Trumpeter Nicholas Payton Returns to the Sheldon, 11/7

The Sheldon presents Nicholas Payton, Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 8 p.m. in the perfect acoustics of the Sheldon Concert Hall. KWMU host Dennis Owsley will present a pre-concert talk, "The New Orleans and St. Louis Trumpet Traditions," at 7:10 p.m. A professional musician since the age of 12, trumpeter Nicholas Payton returns to The Sheldon with a style that embraces his New Orleans upbringing, while reaching for new levels of maturity and sophistication in his performance.

Born into a musical family and mentored by two Crescent City jazz masters, Clyde Kerr Jr. at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Ellis Marsalis at the University of New Orleans, Payton was well-prepared to leap into the jazz fray when he emerged on the New York Jazz scene in the early 1990s.

While his jazz journey has taken him down many roads - from heritage artist to electric experimenter - the 34-year-old trumpeter arrives at a new plateau of jazz maturity with Into the Blue, his ninth album and his first for Nonesuch. It's at once a nod to the past and a leap into the future. Into the Blue is a collection of ten tunes steeped in melody and groove that Payton says "embodies the sensibilities of beauty, elegance and simplicity" and delivers "danceable tempos."

Payton recently toured the nation and appeared at The Sheldon with Bill Charlap, Ravi Coltrane and StEve Wilson to celebrate the Blue Note record label's 70th anniversary, and has worked with other jazz greats including Wynton and Ellis Marsalis, Elvin Jones, and Ray Brown.

Don't miss Nicholas Payton, Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 8 p.m. at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Tickets are $40 orchestra / $35 balcony and are available through MetroTix at 314.534.1111 or at www.TheSheldon.org. For more information, call The Sheldon at 314.533.9900.