Nicholas Payton

After years of maintaining a respectable face for neobop and groove, NOLA trumpeter Nicholas Payton has taken a sharp turn toward controversy, both with his gangsta blog posts and "jazz is dead" rhetoric (he's favoring #BAM, as in Black American Music), and by titling his new CD of collaborations with prominent women musicians Bitches. We're down with the first part, less so the second…but whatever, Nick, so long as the asses are in the seats. Payton leads a quartet Tue 3–Thu 5, and a big band Fri 6 and Sat 7.