1. By My Side 3:57
2. Freesia / Esperanza Spalding/ 6:36
3. Shades Of Hue 4:57
4. Truth Or Dare 4:54
5. Togetherness Foreverness /N'Dambi/ 5:21
6. Indigo 3:31
7. You Are The Spark 4:23
8. Second Show 3:55
9. Flip The Script /with Saunders Sermons/ 5:08
10. Love And Faith 5:10
11. Don't I Love You Good 4:08
12. Istole Your Iphone 4:27
13. You Take Me Places I've Never Been Before /Cassandra Wilson/ 5:40
14. Give Light, Live Life, Love 6:07
15. Bitches /Chinah Blac/ 4:34

Personnel:
Nicholas Payton - Bass, Castanets, Drum Machine, Drums, Finger Cymbals, Flugelhorn, Hammond B3, Keyboards, Piano, Shaker, Synthesizer, Tambourine, Trumpet, Vocals;
Chinah Blac, Saunders Sermons, China Blac, N'Dambi, Esperanza Spalding, Cassandra Wilson
- Vocals.

Left turns don’t get much sharper than this one. Bitches features guest vocal appearances from Esperanza Spalding, N’dambi, Saunders Sermons, Cassandra Wilson, and Chinah Blac. Nicholas Payton does the rest -- not just the trumpet, but all of the instrumentation, all of the songwriting, and most of the vocals. Those who have followed Payton’s career as a jazz musician with no interest in left-field R&B of the previous several years -- including but not limited to Sa-Ra, the Foreign Exchange, Dâm-Funk, and Bugz in the Attic -- will be thrown. Like those artists, Payton was born in the ‘70s and is inspired by R&B acts that thrived during that decade and the following one. In the liner notes, Payton cites Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Michael Jackson, and he might have an affinity for those who started as jazz instrumentalists prior to crossing into R&B during the ‘70s -- Ronnie Foster, George Benson, Patrice Rushen, and Herbie Hancock, to name four of many. Bitches traces the cycle of a romantic relationship, from beginning to end, that dovetails with Payton’s broken marriage. Major points in the story line include the lively “Freesia” (a blissful duet with Spalding, who shines), the funky but furrowed “Truth or Dare” (the woman strays), the floating yet pensive “Indigo” (the man strays), “The Second Show” (the man is ready for a fresh start), the deceptively liquid “Don’t I Love You Good” (the man is somewhat embittered about the woman’s new love interest), and the gospel-tinted “Give Light, Live Life, Love” (where the man shakes off negativity and looks to the future). Throughout, Payton's voice carries an affable, conversational quality. He won’t be compared to his heroes listed above, but he certainly holds his own with his fellow vocalists here, and the lyrics and melodies are mostly top level (merely passable or goofy when not). The slower material, instrumentally reminiscent of Lonnie Liston Smith & the Cosmic Echoes (circa “Love Beams”) and Roy Ayers Ubiquity (circa “Gotta Find a Lover”), is tasteful and solid, but the songs with chunky synthesizers and heavy drum programming, sometimes charmingly sloppy, are the real kick. --- Andy Kellman, Rovi

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1.Zigaboogaloo (5:53)
2.The Three Trumpeteers (5:26)
3.Back To The Source (6:27)
4.A Touch Of Silver (5:12)
5.Concentric Circles (7:08)
6.Li'l Duke's Strut (5:06)
7.Time Traveling (5:36)
8.With A Song In My Heart (5:35)
9.Paraphernalia (9:39)
10.Brownie A La Mode (4:17)
11.People Make The World Go Round (5:21)
12.The Last Goodbye (5:25)

Personnel:
Nicholas Payton-trumpet
Tim Warfield-tenor sax
Anthony Wonsey-piano
Reuben Rogers-bass
Adonis Rose-drums
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Roy Hargrove-trumpet(2 & 8)
Wynton Marsalis-trumpet(2 & 10)
Joshua Redman-tenor sax(4)

Nicholas Payton's third album as a leader is assuredly more commanding than his previous projects, and his technically flawless trumpet is right among the leaders in the neo-bop field. Yet he remains essentially a preservationist, a throwback to the hard bopping '50s and '60s and a staunch believer in the orthodoxies and rituals involved. There are exceptions -- a nice '60s Blue Note-style boogaloo for starters ("Zigaboogaloo"), a probing, driving, tempo-shifting workout on Wayne Shorter's "Paraphernalia" from Miles in the Sky (which is about as progressive as the record gets) -- but conservatism prevails elsewhere, even in the mild-mannered cover of the Stylistics' "People Make the World Go Round." In a takeoff on the Three Tenors, "The Three Trumpeteers" finds Payton joyously uniting and dueling with Wynton Marsalis and the ubiquitous Roy Hargrove; thankfully, one can tell them apart by ear despite the orthodox hard bop format. Pianist Anthony Wonsey, hard-nosed tenor saxman Tim Warfield, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Adonis Rose expertly do what is expected of them, joined now and then by the above two guest trumpeters and another stock member of the Young Lions cast, tenor Joshua Redman. --- Richard S. Ginell, Rovi

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