Davey Payne Davey Payne
is a multi-instrumentalist, perhaps known best for the time when he was the regular saxophonist with British group, The Blockheads. His solo on the 1978 number 1 hit, "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" was the first time a double sax solo had appeared on a hit record. His enigmatic stage presence was partly responsible for the popularity of The Blockheads, who backed front man and showman extraordinaire Ian Dury. However, there is a lot more to this consummate musician than this.

Before he joined forces with Dury, who fronted The Blockheads from 1978 until his death in 2000, Payne was working round Europe in free playing ensembles with musicians like reed player Terry Day Terry Day
and violinist Charlie Hart.

Payne has played and recorded with a wide range of musicians and has his own way of looking at life and music. He is still active in the jazz scene and is, without exaggeration, a player whose musical experience and tastes reflect a hugely diverse spectrum of genres and composers. From a child, his influences included films, classical music, jazz and spiritual journeys which all culminate in the man and player of today. Once known for being volatile and unpredictable, Payne today is calm and (almost) conventional. He has a lot going on.

Chapter Index

• Background and Influences
• Later and Now
• Where's He's At?
• The Spirit of the Man
• Payne on His Own
• Now and the Future

Background and Influences

Payne plays a range of instruments, although more often than not it is a saxophone. The saxophone, however, was not his first love. His early musical fascinations came from films like 1959's The Five Pennies , with Danny Kaye playing cornetist Red Nichols Red Nichols
b.1905 , which also featured trumpeter Louis Armstrong Louis Armstrong
1901 - 1971
trumpet . Payne also liked The Glenn Miller Glenn Miller
1904 - 1944
trombone Story (1954) and The Benny Goodman Benny Goodman
1909 - 1986
clarinet Story (1956), The Fabulous Dorseys (1947), based on the lives of the Dorsey Brothers Dorsey Brothers
, and Paris Blues (1961), about fictitious American jazz musicians living in Paris. Payne explains, "It was the trumpet that inspired me to play; a gold, shiny trumpet. I could say it was Satchmo [Louis Armstrong], but really it was whenever a trumpet turned up. I loved trumpet players like Cat Anderson Cat Anderson
1916 - 1981
trumpet , and [I loved] Maynard Ferguson Maynard Ferguson
1928 - 2006
trumpet 's high notes. The trumpet was a lead instrument. However, when I tried to play a trumpet I couldn't get a note out of it. Then I heard clarinetist Acker Bilk Acker Bilk
b.1929
clarinet on the radio and was hooked on the way the clarinet weaved in and out and complimented the brass. So for a while I listened to English trad jazz clarinetists, quickly moving on to Barney Bigard Barney Bigard
1906 - 1980
clarinet with the Armstrong Band."

Payne took clarinet lessons but it was while being taught at a music salon that he had an encounter which would change his life and, unknown to him at the time, shape his musical future. "While squeaking on a clarinet with a reed that was too hard at the Alice St Johns' music salon in Clacton-on-Sea," he explains, "a guy walked in and opened a tenor sax case. The vision of this golden saxophone in its plush red velvet case persuaded me to take up the tenor sax. Soon I was listening to sax players Charlie Ventura Charlie Ventura
1916 - 1992
sax, tenor ,Earl Bostic Earl Bostic
1913 - 1965
sax, alto , and then—the biggest influence of all—I heard a record of the Jazz Concert West Coast (Savoy, 1947) [with the songs] "Rock 'n' Shoals" and "Disorder At The Border," featuring Dexter Gordon Dexter Gordon
1923 - 1990
sax, tenor and Wardell Gray Wardell Gray
1921 - 1955
sax, tenor on tenor saxophones, with Sonny Criss Sonny Criss
1927 - 1977
sax, alto on alto. Also on the record was the great guitar playing of Barney Kessel Barney Kessel
1923 - 2004
guitar, electric . That turned me on to jazz guitar. I still listen to a lot of Tal Farlow Tal Farlow
1921 - 1998
guitar and Jim Hall Jim Hall
b.1930
guitar . So, at first it was the instruments that inspired me to play and then later I would say my influences ranged from Bilk to Gray, then John Coltrane John Coltrane
1926 - 1967
saxophone , Jimmy Giuffre Jimmy Giuffre
1921 - 2008
clarinet 's Train and the River (Atlantic, 1958) and on to soul players and free jazz."

Though Payne is best known as a jazz musician, it was not jazz which had the first or perhaps the greatest influence on him. He listened to a lot of classical music as he grew up, first in north London and then in Clacton-on-Sea. He had, even then, an eclectic taste and his broad listening choices as a youngster, provided the origins for some of the different tones, emotional playing and styles he uses in his music. Payne says, "When I was 18 I listened to Jim Dvorak Jim Dvorak
b.1948 's 'Cello Concerto' and Bartok's 'Sonatas for Solo Violin' with Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin
. I was into spiritualism at the time and tried to levitate to this music. I'm sure I was just a snatch away from floating on the ceiling. Other music was Ravel's 'Introduction and Allegro,' and Albert Roussel's 'Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola.' This last piece really got inside my soul. Also,Debussy's 'Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune,' which is still a favorite."

comments powered by Disqus