Thursday, March 31, 2011

Review: Nicholas Payton's Bitches



















I'll take credit for being the first to make the connection- Nicholas Payton's Bitches is the jazz equivalent of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Both albums were rejected by the artist's record labels. And both projects represented major stylistic departures. Just as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was not the expected roots-rock album, Bitches is not a mainstream jazz recording. As "By My Side" and "Shades of Hue" indicate, Bitches contains the sort of contemporary psychedelic R&B associated with Erykah Badu, Bilal and Maxwell. The top ten lists in the column to the right show that I already adore that sound.

It's been noted elsewhere that the project was initially inspired by Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. I was unaware of these sessions when I attended Payton's odd appearance at the Rhythm & Ribs festival last October. In my notes about the event at Plastic Sax, I drew comparisons to Davis' On the Corner and Stevie Wonder's Fulfillingness' First Finale. Bitches affirms that impression.

At 74 minutes, it's a sprawling mess. As with the genre's greatest album, however, even Bitches' flaws sound right. Bitches is brilliant.

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I'm also currently obsessing over George Cables' 1979 album Cables Vision.

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I reviewed last night's performances by the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey and Snuff Jazz.

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Wayward Blog brought the locally-based Overland Shark label to my attention today.

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Why yes, I am excited about Amazon's sound cloud. Thanks for asking.

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Here's the schedule for next week's Middle of the Map festival. My festival band of the week is the mysterious Candy Claws. It's typical of Middle of the Map's emphasis on electronic dream-pop.

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Kansas City Click: Foster the People will play "Pumped Up Kicks" Thursday at the Beaumont.

Benny Golson will be honored at the Blue Room on Friday.

Joe Lovano leads a band Saturday at the Folly Theater.

The Dramatics top Sunday's bill at the Beaumont.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

3 comments:

Gary said...

I just heard this 2003 album from Payton http://www.allmusic.com/album/sonic-trance-r655168/review and am now intrigued to investigate more. Thanks, Bill.

Happy In Bag said...

The Sonic Trance album derives from the same place, Gary. Nice one.

I didn't link to Bitches but it's not too hard to find.

bigsteveno said...

I'm interested in Amazon SoundCloud, but when I went to install it last night after buying a couple of Bruce Gilbert albums from them, it kept crashing Firefox. Not a good sign.

Plus you only get 5GB, and even with an upcharge you only get 20GB. That'll work for people who buy a song or two a month, but it doesn't help me much.