Paul McCandless
Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. is an American multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the American jazz group Oregon. He is one of few jazz oboists. He also plays bass clarinet, English horn, and soprano saxophone.
Biography
Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. was born 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 Salamon 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
- Grammy Award, Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male, with Al Jarreau, 1993
- Grammy Award, Best Pop Instrumental Performance with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, 1996
- Grammy Award, Best New Age Album, with Paul Winter Consort, 2007, 2011
- Grammy Award Nomination, Best Instrumental Composition, Best Instrumental Arrangement, Oregon in Moscow, 2001
- Grammy Award Nomination, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, 1000 Kilometers, 2009
- Winner, Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition, Down Beat Magazine Critics' Poll, 1976, 1978
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
- Music 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
- Lantern
As guest
- Blue from Heaven
- Evansiana
- Live
- Turning
- Meditations for Dreams, Relaxation and Sleep
- Pure Romance
- Silver Ship
- Beyond the Night Sky
- As You Drift Away: Lullabies on Guitar
- Tales from the Acoustic Planet
- Live Art
- Greatest Hits of the 20th Century
- Outbound
- Live at the Quick
- Star Dance,
- Waterfall Rainbow
- Storyteller
- Tony Furtado Band
- American Gypsy
- Live Gypsy
- Inner Peace
- Perfect Alignment
- Lake Suite
- Music for Lovers, Vol. 2
- Drive Time Rx
- Deep Alpha
- Clutter Clearing at the Speed of Sound
- Castalia
- Songs My Children Taught Me
- Thumbelina
- Lake Suite
- Honorable 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 Sun
- Call of Love
- Light Body
- Heart of the Universe
- Ritual
- Zanzibar
- Walking on the Tiger's Tail
- Toward the Center of the Night
- Drastic Measures
- The Book of Flame
- Twins I Aurex Jazz Festival '82
- Twins II Aurex Jazz Festival '82
- Invitation
- Usually/Always
- Remember the River
- Since Forever
- Something in the Wind
- Icarus
- Road
- Common Ground
- Canyon
- Wolf Eyes
- '
- Spanish Angel
- Will Ackerman, The Opening of Doors
- Will Ackerman, Sound of Wind Driven Rain
- Darol Anger, Heritage
- Pierluigi Balducci, Blue from Heaven
- Yelena Eckemoff, Arild Andersen, Peter Erskine, Desert
- Carla Bley, Night-glo
- Cyrus Faryar, Cyrus
- Meridian Green, In the Heart of This Town
- Paul Hanson, Voodoo Suite
- Lars Jansson, Giving Receiving
- Al Jarreau, Heaven and Earth
- Kevin Kern, Beyond the Sundial
- Michael Land, The Dig
- Art Lande, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and the Three Little Pigs
- Wynton Marsalis, Hot House Flowers
- Stephanie Mills, Christmas
- Marco Pereira, Essence
- Todd Phillips, Timeframe
- The Pursuit of Happiness, The Downward Road
- Vasant Rai, Autumn Song
- Vasant Rai, Spring Flowers
- String Cheese Incident, 'Round the Wheel
- Andy Summers, The Golden Wire
- Taliesin Orchestra, Sacred
- Huong Thanh, Mangustao
- Ralph Towner, Trios/Solos
- Ralph Towner, City of Eyes
- Kit Walker, Fire in the Lake
- Eberhard Weber, Later That Evening
- Eberhard Weber, Endless Days
- Victor Wooten, What Did He Say?''