(FORTUNE Magazine) – Nicholas Payton is huge. Not in body and not in fame, though his rep is fast rising. It's when it comes to the sound he pushes from his trumpet that you think of Louis Armstrong.

Except then you get to know his material. Rising out of New Orleans, the 24-year-old Payton can be a natural Satch (listen to the lovely Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton, a collaboration of two trumpeters separated in age by 68 years). But on his own, as on his recent Payton's Place, this kid becomes an omnivore. There's a lot of hard bop here, some neat swing, a little modernized New Orleans on a number called "Zigaboogaloo" (very much in the style of his excellent 1996 Gumbo Nouveau). But the cut that really surprises is a collaboration with Wynton Marsalis and Roy Hargrove, during which the rhythm section sits out a witty 32-bar passage you'd think Gerry Mulligan had written. And don't worry about telling the players apart--as the three men braid their sinuous lines around one another, Payton's horn, even suppressed for the benefit of the trio, just can't be missed.

--Daniel Okrent