TALENT

Dexter Payne –
Clarinet, alto & bari sax

Downbeat Magazine 69th Annual Readers Poll
voted Dexter in the top 10 clarinet players for 2004

Dexter's sound blends the musical idioms of all the Americas with a blues and jazz background. He changed his life in two and a half years working with musicians in Central and South America. In Brasil he met talented young guitarist/ composer, Antônio Melo, whose credits include "Homenagem a Radamés Gnattallí" on Badi Assad CD Solo (Chesky).

He also recorded in Rio de Janeiro with Beth Carvalho and Paulinho Tapajós, and performed in la Habana with patriarch Elio Revé and with Orlando Lopez Cachao of the famous Buena Vista Social Club. Meeting and playing with Ruben Gonzales was a life altering experience.

Back from South America, Dexter performed in concert with Thiago de Mello and Amazon (special guest Sharon Isbin) and presented music from "Journey to the Amazon" with Grammy winners Sharon Isbin and Thiago de Mello in the Hamptons Music Festival and at the 92nd St Y in New York. He recorded in Woodstock, NY for Artie Traum and returns to NY to perform with Thiago de Mello and Amazon.

Now at home in Boulder, CO, he is privileged to play with exceptional musicians, locally and nationally.

Dexter is honored to play with Boubacar Diébaté & Dialy Kounda. Boubacar is a talented vocalist and kora player from a traditional griot family in Senegal, and though he sings in his native Mandinka, he communicates to everyone. Now joined by Boubacar's brother, Malang Diébaté, and cousin Dialike Sissoko, Dialy Kounda is entering an exciting new phase, with a new CD in the works.

2005 was an exciting one for Dexter, recording a new CD of original music with Thiago de Mello in NYC, starting his own Dexter Payne Quartet and the opportunity to perform with the amazing René Marie. He continued to enjoy dates with Lionel Young, Charlie Sounds and Michael Stanwood as well as Playback Theater West, regular Mondays at Herb's with Denver Jazz Orchestra (dir. Sam Bivens) and frequent engagements with Latin jazz Dan Egger-Belandria Trio.