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6 Degrees Entertainment

Title - The Couch Sessions
Artist - Nicholas Payton

Music has the power to heal, a fact that has never been as relevant as it has over the challenging last few years. On his captivating new album, The Couch Sessions, the brilliant multi-instrumentalist and composer Nicholas Payton provides a session of musical therapy that draws on the compositions and words of some of the music’s most visionary artists.

Due out November 25th, 2022, The Couch Sessions is the latest in a series that Payton has recorded for Smoke Sessions Records pairing him with dream rhythm sections.

The album follows 2019’s Relaxin’ with Nick, featuring bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington; and Smoke Sessions from 2021, which teamed legendary bassist Ron Carter and Payton’s longtime collaborator Karriem Riggins on drums.

On this outing, Payton is joined by bassist Buster Williams and drummer Lenny White, who not only have forged one of the most distinctive rhythm tandems in recent decades but have also worked with many of the legendary artists to whom this album is dedicated.

1. Feed the Fire
2. Bust-a-Move
3. Blossom
4. Pinocchio
5. His Name is Lenny
6. Bleek’s Blues
7. Along Came Betty
8. Watch It
9. Fall
10. Christina
11. The Sorcerer
12. Jazz is a Four-Letter World
13. From a Flicker to a Flame... (for Meghan Stabile)

This elegantly-crafted and warmly-conveyed new album opens on a nod toward the late pianist Geri Allen, the spoken word composition remembering the former Detroit native within Feed the Fire and then comes Keith Jarrett’s airy ballad Blossom, which features Payton’s sensitive touch on the piano, before we are proffered the beautifully-crafted Wayne Shorter piece, Pinocchio (inclusive of a lovely Miles Davis recollection), whilst Payton’s own Fall is given a funky, Rhodes-driven treatment, and then comes a veritably brisk treatment of Herbie Hancock’s Watch It and an excitable The Sorcerer (co-written along with Christian McBride and Mark Whitfield).

Along next is the poly-rhythmic, groove-laden Bust-a-Move, which was originally titled One for Buster until a punning outburst from White rechristened the sample-heavy tune, the comfortably smooth His Name Is Lenny, which incorporates a catchphrase from ’70s sitcom Good Times over White’s expressive and colorful drumming), then comes a track that pays homage to all drummers, the heightened fervency within Bleek’s Blues (which is actually named for Denzel Washington’s trumpet-playing character from Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues), the album rounding out on the dutifully sculptured Jazz Is a Four-Letter Word (which revisits a track from 2017’s Afro-Caribbean Mixtape), coming to a close on his tribute to Revive Music Group founder Meghan Stabile, who tragically passed away this year, the spoken word, incorporated melodies of From a Flicker to a Flame….

“I decided to use Buster and Lenny for their shared history,” Payton says, “not only working with each other but also with my favorite artist ever – Miles Davis. There are a lot of connections between the artists on the album and the lineages that they either came out of or were integral in starting. Working with Buster and Lenny together was a bucket list item for me.”

Those partnerships include the late pianist Geri Allen, whose composition “Feed the Fire” opens The Couch Sessions. Williams and White played together with Allen on her 1998 Verve album The Gathering as well as on Williams’ 2001 trio date Houdini. As Payton lays down the shimmering melody on Rhodes, we hear Allen speak of her roots into the eclectic, genre-blurring Detroit music scene.

The use of samples, which Payton triggers from his iPhone, adds to an ever-growing arsenal for the master musician. Payton is of course best known as a trumpeter, but he’s also become a virtuoso keyboardist performing on piano, Fender Rhodes, and Clavinet developing a singular approach to accompanying himself.

Keith Jarrett’s airy ballad “Blossom” offers a showcase of Payton’s sensitive touch on the piano, buoyed beautifully by the gentle rhythmic sensibilities added by Williams and White, all illustrating Jarrett’s words regarding the elusive nature of improvised music.

Throughout The Couch Sessions, Nicholas Payton and his stellar trio play therapist to listeners in need of some vital musical counseling. “In these uncertain new times, the importance of music and the arts has come even more to the forefront,” he says. “With this album, I wanted to speak to music as a healing force, an essential source of light in our lives.”

Musicians:
Nicholas Payton | Fender Rhodes, piano, trumpet
Buster Wiliams | bass
Lenny White | drums

Official Website

Nicholas Payton @ TikTok

Nicholas Payton @ YouTube

Nicholas Payton @ SoundCloud

Nicholas Payton @ Twitter

www.smokesessionsrecords.com





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