Nik Payton is an English saxophone/clarinet player currently living in Brazil. He studied with the great American saxophonist Bob Wilber, himself a prot?g? of the great Sidney Bechet. He has toured with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and extensively in Europe, U.S.A., South America, The Middle East and the Far East. Nik has performed with, amongst others, Wynton Marsalis, Maria Schneider, Bob Wilber, Kenny Davern and the Brazilian guitar virtuoso Nelson Faria. A world class musician, Nik has been included in the "International Who's Who of Popular Music".
Nik Payton has recorded extensively with various bands and has been involved in 3 movie sound tracks. Most recently he was invited by Marcus Vianna to play on the soundtrack for the Brazilian film ?Olga', which was nominated for the Oscar's ?Foreign Film' category.
Nik has performed at many of the top Jazz Festivals including The Northsea Festival (Den Haag), Pori Jazz Festival (Finland), Umbria Jazz (Italy), Cork Jazz Festival (Ireland), Edinburgh Jazz Festival (Scotland), Tudo e Jazz (Ouro Preto, Brazil), New Orleans Meets Zurich (Switzerland), Breda Jazz Festival (Holland) and has headlined the International Jazz Festival in Brazil.
Nik will be releasing his first cd on the Arbors Jazz label later this year.