Payne was 13 years old when he asked his father for a saxophone after listening to Honeysuckle Rose, Count Basie’s performance. Pete Brown, a local alto player, taught Payne. He attended Boys High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant. In 1946, Payne started his recording career on the Savoy label with J. J. Johnson. He also started playing with Roy Eldridge that year, and he later met Dizzy Gilespie. Before Gillespie hired Payne, his earlier recordings fell under the swing category. Payne was onboard from 1949 to 1949 and can be heard on “Ow!” as a soloist. Payne was also featured on “Ow!” and “Stay On It”. He began working with Tadd Dameron in the 1950s. From 1952 to 1954, he also worked with Illinois Jacquet. Payne then began freelance work in New York, where he performed frequently with Randy Weston. He worked with Illinois Jacquet from 1952 to 1954, and Payne continued recording for Delmark Records into the new millennium. Payne was a cousin to Marcus Belgrave, a trumpeter with whom he briefly recorded. Payne was a musician and also ran his father’s real-estate company in the 1950s. He once stated that his parents encouraged him to pursue dentistry as a profession. He countered his parents’ suggestion by saying that no one would trust their teeth to a “Dr. Payne.” From Wikipedia
