Paul McCandless


Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. is an American multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the American jazz group Oregon. He is one of the few jazz oboists. He also plays bass clarinet, English horn, flute, penny whistle, tenor saxophone, sopranino saxophone, and soprano saxophone.

Biography

Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, United States, into a musical family. His father taught him clarinet, his mother piano, and he attended the Manhattan School of Music. In 1971 he auditioned with the New York Philharmonic playing English horn and was a finalist.
McCandless has released a series of records of his own compositions with bands he led, including All the Mornings Bring, Navigator, Heresay, Premonition. With Oregon, he has recorded over twenty albums, as well as several albums with Paul Winter.
In 1996, McCandless won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. He also won Grammys in 2007 and 2011 with the Paul Winter Consort for Best New Age Album and in 1993 for Al Jarreau's album Heaven and Earth. His performance on Oregon's album 1000 Kilometers was nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo in 2009. He won the Down Beat Critics' Poll for Best Established Combo, the Deutscher Schallplatten Preis for his album Ectopia, and the Arbeitskreis Jazz im Bundesverband der Phonographishen Wirtschaft Gold Record Award.
In 1985, McCandless toured Europe with bassist Barre Phillips and German clarinetist Theo Jörgensmann. He has been a guest musician with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, appearing on the 1999 album Greatest Hits of the 20th Century and the 2002 album Live at the Quick, and has toured with tabla musician Sandip Burman. He was a guest of Leftover Salmon and The String Cheese Incident in the late 1990s. He has appeared on stage in duets with pianist Art Lande, with whom he recorded the album Skylight. Since 2013 he has been playing regularly in Europe with the Samo Šalamon Bassless Trio.
McCandless is active in classical music. As an orchestral soloist, he has performed with the Camerata Chamber Orchestra of Mexico City, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Three of Paul's orchestral scores are heard on the album Oregon in Moscow. "Round Robin", the opening track, received 2001 Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Instrumental Arrangement.
In 2014, McCandless began performing with Charged Particles, a jazz trio based in San Francisco, including opening the 2015 San Luis Obispo Jazz Festival with them and headlining at the Stanford Jazz Festival. The quartet has appeared at Birdland, Blues Alley, Yoshi's Jazz Club, The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, The Dakota Jazz Club, and other venues throughout the U.S. In 2017, McCandless and Charged Particles did a ten-day tour of Indonesia, performing at the Motion Blue Jazz Club, Jazz Centrum, and the Jazz Gunung Bromo Festival

Reception

The London Telegraph called McCandless's contribution to The Great Jubilee Concert "remarkable". Said Jazz Journal, "Paul McCandless delivered terrific, beautifully modulated solos on both oboe and soprano."
The Washington Post called McCandless a "stellar player" who plays "sparkling harmonic cascades."

Awards and honors

Discography

As leader

All the Mornings Bring Navigator Skylight with Art Lande, Dave Samuels Heresay Premonition Squanto and the First Thanksgiving Sentimental Sax The Natural Saxophone Torches on the Lake with Spencer Brewer Twilight Summer Nights with Spencer Brewer The Hidden Jewel with Art Lande Perfect Alignment with Steven Halpern Shapeshifter with Art Lande
With OregonMusic of Another Present Era Distant Hills Winter Light In Concert Together Friends Violin Out of the Woods Moon and Mind Roots in the Sky In Performance Our First Record Oregon Crossing Ecotopia 45th Parallel Always, Never, and Forever Troika Beyond Words Northwest Passage Music for a Midsummer Night's Dream Oregon in Moscow Live at Yoshi's Prime 1000 Kilometers In Stride Family Tree Live in New Orleans

As guest

With Pierluigi Balducci Blue from Heaven Evansiana
With Suzanne CianiLive Turning Meditations for Dreams, Relaxation and Sleep Pure Romance Silver Ship
With Alex De GrassiBeyond the Night Sky As You Drift Away: Lullabies on Guitar
With Béla FleckTales from the Acoustic Planet Live Art Greatest Hits of the 20th Century Outbound Live at the Quick
With David FriesenStar Dance, Waterfall Rainbow Storyteller
With Tony FurtadoTony Furtado Band American Gypsy Live Gypsy
With Steven HalpernInner Peace Perfect Alignment Lake Suite Music for Lovers, Vol. 2 Drive Time Rx Deep Alpha Clutter Clearing at the Speed of Sound
With Mark IshamCastalia Songs My Children Taught Me Thumbelina Lake Suite
With Peter KaterHonorable Sky Birds of Prey Heart's Desire Inner Works: Piano & Strings Xmas Ecstacy Red Moon Elements Series: Air Elements Series: Fire Elements Series: Water Faces of the SunCall of Love Light Body Heart of the UniverseRitual
With Nguyen LeZanzibar Walking on the Tiger's Tail
With Michael ManringToward the Center of the Night Drastic Measures The Book of Flame
With Jaco PastoriusTwins I Aurex Jazz Festival '82 Twins II Aurex Jazz Festival '82 Invitation
With Fred SimonUsually/Always Remember the River Since Forever
With Paul WinterSomething in the Wind Icarus Road Common Ground Canyon Wolf Eyes Earth: Voices of a Planet Spanish Angel
With others