'Jazz doesn’t exist': New Orleans trumpeter Nicholas Payton happy to mix it up

Nicholas Payton is looking forward to bringing his boundary bursting tunes to the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival this weekend, writes Ed Power.

NICHOLAS Payton is one of the most radical jazz musicians working today. So radical he takes issue with the idea that what he does even qualifies as jazz.

“To me, jazz doesn’t exist…There are no definitions of jazz blues, gospel, swing, funk, hip hop, r’n‘b... all of these things are basically part of the same family. Mostly these labels are marketing tools. They are not things that artists necessarily come up with. If you are going to have a brand, then self-labelling is best.”