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Local band director sings in retirement years [The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky.](Daily Independent (Ashland, KY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) April 22--ASHLAND -- Trumpet player Don Payne now spends more time singing than working the valves. Payne has always enjoyed singing, but it took the back burner when he started playing trumpet in 1954 under the direction of Jim Andy Caudill. A 1960 graduate of Ashland High School, Payne studied music at Morehead State University a year before joining the U.S. Army in 1961. "The Berlin Wall went up and I decided if I were going to be drafted I wanted to be sure I got into something that I wanted to do," he said. Payne was a member of the Army Europe Band based in Germany during his service time, from 1961 to 1964. "All the players were just phenomenal," he said of the 64-member group. "We could work up an hour and a half concert in no time at all." The band performed throughout Europe, but members also had to be prepared to serve in more traditional ways. "I was there for the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy assassination," he said. "They were pretty frightening times. The trumpet went under the bed and we sat outside on the back of the troop-carrying trucks with winter field gear in full alert." After he left the military, Payne returned to Morehead, where he finished his bachelor of arts degree in music. After teaching for about three years at Coleand Fairview junior high schools, he returned to Morehead to get his master's degree in music. He was one of the first two to graduate from Morehead with a music degree with an emphasis in conducting. He studied under Robert Hawkins who had studied under Boston Pops Orchestra conductor Arthur Fiedler. "He was a fantastic director," Payne said of Hawkins. Once armed with a master's degree, Payne returned to the area to be band director at Paul G. Blazer High School but spent most of his career as director at Boyd County High School and Summit Junior High School. The demanding job meant long work weeks -- up to 80 hours a week. Payne said he received great support from the families of band students. "There were tremendous band parents. They provided the help financially and physically, running those concession stands and all that," Payne said. "I can't think of any band directior who could run a band without band boosters." But Payne began performing in dance bands in 1958, including with Huntington's Mel Gillespie, and in college jazz bands. Since retirement from the Boyd County system in 1998, Payne has worked a several non-musical jobs, too, including food insurance adjustor and working on a project of local entrepreneur David Carter called Interstate Data, which created interstate mapping. "You got off at every exist and had a hand-held GPS and you mapped the road in all directions," he said. "You take GPS readings for each business. Then, at restaurants, go in and evaluate restrooms and overall quality for a guidebook or travelers," he said. He also performs with the Greater Huntington Symphony, under the direction of Tom Thompson. As a singer, he performed with the group Now and Then during the 1980s. The group performed music from the 1940s through the 1980s. "We did whatever people wanted -- jazz, swing, some pop," he said. Later, he joined the First Affairs, which later performed as Old Friends, a vocal group in the style of the Four Freshmen. The group has been on hiatus and has plans to get back together soon, but Payne decided to take music in his own direction, so he purchased sound equipment and recording equipment as well as performace tracks to provide backup music for his own vocals and occasional trumpet playing. His playlist includes songs from artists like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Michael Buble and Barry Manilow. "Sometimes it's the actual arrangement performed by the original band and sometimes it's the original arrangement performed by professional studio musicians," Payne said. "Once I decide on a program, I can transfer those tracks to a flash drive and plug it into my machine. If the key's not comfortable for my voice, I can set the key to whatever key I want to sing in." Payne doesn't perform at dances, although he joined keyboardist-singer Jimmy Stevens for a couple of numbers at a recent dance of the Continental Dance Club, of which he and his wife, Sharon, are members. Most of his shows are before or after lunch or dinner at senior citizens centers or service clubs. Although out of the high-school band his respect for the education process and his experience is evident. "I have been blessed to have great band directors and great trumpet teachers," he continued. "I give them all the credit for teaching me and giving me the foundation I needed. The rest of it was trial and error." LEE WARD can be reached at [email protected] or (606) 326-2661. ___ To see more of The Daily Independent or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailyindependent.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544) |