For Immediate Release:
May 3, 2017
Photos available upon request
[email protected]
Press Contacts:
Dana Navarro/CSO
312-294-3090
Mary Jane Maharry/Brava PR
773-490-6046
GRAMMY AWARD-WINNER NICHOLAS PAYTON RETURNS TO
SYMPHONY CENTER PRESENTS JAZZ SERIES WITH
AFRO-CARIBBEAN MIXTAPE
Steve Wilson-Lewis Nash Duo Opens
Friday, May 19, at 8 p.m.
CHICAGO—The Symphony Center Presents (SCP) Jazz series presents Grammy
Award-winner Nicholas Payton with Afro-Caribbean Mixtape on Friday, May 19, at 8 p.m.
Payton’s new album and band draws on a global array of beats and melodies while still paying
homage to his New Orleans roots. The renowned jazz duo of saxophonist Steve Wilson and
drummer Lewis Nash open the evening with selections ranging from traditional to free jazz.
For the set inspired by Payton’s 2017 release Afro-Caribbean Mixtape, he performs on trumpet,
Fender Rhodes keyboard and clavinet along with Braylon Lacy (bass), Joe Dyson (drums),
Daniel Sadownick (percussion), and DJ Lady Fingaz (turntable). The new project explores how
African rhythms were dispersed by way of the Middle Passage throughout Cuba, Haiti and
Puerto Rico and then funneled through the mouthpiece of New Orleans to North America and
beyond. Payton blends bebop, swing, the Great American Songbook, soul, rhythm and blues,
urban, hip-hop, traditional New Orleans’ cultural genres such as second-line parade music and
Mardi Gras Indian music, and various Afro-descended dialects of the Americas and the
Caribbean into a focused sound that is entirely his own. The Wall St. Journal described AfroCaribbean Mixtape as “a work of great rigor and discipline, steeped in jazz tradition and yet
utterly unbound.”
Payton was born in New Orleans into a musical family. He showed talent for music at a very
early age. He received his first trumpet at age four and by age nine was sitting in with local
bands including the Young Tuxedo Brass Band. By the age of 12, he was a member of the AllStar Brass Band that performed and toured extensively. As he grew up and studied, Payton
successfully learned how to play several instruments including trumpet, piano, bass, drums,
tuba, trombone, clarinet and saxophone. During his high school years, Payton attended the New
Orleans Center for Creative Arts to study with Clyde Kerr Jr. and after graduation attended the
University of New Orleans, where he studied with Harold Batiste and Ellis Marsalis, among
others. He has toured the world with Ray Brown, Doc Cheatham, Roy Haynes, Hank and Elvin
Jones, Marcus Roberts, Clark Terry and Allen Toussaint. Other significant musical
collaborations include those with Trey Anastasio, Ray Charles, Common, Kevin Eubanks,
Daniel Lanois, Dr. John, Stanley Jordan, Joe Henderson, Zigaboo Modeliste, Jill Scott, Chucho
Valdes, Dr. Michael White, Nancy Wilson and many more. He recently produced a tribute to Ella
Fitzgerald for the gifted singer Jane Monheit. He is credited on over 130 recordings as a
composer, arranger, special guest or sideman.
Opening the evening is the Steve Wilson-Lewis Nash Duo. Wilson and Nash navigate a varied
jazz terrain with an attitude that DownBeat described as “the sure-footed intrepidity possessed
by improvisers whose sensibilities evolved in the company of masters of prior generations.”
Their set features selections ranging from Ellington to Monk to Ornette Coleman and may
include “The Mooch,” “Caravan,” “Señor Blues,” “Con Alma” and an original tune by Wilson.
Wilson and Nash debuted their duo in 2001 in New York City and recorded the album
“Duologue” in 2014. Eschewing bass and all chordal ornamentation, saxophonist Steve Wilson
and drummer Lewis Nash are two instrumentalists whose playing is richly steeped in the history
of jazz. Wilson and Nash never leave melody behind—their dual statements sing and swing,
even as the pair jump off into part unknown and unexpected. Their performances are brimming
with virtuosic command of rhythm, coloration, melodic flair, and their exquisite phrasing and
lyricism.
Tickets for all Symphony Center Presents Jazz series concerts can be purchased by phone at
800-223-7114 or 312-294-3000; online at cso.org, or at the Symphony Center box office: 220
S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604.
Discounted student tickets for select concerts can be purchased, subject to availability, online in
advance or at the box office on the day of the concert. For group rates, please call 312-2943040.
Artists, programs and prices are subject to change.
The Symphony Center Presents Jazz series is sponsored by Exelon.
###
Symphony Center Presents
Jazz
Friday, May 19, 8 p.m.
Steve Wilson - Lewis Nash Duo
Steve Wilson, saxophones
Lewis Nash, drums
-Nicholas Payton & Afro-Caribbean Mixtape
Nicholas Payton, trumpet, fender rhodes and clavinet
Braylon Lacy, bass
Joe Dyson, drums
Daniel Sadownick, percussion
DJ Lady Fingaz, turntable
Tickets: $24-$76
Featured Artists for this Performance:
Steve Wilson
Lewis Nash
Nicholas Payton
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: www.cso.org and www.csosoundsandstories.org
Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest
orchestras in the world. Since 2010, the preeminent conductor Riccardo Muti has served as its 10th
music director. Yo-Yo Ma is the CSO’s Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and Samuel Adams
and Elizabeth Ogonek are its Mead Composers-in-Residence.
From baroque through contemporary music, the CSO commands a vast repertoire. Its renowned
musicians annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in Chicago and, each
summer, at the suburban Ravinia Festival. They regularly tour nationally and internationally. Since 1892,
the CSO has made 60 international tours, performing in 29 countries on five continents.
People around the globe listen to weekly radio broadcasts of CSO concerts and recordings on the WFMT
radio network and online at cso.org/radio. Recordings by the CSO have earned 62 Grammy Awards,
including two in 2011 for Muti’s recording with the CSO and Chorus of Verdi's Messa da Requiem (Muti’s
first of seven releases with the CSO to date). Find details on these and many other CSO recordings at
www.cso.org/resound.
The CSO is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, which also includes the Chicago
Symphony Chorus (Duain Wolfe, Director and Conductor) and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a training
ensemble for emerging professionals. Through its prestigious Symphony Center Presents series, the
CSOA presents guest artists and ensembles from a variety of genres—classical, jazz, world, and
contemporary.
The Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO offers community and education programs that annually
engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages and backgrounds. Through the Institute and other
activities, including a free annual concert led by Muti, the CSO is committed to using the power of music
to create connections and build community.
The CSO is supported by thousands of patrons, volunteers and institutional and individual donors. The
CSO’s music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family
Foundation. The Negaunee Foundation provides generous support in perpetuity for the work of the
Negaunee Music Institute.