Payne, Jim

Payne, Jim , jazz drummer; b. Bridgeport, Conn., Feb. 25, 1943. After receiving his B.A. (Yale, 1965), he moved to N.Y., got an M.B.A. (Columbia, 1968) and began studying drums privately with Sonny Igoe, Henry Adler, and Philly Joe Jones. He also began teaching at Adler’s studios on 46th St. along with Ed Shaunessey and Andrew Cyrille. During this time, he also played with Mike and Randy Brecker, Esther Phillips, and Esther Satterfield, and many jazz and rock groups. In 1978, he moved to the Bay Area for constant five-nights-a-week work with various R&B and funk bands including a stint as musical director for Motown star Mary Wells. He also played with a short-lived group led by David Liebman and Alfred ’Tee Wee” Ellis. After moving back to N.Y in 1981, he again taught at the Henry Adler Studios and also began teaching at the Drummers Collective. He took extension classes at the Manhattan School of Music and the Julliard School, studying music theory and songwriting. He played in Broadway shows, the Radio City Music Hall Orch., and had a five-year association with a jazz/funk band, Slickaphonics, which included many European tours and five albums. In 1989, he moved to Orlando, Fla., where he was a staff drummer and producer for King Snake Records and became a producer and songwriter with the J.B. Horns, touring Japan with them. He has done master classes at SUNY Purchase and at the Percussive Arts Convention and produced the first Medeski, Martin & Wood record, as well as several other funk and R&B-oriented records. He is on the Adjunct faculty of SUNY Purchase.

—Lewis Porter