Nicholas Payton | Triune Review

by Darnell Jackson

There is something mythic about the number three. In spiritual traditions it stands for balance, completeness, and continuity. In music, it is a setting of one of the most daring ensembles as its small enough to expose vulnerability and large enough to carry weight. With TRIUNE, Nicholas Payton convenes a trio of Esperanza Spalding and Karriem Riggins to create a sound where history, body, and spirit breathe as one.

“Unconditional Love” begins in the pocket, but not fragility. The relaxed R&B groove is contemporary yet timeless, with Riggins and Spalding forming a pocket so deep it feels like ritual space. Payton and Spalding answer each other in color-saturated unison figures, before her voice enters. Her singing is wordless, controlled, and seductive. It creates language for the trio, one where tones convey the message. This performance finds the musicians in a groove where rhythm and melody achieve their power when pared to conversation.

By contrast, “Jazz Is a Four-Letter Word” speaks in shifts and ruptures. The trio pivots between stoic modern groove and swinging lineage, making the feel itself a statement. Spalding’s vocal shading brings drama to the repeated lyric, her subtle inflection lift a simple phrase into character. When the trio snaps into swing, Payton’s trumpet solo channels post-bop vocabulary refracted through fusion’s restlessness. It is witty, imaginative, and deeply rooted in the jazz continuity of language.

“Gold Dust Black Magic” leans toward hip-hop atmosphere, Riggins laying down a pattern that feels equal parts

beatmaker’s loop and drummer’s pulse. Payton’s keyboard work has grown into equal authority beside his trumpet, and here the dual presentation, horn as invocation, keys as architecture, becomes the record’s defining voice. Spalding’s presence is again catalytic; her bass lines steady the spell while her vocals slip between shadow and light in the tutti sections. It is music as enchantment, modern while tribal.

The bonus track, “Feed the Fire,” might be the trio’s most explicit nod to lineage. Electric jazz energy courses through it, echoes of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew woven into present tense. Riggins summons urgency without excess, Spalding’s bass lines lock deep into conversation, and Payton rides above with big ears. What emerges is an re-imagining of that energy for a new generation. This track alone offers a clear look in the trio’s telepathy as three voices in constant, create unified and fearless dialogue.

What threads these performances together is trust. Each member holds authority in multiple worlds with Payton’s horn and keys, Spalding’s bass and voice, Riggins’ swing and beats. TRIUNE succeeds because no one insists on dominance. Instead, the music breathes in what cannot be scripted, the music is guided by glances, instincts, and risks. That is why it feels alive.

TRIUNE preserves clarity without stripping away the path the music must follow. Showing that the trio, when infused with imagination and history, remains inexhaustible and alive. Payton shows us that unconditional groove, restless fire, and trio magic dust are not abstractions. They are the living materials of music when three choose to listen as deeply as they play.

Artist: Nicholas Payton
Album: TRIUNE
Label: Smoke Sessions Records

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Release Date: August 29, 2025