Doug Payne: Sound Insights

Jazz historian and archivist Douglas Payne has written for All About Jazz, All Music Guide and dougpayne.com. He has contributed liner notes to albums by Lalo Schifrin, Freddie Hubbard, Oscar Peterson, Claus Ogerman, Cal Tjader, Gary McFarland, Gabor Szabo and others. For posts before 2024, please click here.

Latest posts:

  • Gábor Szabó 90
    A pop-up exhibition celebrating the life and legacy of guitarist Gábor Szabó, during what would have been his 90th year, opened on September 10, at the Magyar Zene Háza (House of Music Hungary) in Budapest, Hungary. The exhibition – called Gabor Szabo: The Jazz Visionary – The Guitar Legend’s Journey from Budapest to Los Angeles…
  • Stanley Turrentine – “The Man with the Sad Face” (1976)
    “Lookout Salsoul Orchestra!,” wrote DownBeat in its one-and-a-half-star review of the 1976 album The Man with the Sad Face (March 10, 1977), “Stanley Turrentine’s comin’ ta getcha! Yes folks, this may well be the most distinguished cast that ever bothered to lend its class to trash, spelled c-a-s-h. (…) As dubious consolation it must be…
  • Art Farmer with the Quincy Jones Orchestra – “Last Night When We Were Young” (1957)
    Art Farmer (1928-99) was one of a number of great trumpeters who emerged in jazz during the 1950s. By the time he switched exclusively to flugelhorn in the early sixties, he had already become known for what journalist Leonard Feather described as “a style of rare lyricism” and a player whose “solos invariably show[ed] a…
  • “The Lalo Schifrin Collection Volume 2” (2026)
    In the second volume of its Lalo Schifrin Collection series, the Dragon’s Domain label has paired two of the composer’s lesser-known outings, the soundtrack to “Escape to Athena” (1979) and the never-before-issued score to the 1984 film “Tank.” Aside from both boasting the talents of composer Lalo Schifrin (1932-2025), the two films would seem to…
  • Tip of the Iceberg (1975)
    We believe that the musicians involved in this new group, TIP OF THE ICEBERG, are outstanding performers possessing fabulous talent. The preparation for this album extended over a period of seven months. Musical supervision and arrangements are by Jeff Hest. The album has a dynamic inner force and drive which could contribute greatly to the…
  • The Marina Strings Play the Neil Diamond Solid Gold Songbook (1972)
    Legendary record executive Russ Regan (1928-2018), in one of his first moves as president of the 20th Century Records label in the fall of 1972, decided to deliver an instrumental tribute album to the music of Neil Diamond – just in time for the holidays. Regan had been significant in developing Diamond’s career at Uni…
  • Gary McFarland – “America the Beautiful” (1969)
    America the Beautiful, billed by its composer as “America’s first protest symphony,” is certainly Gary McFarland’s magnum opus. But it is not the McFarland album most people remember nearly some six decades later. That honor probably belongs to either the Stan Getz and Bill Evans albums he waxed for the jazz diehards or Soft Samba…
  • Lalo Schifrin – “The Venetian Affair” (1967)
    It’s hard to fathom, but in 1966 alone Lalo Schifrin (1932-2025) composed the music for at least five theatrical films, including “Murderers Row” (which yielded a soundtrack album at the time), two TV movies, four TV documentaries, and four TV series, including “T.H.E. Cat” and, most memorably, “Mission: Impossible.” He also recorded the masterful Marquis…
  • Gary McFarland/Peter Smith – “Butterscotch Rum” (1971)
    For better or worse, Butterscotch Rum is unlike any other album in the entire discography of composer, arranger, producer, vibraphonist, keyboardist and vocalist Gary McFarland (1933-71). Was this a one-off, a way forward, or something else? We’ll never know. The disc is also the last record issued under McFarland’s name, although, in his remaining months,…
  • Gary McFarland & Co. – “Does The Sun Really Shine on the Moon?” (1968)
    Depending on how you count, Does the Sun Really Shine on the Moon? is the first of either three or five discs composer, arranger, vibraphonist and vocalist Gary McFarland (1933-71) recorded for the Skye Recordings label he co-owned with friends and fellow performers vibraphonist Cal Tjader and guitarist Gabor Szabo. The three records include this…
  • Armando Peraza – “Wild Thing” (1968)
    Wild Thing (1968) is the only disc Cuban percussionist Armando Peraza (1924-2014) released under his own name during his lifetime. It is also the fifth disc released on the short-lived Skye Recordings, the label founded earlier that year by musicians Gary McFarland, Cal Tjader and Gabor Szabo. If it did nothing other than offer a…
  • John Lewis/Gary McFarland – “Essence” (1964)
    Like fellow Modern Jazz Quartet member Milt Jackson, pianist John Lewis (1920-2001) recorded prolifically outside of the revered jazz group on various solo projects. Unlike Jackson, whose solo records tended toward more swing and bluesy-ness than the MJQ, however, Lewis’ solo endeavors often swung toward film and ballet scores and outré or altogether non-jazz efforts.…
  • Steve Kuhn/Gary McFarland – “The October Suite” (1967)
    By this point in the brief, decade-long career of Gary McFarland (1933-71), the gifted composer and arranger easily balanced light and breezy (even poppy) music with the serious and somber (quasi-classical, or what was then called the Third Stream). As the title of this record more than suggests, The October Suite is considerably more of…
  • Stan Getz With Guest Artist Laurindo Almeida (1966)
    This one is, if not a lost treasure, certainly a forgotten one among those who love both tenor saxophonist Stan Getz (1927-91) and guitarist Laurindo Almeida (1917-95) alike. It’s also one that really fell between the cracks. I didn’t even remember that I had a copy of this disc until I was asked about it…
  • Pete Turner: The “Super Fusion 1900” Series (1982)
    In 1982, the Japanese label King Records – which has manufactured and distributed CTI-related product in Japan since 1970, and continues to do so to this day – launched a provocative set of compilations in what it called the “Super Fusion 1900” series.    The series comprised 16 records and totally eschewed the usual “Best…
  • Gary McFarland & Co./Clark Terry – “Tijuana Jazz” (1966)
    Composer and arranger Gary McFarland (1933-71) and the legendary trumpeter and once-featured soloist in the Duke Ellington band, Clark Terry (1920-2015) get together and head “south of the border” for an especially tasty slice of Tijuana Jazz. This aptly-named record was clearly aimed at jumping aboard the runaway train that was Herb Alpert and the…
  • Four by Laurindo Almeida
    For years, I passed by the treasure trove of guitarist Laurindo Almedia records that packed the bins of so many of the used-record stores I’ve trolled over the years. I can’t say why I avoided these records. They were certainly easy enough to come by. After seeing some of the posters in Facebook’s “Exotica…and other…
  • Stan Getz/Gary McFarland – “Big Band Bossa Nova” (1962)
    A genuinely joyful and rewarding musical experience, the glorious Stan Getz/Gary McFarland album Big Band Bossa Nova holds up well and sounds as new and as exciting, some six decades later, as it did when it was first released back in 1962. Big Band Bossa Nova was only the second of the tenor saxophonist’s five…

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