Nicholas Payton is best known as an outstanding trumpet virtuoso in the acoustic mainstream and for his show-stopping solos in the trumpet section of the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra. But he has always shown an interest in R&B, and is an accomplished keyboard player as well as producer and general artist of rhythm. This live album finds him alternating trumpet and keyboards over funky jams and smokey blues with bassist Vincente Archer and a rather restricted Lenny White. The best tracks are full of vigour as Payton piles on the pressure over shifting rhythms and streetwise beats, but there are distinct lulls in the levels of creativity. The brilliant dynamics, distorted Fender Rhodes and rampant trumpet on ‘The African Tinge’ provide the highlights, and Monk’s ‘Panonica’ is a moving trumpet/bass duet. But elsewhere the long tracks have a tendency to lose focus, particularly when they walk, and a 15-minute ‘Frankie and Johhny’ sounds like running the clock down to a few late-night stragglers.