Voices of Payne

Idol judge & vocal coach Peggy Blu, Four Play drummer Harvey Mason, jazz fusionists Hiroshima and former Chicago vocalist Bill Champlin. Clif has opened for Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Rubén Blades, Dan Siegel and Dionne Warwick. Clif was born in the Harlem Sugar Hill area of Harlem and now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. His eclectic vocals span the genres of jazz, R&B, gospel, blues, rock, folk, pop and classical. "I frequently use the 'jazz' description because it allows me to be me:
A singer who loves to be eclectic & expressive in a variety of musical genres." CP

Clif is "a lush tenor with soaring melismas in his individual passages." Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times. In 2016, Clif released his debut solo album--Welcome To My World--that also features a Clif/Freda duet-"No Payne, No Gain." She is best known for her hit song "Band Of Gold." A dance mix of "No Payne, No Gain" produced by the UK's Nigel Lowis was on the 2016 Grammy ballot for nomination for Best R&B Vocal. "No Payne, No Gain," written by R&B Hall of Fame inductee Preston Glass ("Miss You Like Crazy, "Don't Make Me Wait For Love") spent 2 weeks at the top of the Soul/R&B charts in Great Britain, receiving the title of UK’s Soul Song of the Year. In August 2016, Clif and Freda performed their duet live in LA at Herb Alpert's Club Vibrato. Also on Welcome To My World are original En Vogue vocalist Maxine Jones and Midnight Star's Reggie Calloway. Welcome To My World was produced Preston Glass, and Grammy orchestra music director Larry Batiste. The power trio of Glass, Batiste and Payne reunited for his 2018 release - TOO! Dynamic Duets - Clif teams up with an array of musical legends including George Benson and Little Anthony on this Preston Glass-produced album. Love and Compassion - produced by Glass includes a track featuring The Manhattan's Gerald Alston and Clif's Welcome To My World track,
"Peace Is More (Than The Absence of War)." Disco Soul Gold - the #1 R&B/Soul album in the UK for 2017, was produced by Nigel Lowis and includes the dance mix of "No Payne, No Gain." A musical epiphany for Clif occurred back in the 1970s upon hearing a 45-rpm record of Donny Hathaway, "Jealous Guy," from the Donny Hathaway Live record. So, I went out and bought the whole album!”

Bobby McFerrin . . . is credited with "discovering" Clif, who saw McFerrin singing at a club one California evening. Clif went in, talked with Bobby during a break and talked McFerrin into singing with him. Bobby asked Clif, "Are You good?" Clif replied, "Yes!" Bobby then asked, "Are you REAL Good??" Clif said, "Yes!!" At the start of the next set, McFerrin introduced Clif to the audience and then let Payne, "do his thang!" The audience response was so great that McFerrin sang with Clif and invited him to be the special guest at McFerrin's next gig. At that gig, he gave Clif his first California gig as a soloist. Music figures prominently in Clif's family. His father, James "Buddy" Payne was a reedsman who gigged with jazz legends Lionel Hampton, Fletcher Henderson and participated in the Harlem Renaissance. Clif's mother was a talented vocalist who once backed Nat "King" Cole in a vocal ensemble. The Payne family lived in the same apartment building that, at the same time, was also home to Duke Ellington and drummer Cozy Cole (Ringo Starr's favorite drummer). Ellington lived on the 4th floor, the Payne Family and Cole lived on the 3rd floor, circa 1954. The apartment building located at 935 St. Nicholas St. in Harlem is now a designated national landmark. Shandra Bennett, Clif's cousin, is a background vocalist with country superstar Martina McBride. AN EARLY FALL
I'll never take walking for granted again. 2013 was to be my year of great musical opportunities. But, all that was put on hold on April 6 while performing in San Francisco. I did a routine leap off the stage onto a crowded dance floor. When I landed, I discovered that I had blown out both kneecaps and torn a tendon. Plus, I was locked in a squat position and couldn't get up. Fortunately, there were 3 doctors on the dance floor who rushed over, unlocked my legs and kept me from going into shock. They called paramedics, who then took me to St. Francis Med Center. On Monday, April 8, surgery was was performed to repair all the damage in both knees. It's the kind of injury athletes are prone to getting. I've heard it happening with one knee-- but two? At the same time? "I WANNA BE AROUND . . ." I knew my injury was serious, but I didn't realize how serious until the surgeon and his assistant visited me in my hospital room. The doctor said, "Clif, we don't want to alarm you but, the last African American patient of mine that had your kind of an injury a year ago died suddenly 4 weeks after leaving the hospital." Apparently, fatal blood clots had formed in his legs, travelled to his lungs and caused a pulmonary embolism--killing him in within minutes of his arrival at the hospital ER room. "We don't want that to happen to you, so we'll be quite aggressive in giving anti-blood clotting treatment. We wanna keep you around a little longer!" Two big thumbs way up for that last sentence! So, I was moved to Intensive Care where I remained for the next 21/2 weeks. Both legs had full-sized braces on them. I couldn’t move my legs on my own; I needed at least one person to help me. One of those anti-blood clotting treatments involved me giving myself a shot in the stomach once a day. It was a bit weird doing it at first, but once I started thinking of my stomach as a dart board, sticking a needle in it was no problem. BREEZY
The hardest part of all of this was realizing that standing and walking would be impossible for me for the next 4 months. I thought of all the gigs I'd miss, all the money I wouldn't make and the possibility of taking yet another year just to get back on my feet and get back on the gig scene. Then, I noticed that my wheelchair had a name embroidered on its backside--"breezy." "How appropriate," I thought. I wanted this season of challenges to breeze by asap! I never ever imagined me having this kind of injury. Regardless, me and Breezy did quite a bit of traveling in 2013. I returned to gigging in mid-May while still in my wheelchair! On one gig, several band members actually lifted me onto the stage--Breezy and all! It’s nice to have friends who’ll do that for you. At home, we had to make a lot of changes. I had a ramp installed on the outside steps and used public transportation for the disabled to get around--Outreach and RediWheels. Going up and down those steps was a trip because the ramp was much steeper than what was needed! Then we had to take the doors off of a couple of rooms just so Breezy could get through the doorway. Nurses came to my house a couple of times a week for physical therapy and routine chores like bathing me and monitoring my blood pressure. They installed a "porta potty" to make it easier for me to go the bathroom. Once I got tired of that, they showed me how I could crawl by scooting to the bathroom using my arms and upper body. BREAKTHROUGH
My special physical therapy at Breakthrough Physical Therapy began on a weekly basis in August. In September, I said goodbye to Breezy and began to stand and do some walking using a walker. In November, I switched to a cane. And, in December, I was walking unassisted. It's been a long road to recovery--but I'm back! And looking back, I can see that 2013 did go by fast. Focusing on all I needed to do get back on my feet made the year literally breeze by. It wasn’t exactly a cakewalk, but it did turn out to be a great learning experience for me on the art of patience and persistence – 2 things that just can’t be learned in a breeze. It's true that so many singers (especially African American singers) got their initial musical schooling as a child in church. And it's true, that's how I got my musical start. Yes, I went on to learn music in grade school, high school, college and years on the road domestically and overseas. But the foundation of my musical education and spiritual DNA began in church. First, at Harlem's famed Abyssinian Baptist Church (the church that influenced theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer) and later at my grandfather's church, McFarland Baptist Church in Evansville, Indiana. I sang my first solo ("Steal Away") there.