Tag Archives: Tom Paynter

Tom Paynter Memorial: Complete Audio

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Friends and family of Tom Paynter gathered at the Iron Post on Sunday, July 21, 2019, to pay respects to one of Champaign-Urbana’s leading jazz musicians and composers.

Here is the complete audio from the afternoon. This includes performances by the Brad Wheeler Quartet, with Jose Gobbo, Ben Taylor, and Jeff Magby. Additional musicians sat in this day, including Ivo Braun, Elliott Torres, Justin Kramer, Johnnie Owens, and Tom Cortese.

There was a lot of video shot of the memorial as well. Once it has been edited and distributed, we will announce it here at NaturesTable.net.

Special Thanks to all the musicians who contributed to the afternoon, as well as Jeff Machota for putting the event together, and to Paul Wirth at The Iron Post.


Tom Paynter Memorial – July 21, 2019 (Complete Audio)

Brad Wheeler Plays Tom Paynter’s “Blues For Dolphy”

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Just got back from the Tom Paynter Memorial at the Iron Post in Urbana. It was great to see such a big turnout. Brad Wheeler’s quartet (with Jose Gobbo on guitar, Ben Taylor on bass, and Jeff Magby on drums) took on the task of playing several pieces from Tom’s book. Lots of musicians were there to honor Tom, including Jeff Helgesen, Josh Quirk, Ben Grosser, Erik Lund, Lamonte Parsons, and others. There were even a few sit-ins, as drummer Justin Kramer, bassist Elliott Torres and trumpeter Ivo Braun played a couple standards

We’ll post the full gig very shortly, but here’s a taste for now: Tom’s piece “Blues For Dolphy.” Great stuff here!

Nature’s Table Archive Vol 18: Nebula with Tom Paynter – March 5, 1990

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We’re pleased to offer another example of one of C-U’s more complex jazz composers, Tom Paynter. Tom passed away suddenly on May 25, 2019, and the pianist and flutist left behind his vast, impressive body of work. Paynter’s compositions cover a lot of musical territory, from delicate solo pieces to intense, full-on aural assault.

This recording highlights the more complex side of Paynter’s work. The band’s official title is Nebula: The Music Of Diffused Gassers, led by Tom Paynter. The recording is mostly Tom’s original compositions, although there are covers by Ornette Coleman, Chick Corea and Charlie Parker as well.

C-U’s Ben Grosser was one of the musicians in Nebula. Here’s what he had to say about Nebula, and playing with Tom in general:

Nebula, the Music of Diffused Gassers was a quartet in action around 1990-91. Led by Tom Paynter, the group focused on avant-garde / free / experimental jazz, and, as far as I can recall, all of the band’s charts (aside from occasional standards) were written by Tom. The environment Tom created here was quite supportive of experimentation, as evidenced by our flexible approaches to form, the way we blended tunes together, and the multi-instrument roles each member took on. During a performance, any member of the band might tweak the group’s trajectory, even when doing so meant we turned Tom’s carefully crafted chord changes into something, well, less careful. The core group included Alex Lazarevich on tenor sax and bass/Bb clarinets, myself (Ben Grosser) on trumpets and tenor sax, and Danny Deckard on drums and percussion. All but Danny had an occasional turn on the keyboards, and all of us also sang and played wood chimes. Taimur Sullivan [now member of the highly acclaimed PRISM Quartet] sat in on alto sax for part of this session. I should also note that Tom’s synthesizer chops were in full force with this group. He was extremely adept at crafting timbres with his ARP 2600 synth, and could be seen patching new sounds on the fly during performances. This tape may be the only recording of the band. We played a number of gigs at the Table–and also did a live session on WEFT–but I am unaware of any other tapes.

Enjoy this rare recording of Tom Paynter with some extremely forward-thinking and experimental musicians. Please attend the Tom Paynter Memorial on Sunday, June 21, 2019 from 2pm – 6pm at the Iron Post, 120 S. Race St, Urbana.

Nebula: The Music of Diffused Gassers – Led by Tom Paynter. March 5, 1990

Two Tracks by Tom Paynter

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Tom Paynter

The C-U jazz community is still feeling the loss of longtime C-U player and composer Tom Paynter, who died May 25, 2019 at the age of 50. A brilliant pianist and flutist, Tom was equally comfortable in straight-ahead jazz, Brazilian music, or the avant-garde.

We were happy to discover just over twenty minutes of Tom’s quartet as filler on a cassette from Gary Peyton’s collection. The only date listed was “Summer 1990.” These two tunes — “Stella By Starlight” and “Song For My Father” — feature Tom on flute, plus Table regulars Peyton on piano and Danny Deckard on drums. The bassist is merely listed as “Kita;” thanks to some digging by Jeff Helgesen, we believe this is Kita Makoto, who was a student at the U of I at the time and played with Guido Sinclair. A mystery trumpet player sits in on the second tune.

Tom was one of a kind. Be sure to attend his memorial at The Iron Post on Sunday, July 21, from 2-6pm, and listen to his oral history interview from November 2016 with Jeff Machota.

Enjoy these two tracks. We have more of Tom’s sets on cassette we’re digitizing and will be posting more of Tom’s music here as soon as we can.

Tom Paynter Quartet – Live at Nature’s Table – Summer 1990

Nature’s Table Archive Volume 16: Tom Paynter Quartet – June 24, 1988

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Volume 16 showcases pianist, flautist and composer Tom Paynter leading a quartet at a Friday Happy Hour gig in June 1988. Tom is equally comfortable hanging out in the avant-garde as well as the inside, straight-ahead world. This session is firmly in the latter category, with Tom on flute.

Paynter played the Table in the “later” period. He was in one of Table regular Guido Sinclair’s last bands, and was one of the musicians who played at Guido’s funeral. Paynter went on to earn a PhD in music from the University of Chicago. Tom’s also hosted a jazz show on WEFT-FM for several years.

The band is comprised of Table regulars and students of the day. Curt Morrison was also in Oscar Sulley’s Bontuku in 1985-1986;  Listen to Curt in Bontuku here. John Hurtubise played bass with almost everybody during his tenure, most notably with trumpeter Jeff Helgesen.

It doesn’t sound like there were a lot of people in the audience. As this was a happy hour gig in June, maybe everybody was enjoying $1 bowls of red beans and rice on the front step.

Tom Paynter Quartet – June 24, 1988

Tom Paynter Quartet
Live at Nature’s Table
Urbana, Illinois
June 24, 1988
Nature’s Table Archive – Vol. 16
Source: Unknown Cassette > ? > WAV > FLAC8
Mixing/EQ done on source tape: None
Recorded by Tom Paynter
Digital transfer by Jeff Machota
FLAC conversion, mixing/EQ and upload by Sean Kutzko
The Band:
Tom Paynter: Flute
Curt Morrison: Guitar
John Hurtubise: Bass
Mike Gould: Drums
(Total Time = 1:21:19)
01: Stella By Starlight (10:00)
02: Serenade To A Cuckoo (10:25)
03: All Of You (9:24)
04: Ode To A Hecklephone (9:21)
05: Autumn Leaves (9:27)
06: Banter1 (0:31)
07: Dolphin Dance (12:18)
08: Windows (8:55)
09: Banter2 (1:43)
10: 500 Miles High (9:10)