’ve often heard it said that Salt Lake City has a gaping void where jazz is concerned. And before you ask, no, I don’t mean the basketball team. With the jazz musicians who have performed here and the number of jazz clubs popping up all over the place (The Bayou, Monk’s House of Jazz and Zanzibar), I kindly beg to differ.

	Nicholas Payton enjoys chiaroscuro lighting, an intense zoom and hot jazz. The trumpet player is bringing his new project to Kinsbury Hall.

Friday, Dec. 5, is no exception. The Associated Students of the University of Utah’s Presenter’s Of-fice brings us Nicholas Payton and his newest project and album, Son-ic Trance. Sonic Trance is somewhat like the Sgt. Pepper’s of the jazz world. It takes all different flavors of music and stirs them together in one great thematic pot, yet it still relies heavily on modern-jazz tra-dition. Payton borrows ingredients from modern, electric jazz, world music, reggae, hip hop, electronica, ragtime, mariachi music, R&B and pop music.

While recently discussing Sonic Trance with A. Scott Galloway for an article on his Web page, Payton said, “This record is a personal makeover for me. I’ve finally gotten to a point in my life where I’m really happy again. I’ve recently gotten married to an extraordinary woman. I’ve been about finding myself and the child within. Consequently, this album is a culmination of everything I’ve lived from birth to now. I approached this album like cinema. Certain recurring melodies are like characters that appear and reappear in different incarnations…one minute whole-some, the next evil. We go from rap to a tone poem on this album because that’s how life can be. One minute we’re involved in the most buffoonish of escapades and the next, something beautiful.”

As a child in New Orleans, music surrounded Payton. His mother was an operatic singer and classi-cal pianist and his father remains an accomplished bassist. Through-out his young years, Payton was exposed to a myriad of musicians and groups: Louis Armstrong, Scott Joplin, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire and even Run-DMC, all of which had some effect on his style. Payton began performing at the age of 8 with his father and even-tually moved on to study with jazz great Ellis Marsalis at the Univer-sity of New Orleans.

Sonic Trance is Payton’s seventh album. The album features Kevin Hays on electric keyboards and piano, Vicente Archer on upright bass, Danny Sadownick on per-cussion and Karriem Riggins on sampler and synthesizer, as well as two members of his previous quintet, Tim Warfield on tenor and soprano saxophones and Adonis Rose on drums.

In a musical world that seems heavily based on tradition, Payton bravely breaks the mold by com-posing without musical preju-dice or pretense. This is plainly evident on Sonic Trance. Payton has embarked as far as anyone to genuinely push the boundaries of jazz. Some may say that Payton has gone too far and that the diversion from tradition is a bit hedonistic, but it is certainly clear that Payton can cook up a mean musical gumbo.

Payton will be performing on Friday, Dec. 5, in the Olpin Union Ballroom. General Admission ticket prices for Nicholas Payton and Sonic Trance are $25 for the general public and $8 for U students with valid ID. For more information please call 585-9010.
hayley@red-mag.com