Biographies
Mike Paxton
Jazz drummer, composer and arranger
Mike Paxton was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, but moved to Canada at the age of six. Here, in his early teens, he became interested in the music he heard on the jazz programmes broadcast by American radio stations, absorbing the work of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and others.
Returning to Scotland, to finish school, Mike started playing the drums in local bands. Later, he read English at university, paying his way by doing commercial gigs, theatre, and radio/TV broadcasts.
At this time, Mike was very active on the Scottish jazz scene, composing music for his own jazz quintet and twelve piece band, and putting together rhythm sections for jazz soloists touring in Scotland (like Jimmy Deuchar and Don Rendell).
Having graduated, with Masters degrees in Arts and Letters, Mike moved to London, working with Ray Warleigh’s quartet and New York based saxophonist John Tank (from the Charles Mingus band). He then found himself dividing his time between playing contemporary jazz in Mick Pyne’s Sextet and Henry Lowther’s Quintet; and mainstream jazz, with the Humphrey Lyttelton Band. Mike spent three years with Humphrey, touring in Britain, Europe and the Middle East (including work for the British Council). While working with this band, Mike performed with several soloists visiting from the USA, including Joe Temperley (from Duke Ellington’s band) and Jimmy McPartland. He played drums on two of Humphrey’s recordings: ‘Echoes of Harlem (re-released as ‘Blues in Bolero’) and ‘Live in Hamburg’.
Mike has also performed with many of the UK’s leading jazz musicians, on an ad hoc basis: Ronnie Scott’s Quartet, Peter King, Stan Sulzmann’s Quartet (with John Taylor), Jim Mullen, Alan Barnes, Rick Taylor Quintet, Dale Barlow, Art Themen, Ronnie Ross, Jeff Clyne, Jimmy Hastings, Phil Lee, Don Weller, and many others.
At this time, he made regular appearances on the BBC’s ‘Jazz Club’ broadcasts and Radio 3’s ‘Jazz Today’, including a programme of his own compositions for a band featuring Derek Watkins, Peter King, Stan Sulzmann, John Horler and Dave Green.
From 2006 to 2010, Mike worked with Alan Skidmore’s Ubizo, appearing at jazz festivals in the UK and on the Continent (including Hamburg, Berlin, Viersen, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Marlborough). This band performed frequently for European radio and television stations, including NDR, WDR, 3Sat, and BRalpha. Mike appeared on Alan’s 2008 CD release, ’50 Journeys’, playing drums and percussion (and composing three of the tracks).
In 2007, he played the drums in the premier performance of Peter King’s Jazz Mass, for jazz quintet and choir, in Newcastle Cathedral.
Mike’s first CD of his own compositions, ‘Song of the Even Dunes’, was released in 2015. It features Martin Shaw, Mornington Lockett, Robin Aspland and Alec Dankworth. Journalist Peter Vacher, reviewing the recording for Jazzwise magazine, awarded it 4 stars (excellent), saying, “The instrumentation might suggest just another hard bop combo: not so… As might be imagined with the calibre of musicians he has recruited, the playing is exemplary and Paxton’s own drumming is up there with the best”. Writer Duncan Heining, reviewing the CD for ‘All About Jazz’, wrote, “The playing is superb … It is the quality of the writing and arrangements, all by Paxton, that truly lifts this album above the mainstream. A fine record indeed”.