In Nicholas Payton’s Place

Trumpeter Nicholas Payton, though only 24, has earned high praise. Perhaps the highest appeared in the program for this year’s Playboy Jazz Festival; it traced the New Orleans trumpet tradition through four men: Buddy Bolden (the mysterious barber-cornetist often credited with being the first jazz musician), Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis and upstart Payton.

Hank Jones, one of the jazz world’s most respected veterans, has said Payton has the “knowledge of a man 20 years older.” And the New York Times, in a review of a trumpet battle held last year at the city’s Avery Fisher Hall, awarded the night to Payton over trumpeters Marsalis, Jon Faddis and Roy Hargrove.

But the quiet-spoken Payton won’t allow himself to rest on the accolades.

“All I have to do is put on any record of jazz trumpet and that stops my complacency,” he said in a pre-Christmas phone call from his New Orleans home.

“Any time I get to feeling a little comfortable, I put on [trumpeters] Clifford Brown or Fats Navarro, and that ends it. There are so many great musicians out there. You hear them, and that inspires you. That’s the beauty of jazz. You have endless resources in the history of the music. None of the great jazz musicians ever got to a place where they didn’t want to improve.”

As Like fellow trumpeter and New Orleans native Marsalis, Payton had an upbringing suited to jazz. His father, New Orleans bassist Walter Payton, bought him a pocket trumpet when he was 4. The young Payton grew up across the street from Armstrong Park, the center of the city’s brass-band scene. He attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, as did Wynton and Branford Marsalis, trumpeter Terence Blanchard and saxophonist Donald Harrison.

“Music was part of my life before I was born,” Payton said. “It wasn’t a conscious thing for me. I mean, it wasn’t like I was supposed to be this jazz child. But my parents were always supportive, even when I didn’t want to play. And with my father having rehearsals at the house, music was always around me. Just growing up in New Orleans, on any given Sunday afternoon a band might come marching up the street.”

Before he was out of grade school, Payton had appeared with his father’s combo and as a member of his hometown’s All-Star-Jazz-Band, a group of junior musicians who played around the city and traveled to festivals.

“At the time, I didn’t realize how all this would be important to me,” he said. “I was more interested in just being a kid. But as I grew older, I began to appreciate the music more and realized that I had all these influences to draw from.”

Hearing Miles Davis’ 1964 concert recording “Four,” with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and a 17-year-old Tony Williams, helped focus the young musician’s vision. He was 11.

“That’s the moment I decided to be a jazz musician. When I heard the energy that band had--they were burning from the one. The emotional intensity is something I can still feel. That’s the most important factor in the music.

“To me, jazz without expression--if I can’t feel anything in the music--then it’s pointless. The instrument is just the vehicle of that expression. That’s what makes jazz universal. Human emotion is consistent wherever we go. We all feel pain, anger, happiness. The greatest musicians were intelligent men who understood those emotions and have come to terms with them in their music.”

A second turning point came when the 13-year-old Payton met Wynton Marsalis, 11 years his senior. “Wynton represented the fact that jazz is part of the young culture as well as the old. A lot of my peers weren’t really into jazz at all. But Wynton showed us that a young musician has a place in jazz.”

Payton spent a semester studying with pianist and Marsalis patriarch Ellis Marsalis at the University of New Orleans. “I was absent about half the time because I was out touring,” he recalled. “But it really helped me get my writing together.”

Payton has profited throughout his career from relationships with older musicians, most notably trumpeter Clark Terry.

“Clark took me under his wing when I was 14, and he still calls me to this day. He’s helped many people over the years. That’s the spirit that will keep this music happening. There’s no room to be greedy.”

Another mentor was trumpeter Doc Cheatham. Payton and Cheatham released a collaborative album this year and planned to tour; the 92-year-old trumpeter died last summer.

“Doc had the same spirit as Clark. He always took time out to talk to people. He was always searching to the end. That’s the kind of spirit you have to have to play this music. You have to keep the energy and hunger and passion, and that’s what Doc retained all those years.”

Payton has recorded four albums for Verve over the years and has been featured with drummer Elvin Jones’ Jazz Machine, pianist Marcus Roberts’ ensemble and Wynton Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. His latest recording is a collaborative tribute to Herbie Hancock with bassist Christian McBride and guitarist Mark Whitfield titled “Fingerpainting.”

Payton’s current lineup of high-powered musicians--saxophonist Tim Warfield, pianist Anthony Wonsey, bassist Ruben Rogers and drummer Adonis Rose--is an excellent young ensemble, not just a showcase for its leader.

“The group sound is very important to me,” Payton said, “and playing with these guys is always a challenge. In terms of performance, once you get to the point you feel you know it all, the feeling leaves the music. Luckily, there’s still a lot to learn.”

* The Nicholas Payton Quintet appears Friday at Founders Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. Also Saturday. $30. (714) 556-2787.