Featured Release

Nicholas Payton and Butcher Brown build A Supreme Blue from the meeting point of two landmark recordings: Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Conceived for the centennial year of both Davis and Coltrane, the nine-track album moves through all five compositions associated with Kind of Blue before turning to the four-part A Love Supreme suite. Rather than reproduce the sound or arrangements of those records, the ensemble works from their modal language, rhythmic foundations, and spiritual dimensions, filtering the material through funk, House-derived pulse, electronics, dub-influenced studio treatment, and the shared vocabulary of Payton and Butcher Brown.

The ensemble combines Payton’s trumpet and Rhodes with Tennishu’s tenor saxophone and vocals, Morgan Burrs’ guitar and MPC, DJ Harrison’s keyboards and percussion, R4ND4ZZO’s electric and synth bass, and Corey Fonville’s drums and percussion. Much of the record was allowed to develop in the studio with minimal advance preparation, leaving arrangement, texture, and improvisational direction open to what emerged among the musicians in the room.

From the album…

“Freddie Freeloader” makes the album’s approach especially clear. The familiar blues theme arrives after interlocking guitar figures establish a sixteenth-note funk pocket, shifting the tune’s physical center without abandoning its underlying blues identity. The horns enter over that foundation, and the arrangement continues to change around successive improvising voices: guitar, Payton’s trumpet, and Tennishu’s saxophone, with Rhodes, electronic color, and the rhythm section altering the texture underneath them. The result provides a direct way into A Supreme Blue: the source composition remains recognizable while groove, instrumentation, and ensemble interaction place it firmly in the musical present.

Listen to the album

Recommended listening: start with “Freddie Freeloader” for the band’s groove-centered approach to the Kind of Blue material; continue with “All Blues,” then move into “Acknowledgement,” “Resolution,” “Pursuance,” and “Psalm” to hear how the project turns from Davis’s repertoire toward the four-part architecture of A Love Supreme.

Album Details

Artist: Nicholas Payton & Butcher Brown
Album: A Supreme Blue
Label: Concord Jazz

Personnel

Nicholas Payton — trumpet, Rhodes
Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney — tenor saxophone, vocals
Morgan Burrs — guitar, MPC
DJ Harrison — keyboards, piano, percussion
Andrew “R4ND4ZZO” Randazzo — bass guitar, synth bass
Corey Fonville — drums, percussion

Recording details

Recorded at Spacebomb Studios, Richmond, Virginia
Conceptualized by Nicholas Payton
Produced by Nicholas Payton and Butcher Brown
Recording and mix engineer — Alex de Jong
Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper at Turtletone Studios
Liner notes — Ashley Kahn
Photography — Ryan Gary / The Sunroom
Package design — Jamie Breiwick

Digital release: July 24, 2026
Vinyl release: August 14, 2026
Concord Jazz

Track Listing

1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue in Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. Acknowledgement
7. Resolution
8. Pursuance
9. Psalm