Mike Paxton, a jazz drummer, composer, and arranger, was born in Aberdeen (Scotland) and moved to Canada when he was six years old. In his teens, he discovered jazz music on American radio stations. He listened to the works of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. Mike returned to Scotland to finish his school education and began playing the drums with local bands. He studied English at university and worked as a commercial musician, actor, and broadcaster. Mike was active in the Scottish jazz scene at this time. He composed music for his own jazz quintet, twelve-piece band, and put together rhythm sections for jazz soloists who were touring Scotland, such as Jimmy Deuchar or Don Rendell. After graduating with Masters degrees, Mike moved to London and worked with Ray Warleigh’s Quartet and John Tank, a New York-based saxophonist (from Charles Mingus). After graduating, he found himself splitting his time between contemporary jazz with Mick Pyne’s Sextet or Henry Lowther’s Quintet, and mainstream jazz with the Humphrey Lyttelton band. Mike spent three years touring with Humphrey in Britain, Europe, and the Middle East, including work for the British Council. Mike also performed with several soloists from the USA while he was with this band. These included Joe Temperley, who is part of Duke Ellington’s band, and Jimmy McPartland. Two Humphrey recordings were released by Humphrey, ‘Echoes of Harlem’ (reissued as Blues in Bolero’ and ‘Live in Hamburg. Mike has performed on an occasional basis with many of the UK’s most prominent jazz musicians. He made frequent appearances on BBC’s “Jazz Club” broadcasts, and Radio 3’s “Jazz Today”. This included a program of his compositions that featured a band featuring Dave Green, Peter King and Stan Sulzmann. From 2006 to 2010, Mike was a member of Alan Skidmore’s Ubizo. He appeared at many jazz festivals across the UK, including Marlborough, Hamburg, Berlin and Viersen. The band frequently performed for European television and radio stations, including NDR and WDR. Mike played drums and percussion on Alan’s 2008 CD, “50 Journeys”, and also composed three tracks. He was the drummer in Peter King’s Jazz Mass in Newcastle Cathedral in 2007. Mike’s 2015 debut CD of original compositions, “Song of the Even Dunes”, was released. It features Martin Shaw and Robin Aspland, Alec Dankworth, and Mornington Lockett. The recording was reviewed by Jazzwise magazine’s Peter Vacher. He said that the instrumentation could suggest a hard bop group: “Not so… Given the talent of the musicians he has hired, the playing is exceptional and Paxton is among the best in the world.” Duncan Heining, a writer reviewing the CD for “All About Jazz”, wrote that the album is outstanding because of Paxton’s writing and arrangements. This is a fine record. from http://mikepaxtonjazz.com
