Nik Payton

The idea is simply to try and give you a brief insight into what it’s like being on the road - and the various obstacles that frequently pop up to make our life just that little bit easier. … In fact, the ONLY reason that we’re all here 2 days earlier than need be (the first show of the tour is Tuesday night) is for the TV show.

If, as quite often happens, the flights are delayed or the theatre has screwed up the sound check and we end up waiting around for hours on end or there is no food available ANYWHERE after the gig - well, then the posts might not be entirely suitable for younger readers!! … I can’t begin to describe the frustration of having to work SO hard just to get back to a reasonable level of proficiency, let alone anywhere close to level I was in June.

My new CD ‘Swinging the Changes’ (Arbors Jazz ARCD 19358) is finally out! It features myself with Bob Wilber and my London quartet. At the moment it is available from Arbors Jazz but will probably be on iTunes and other online stores soon. I’m going to be putting up some tracks on the ‘Recordings’ page […]

I’ve lived in Brazil now for 5 years. When I came here I spoke virtually no Portuguese whatsoever. Hello, please and thank you was about it. Obviously to make my self understood I had to learn, very quickly. After a year or so I could hold a conversation quite well and although my vocabulary wasn’t […]

I’m taking a break from catching up on emails and I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about the band and the musicians therein because there are some names that you may not be familiar with. … That the band is going to be good, and put on a superb show goes with out saying - it is made up of THE best swing musicians in the world and led by the worlds leading stride pianist, Judy Carmichael .

I’ve had a few emails from musicians who didn’t really know much about the tools and ideas I talked about in my last newsletter. I thought I was well behind in this new movement but it seems there are many musicians, especially in the jazz world, who aren’t sure what is going on. I’m going […]

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Jimmy Giuffre. He died on April 24th, 2 days before his 87th birthday.
Jimmy was one of the great individualists of the clarinet, always inventing and thinking outside the norm. His later, free playing unfortunately took him out of the mainstream jazz world but he […]

I finally got around to reading the February issue of Downbeat, which included a very interesting interview with Chris Potter. I’d like to link it for you to read but I haven’t found an online copy yet. I’ll keep looking and post it if and when I find it.Anyway, I’ve been following Chris Potter’s music […]