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Don Payne

Donald Ray Payne was an American jazz double-bassist and electric bassist.

Payne was raised in California and first played trumpet before switching to double bass in high school. His first major gigs occurred in the mid-1950s; he worked in the second half of the decade with Georgie Auld, Ornette Coleman, Maynard Ferguson, Calvin Jackson, Joe Maini, and Art Pepper. In 1958 he relocated to New York City, where he played with Tony Bennett, Chris Connor, and Mundell Lowe, then joined Herbie Mann and Astrud Gilberto for international tours. He also worked with Stan Getz around this time. He led his own ensemble with a rotating cast of sidemen, including Mike Abene, Joe Beck, and Gene Bertoncini.

Payne began playing bass guitar in 1964, and worked in popular and rock idioms as well as in jazz as a session musician for New York studio recordings. He played on releases by Loudon Wainwright III, Judy Collins, Roy Buchanan, Leonard Cohen (New Skin for the Old Ceremony, 1974), Janis Ian, Luiz Henrique, Harry Chapin, and Melanie Safka. His later jazz associations included Bobby Hackett, Jackie Cain, and Roy Kral.

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6
Album Review

Ornette Coleman: Genesis of Genius: The Contemporary Albums

Read "Genesis of Genius: The Contemporary Albums" reviewed by Jeff Kaliss


For many an Ornette Coleman devotee, devotion was pledged with the singular saxophonist's The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic). It was recorded in May and released in November of 1959, and it's a matter of when in our life we caught up with it. For some of us, that's when we first felt liberated by jazz. That album, produced by Nesuhi Ertegun, remains a hard act to follow, even for Coleman himself. Or to precede. But “Hollywood ...

317
Album Review

Ornette Coleman: Something Else!!!! - The Music Of Ornette Coleman

Read "Something Else!!!! - The Music Of Ornette Coleman" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Here it is: Ornette's first recording, containing his most conventional compositions, one ("The Blessing") written in 1951. Even so, it came only after a long period of struggle ("...most musicians didn't take to me; they said I didn't know the changes and was out of tune.") He was an elevator operator in an L.A. department store; he'd take the elevator to the top floor and practice for hours. He was about to return to Forth Worth when Red Mitchell heard ...

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149

Performance / Tour

Jazz Pianist/Vocalist Patti Wicks Featured w/Don Payne Quartet in concert: "A Tribute to Classic Jazz & the Great American Songbook"

Jazz Pianist/Vocalist Patti Wicks Featured w/Don Payne Quartet in concert: "A Tribute to Classic Jazz & the Great American Songbook"

Source: All About Jazz

Wednesday evening, September 14, 2005 at 7:45pm, The Goldcoast Jazz Society presents The Don Payne Quartet, featuring Patti Wicks, with Dave Hubbard, tenor sax, Don Payne, bass and drummer Danny Burger in concert at the Amaturo Theater of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A “Meet The Artists" Reception will follow the concert where the artists' CD will available for purchase. For further information please visit the Goldcoast Jazz Society's website at: ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Genesis of Genius:...

Contemporary Records
2022

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Jazz Station Records
1999

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