Steeped in the legacy of New Orleans music, Nicholas Payton comes of age with a new generation’s vision for the future.

“I wanted to do something more personal than anything I’d ever done,” Nicholas Payton says of Nick @ Night, his most recent recording, due out January 25. “Payton’s Place had a lot of personal aspects to it, but there were a lot of other elements involved, too.” Among those elements are an ecstatic sparring session with two of the most dominant yo...