip The Script

3. Love and Faith

4. Don't I Love You Good

LP2 - Side 4:

1. iStole Your iPhone

2. You Take Me Places I've Never Been Before

3. Give Light, Live Life, Love

4. Bitches