 In the early 1950s he found himself working with Tadd Dameron, and worked with Illinois Jacquet from 1952 to 1954.He then started freelance work in New York City and frequently performed during this period with Randy Weston, whom Payne worked with until 1960.Payne was still recording regularly for Delmark Records in the 1990s, when he was in his seventies, and indeed on into the new millennium.