Nicholas Payton was born September 26, 1973, in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a musical family. Payton took up the trumpet at the age of four. Encouraged by his pianist-singer mother and his bass-playing father, he swiftly reached a level of proficiency that enabled him, at the age of nine, to play alongside his father in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band. At 12 he was a member of the All Star Jazz Band, playing with this group both locally and at European festivals. Encouraged by Wynton Marsalis he played semi-professionally throughout his school years, then enrolled at the New Orleans Centre for Creative Arts where he studied the trumpet, music theory and also undertook classical training. He next attended the University of New Orleans where he studied with Ellis Marsalis.

During the early 90s Payton played throughout the USA and also in Europe with many leading jazz musicians. These artists included Clark Terry, on a SS Norway Jazz Cruise in 1990, and Marcus Roberts in 1992. The following year he toured with Jazz Futures II, the year after that with Elvin Jones, and he joined the Rising Star circuit tour of Europe in 1996. He also recorded with Roberts and Jones and with Jesse Davis, Teresa Brewer, the Joe Henderson big band, Manhattan Projects, the New Orleans Collective, Courtney Pine, Joshua Redman, the Kansas City Band, in a trio with Christian McBride and Mark Whitfield, and with fellow trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Marsalis. He appeared on the soundtrack album for the 1996 movie Kansas City. Memorably, he appeared at club engagements with the veteran trumpeter Doc Cheatham, the pair recording shortly before Cheatham's death in 1997. Payton's technical mastery is remarkable and he plays with a clear, ringing sound that brings added depths to the bop styling in which he appears most comfortable. Clearly, his is a talent that is developing confidently as he matures.