After John Surman, one of the finest baritone sax players of the last fifty years was the American Cecil Payne.Payne's part in the development of that beautifully toned instrument is vital if we are to understand modern jazz at all.
I first discovered his playing on the LP The Connection, where Payne's own music for the early 1960s off-Broadway production of the same name made the baritone sax player's reputation as one of the finest jazz composers and soloists of his generation.
This superb LP - never released on CD as far as I know - was followed by the 1963 album Cecil Payne Performing Charlie Parker Music, which is now a classic of hard bop, where we hear some of the finest jazz musicians ever assembled (Clarke Terry trumpet, Duke Jordan piano, Charlie Persip drums, and the superb Ron Carter bass) perform such Parker compositions as 'Cool Blues', 'Relaxin' At Camarillo', and most notably the musically nourishing 'The Hymn'.
Payne had a wonderfully soft tone that is misleading in that, when you least expect it, it can suddenly take off at 100 miles an hour, and in true be-bop style pin you down like a machine gun. It is very much a jazz iron fist in a jazz velvet glove.
Cecil Payne died on November 30th, 2007.
Copyright 2007 Steve Newman
1 comments:
If you think that Cecil Payne comes after John Surmam! you really need to get a "blizzard check." Cecil was a true inovator such like jj johnson on trombone. Get real and give this man the respect that is due to him. John surman is nowhere when it comes to the bebop tradition as Surman is a freebopper along the ranks of ornette Coleman, without the soul. You need to listen to the music with your ears, not your eyes.
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