Background
Payne was born in Black Rock, Barbados, on 21 December 1938.
Payne was born in Black Rock, Barbados, on 21 December 1938.
He became a Canadian citizen in 1982, the country he moved to in 1942. He and his family landed in the city of Montreal where he still resides today. The band later became known as Kanda Kanda and performed with the likes of Irish vocalist Van Morrison, as well as Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, and other well-known performers of that era.
Payne studied music at McGill University in Montreal, where he majored in orchestral conducting.
In 1974, he founded the Montreal Black Community Youth Choir, and in 1982 he founded the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir, which still exists today and is still directed by him. Apart from his choral work, he composes and taught music at John Abbott College in the Montreal suburb of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue in the West Island from 1974 until he retired in 2006.
During the 1960s he was a member of the popular group Trevor Payne and the Triangle, a group playing soul music and rhythm and blues.
