{"id":701,"date":"2020-04-19T00:55:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T05:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=701"},"modified":"2021-06-24T17:09:56","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T22:09:56","slug":"review-nicholas-paytons-quarantined-with-nick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/review-nicholas-paytons-quarantined-with-nick\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Nicholas Payton’s ‘Quarantined with Nick’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Throughout history, musicians have used the direst of circumstances, including widespread pandemics, to expand their artistic boundaries and examine unexplored sonic territories. As European society collapsed during the era of the Black Death, composers presented new complex forms – the rondeau, the virelai, and the ballade. By 1365, the last of these would become one of the most popular song formats. While the first jazz album was released a year prior, during the Spanish Flu of 1918, artists further developed the burgeoning style as significant technological developments began to emerge in both recording and radio, the latter of which would become publicly available two years later. Following in a similar vein is Nicholas Payton\u2019s Quarantined with Nick<\/em> (2020, Paytone Records). In the trumpeter\/keyboardist\u2019s own words \u201c[a]s artists, I think we have a social responsibility to take this current social and economic situation and mark art from it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joined by Sasha Masakowski and Cliff Hines, the trio approaches the coronavirus outbreak which has so horribly ravished the globe. It is fitting all three are from New Orleans, which has been hit particularly hard with many, including musical elders like Ellis Marsalis, falling ill and\/or dying. Although from the home of jazz, a musical term the bandleader renounces in favor of BAM or Black American Music, Quarantined<\/em> draws from a wide range of styles. Particular regard is given to electronica and hip hop, including bounce. It is overwhelmingly guided by beats and rhythms, primarily formed from the sampling of various statements on the health crisis. “Social Experiment” is crafted from a quote by Neil Degrasse Tyson. \u201cPopulation Control\u201d and \u201cTenderona\u201d are based around a statement about how a fifty million person quarantine is the largest in human history. \u201cMan-Made Malady\u201d centers around the phrase \u201cof course it\u2019s man-made.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given its heavy reliance on synthesizer, it would be easy for Quarantined <\/em>to adopt a distant and cold sound. This is particularly the case on \u201cBaby Got Bot\u201d and \u201cCyborg Swing\u201d where the sampled statements are replaced with glitches. In reality, the music remains grounded primarily through Masakowski\u2019s vocals. Except for \u201cWitness\u201d, she does not sing traditional parts per se. However, she does provide a breathy vocalese throughout the album which in essence humanizes it. This is best seen on \u201cTenderona\u201d and \u201cMan-Made Malady\u201d. A similar effect is provided by the acoustic guitar refrain on \u201cCharmin Paper Blues\u201d as well as Payton\u2019s various trumpet solos which harken back to the long line of New Orleans horn pioneers as well as some other luminaries from elsewhere, such as Miles Davis<\/a>. At times, even the glitches themselves at times adopt a human element due to their seemingly intentional imperfections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n