Once again I dive deeply into my overflowing bag of indies. Meanwhile, guest reviewer Slomo Grossman sticks with the labels and reviews a Verve release by jazz rising star trumpeter, Nicholas Payton. Sure, I get wined and dined by all the record company bigs, but do they own me? Hell no, not all of me. I get so many discs from worthy independent and self released artists that a couple of times a year I like to put them up front just like the artists from the major labels who have the advantage of being able to buy my attention. Yes, I am for sale. This month though I do it out of love and empathy for the budding artist. You can hear them first here before I have to tell you about them because some record company flack bought me drinks all night on his expense account. You won't have heard of any of these artists (except Nicholas Payton and Verve didn't buy Slomo Grossman any drinks so the album must be good) so just click and have a listen.

Aurally yours, David

As always contact me at your own risk at: levinedv@is.nyu.edu