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Dexter Payne
Clarinetist Dexter Payne's release, "Prá Você" (Dexofon Records) is still getting great airplay and good reviews: Huff Post, Downbeat Magazine, Offbeat Magazine, AllAboutJazz.com, and more!
Payne choses the scenic route through the world of music. The scenic route always takes longer, destination-wise. Worthwhile? Apparently he is convinced, "I moved to Montana for the winter and stayed 18 years." He based there with his wife, the late Judy Roderick, and toured from coast to coast with her and with swing band, Big Sky Mudflaps, including repeat performances on NBC Today Show and Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. Roderick, signed to Columbia records at the age of 22, also recorded for Vanguard and ATCO, back in the day. See Payne's release of her original music on Dexofon Records, with featured guest Dr John. (www.dexterpayne.com/judy-roderick-when-im-gone/)
His interests led him down the dirt road, from blues to swing, to African music (he toured in the US and performed with numerous African artists from 2000-2008, and became the Director of AfroPop Ensemble (Naropa University). Quite recently he recorded and continues to appear with Fara Tolno (Giunea).
Oh, and there was that little side trip to Brazil. In '95 he put his belongings in storage and headed for Mexico, saying, "I'll be back in a year or so…" Two and a half years later, his family begged him "Please come home for Christmas!" Payne flew home - from Buenos Aires.
Meanwhile, in a boat on the Amazon River, he had met late composer Gaudencio Thiago de Mello, with whom he later recorded three CDs in New York, but it all began with a CD recorded in Brazil with Antonio Mello & Thiago de Mello (released on EthosBrasil and licensed in the US on Dexofon) The Brazilian recordings earned him recognition as a finalist on clarinet in the 2004 and 2006 Downbeat Readers Polls.
All told, he lived and performed in 11 countries in Latin America, including meeting with Ruben Gonzales, performances with Orlando Cachaito Lopez, Elio Reve, Noca da Portela, Noite Illustrada and recording with Beth Carvalho on a CD by Paulinho Tapajos.
Dexter has performed throughout the U.S. He toured extensively for two years with the Lionel Young Band - winners of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Feb, 2011, visiting much of the US, Canada & Paris. When the band finished in Paris, Payne booked a flight to Istanbul, where he studied with Turkish clarinet superstar, Serkan Cagri.
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Dexter Payne: All Things, All Beings
by Chris M. Slawecki
Clarinet, harmonica and saxophonist, composer and bandleader and musical globetrotter Dexter Payne is the type of musician who is most often categorized as difficult to categorize." Profoundly influenced by physical and spiritual journeys through the cultures of America, the Middle East, Africa and Brazil, Payne's recorded output checks off every box from Mississippi delta blues to Brazilian choro to Hindu chant. From a young age, I have been drawn to music that speaks real culture, beginning with the rich musical ...
read moreDexter Payne Quintet: Jazz for All (Jazz Forró)
by Chris M. Slawecki
Dexter Payne plays clarinet with an easy, warm and conversational style. It never sounds like he's pushing or stretching toward the next note, but more like he kind of just lets the next note flow out from this one. On Jazz For All, Payne and his quintet flow through Brazilian choro from a unique, multi-cultured and multicolored perspective: As a mainstay for Thinking Plague and Hamster Theater, accordion player Dave Willey boasts impressive avant-experimental credentials; pianist Victor Mestas Pérez has ...
read moreDexter Payne: Pra Vocé
by Chris M. Slawecki
Pra Vocé is clarinetist Dexter Payne's homage to the late Thiago de Mello, the composer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist whose life and music reflected the panoramic beauty of his native Brazil and with whom Payne recorded several beautifully reflective pieces of music, including and especially their self-produced 2007 duet Another Feeling (2006, Dexofon). Take time to stroll around and enjoy the beauty of its pathways and gardens, and sit in its contemplative shade, and you'll quickly learn that the quietly brilliant ...
read more“Pra Você is a delight from start to finish... nine selections that are filled with rich melodies....he is heard here at both his most creative and most melodic.” Scot Yanow (4 stars in Downbeat Magazine)
“Congratulations!” – Nelson Faria
Dexter Payne's Beautiful Brazilian Music CD has a Great Backstory "...all you have to do is listen." Sharon Glassman (Huffington Post) 6-2-14 (http://huff.to/1l1gSBr)
“quietly brilliant… uniquely beautiful blend of Brazilian, jazz (especially New Orleans), African and other instrumental musical styles” Chris Slawecki (AllAboutJazz.com)
Primary Instrument
Clarinet
Location
Denver
Willing to teach
Advanced only
Credentials/Background
Limited schedule - contact for availability. Currently adjunct faculty at Naropa University, Boulder, CO