Nicholas Payton's Nonesuch debut album, Into the Blue, set for release this Tuesday, receives four stars from The Guardian (UK). Reviewer John Fordham contends that listeners who think they know what to expect from the New Orleans trumpeter "might be very surprised" by his latest work.

Fordham suggests that though "Payton is the kind of technically assured traditionalist who is comfortable playing with Crescent City trad legends, he's steadily been growing into his own man." He offers as proof that Into the Blue "is full of inspired ballad-rhapsodising, unhurried uptempo improvisations that pulsate with feints and twists, and original compositions and reshaped modern urban and Latin grooves that reveal an incisive creative intelligence."

In a song-by-song evaluation, Fordham writes:

Payton takes a long, melodic lope over swingers, but he's epigrammatic and tight on the funky-Latin "Triptych," broodingly elegiac on "Chinatown," and ingeniously and obliquely original ... on "The Crimson Touch." Even if the trumpeter never breaks a sweat, he manages to sound as if he's playing a Dirty Dozen Brass Band groover on the lively "Nida."

To read the full review, visit arts.guardian.co.uk.

You can listen to the complete album track of "Chinatown" as well as "Drucilla" and "Let It Ride" at nonesuch.com/intotheblue, where you'll also find behind-the-scenes video footage from the recording session, with the master take of "Drucilla" plus outtakes of "Nida" and "Triptych."

Also in the news, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra announced its 2008-09 jazz series today: Payton is slated to appear at Orchestra Hall on March 13, 2009, as part of a Blue Note 70th anniversary celebration, with Bill Charlap, Ravi Coltrane, Pat Martino, Steve Wilson, Peter Washington, and Lewis Nash. For more information, visit the Detroit Free Press at freep.com.