Paul McCandless

Paul McCandless ( born March 24, 1947 in Indiana, Pennsylvania) is an American musician of world jazz. His main instruments are the oboe, English horn, saxophone, clarinets; next he plays other instruments. "With his flowing style of composition, its controlled, supercooled sound especially on his main instrument, the oboe, but also with additional instruments of the wooden flute to the Sequencer " he characterizes the unmistakable sound of the group Oregon.

Life and work

McCandless comes from a musical family; the mother was a pianist. His father and grandfather also played oboe and clarinet; he met with his parents first clarinet and piano, and later oboe, flute and saxophone. In addition, he gained experience in a student - Dixieland band. From 1963 he studied at Duquesne University and played helping out with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, as well as in jazz clubs. In 1967 he began to concentrate on the oboe and moved to the Manhattan School of Music; his teacher was the oboist Robert Bloom, who later recommended him to Paul Winter. McCandless could make a name for himself as a member of the Paul Winter Consort ( 1968-1972 ). Then he and Collin Walcott, Ralph Towner and bassist Glen Moore, the group Oregon, which still exists today.

Beyond his work at Oregon followed McCandless own projects, such as his own trio with pianist Art Lande and Dave Samuels ( All The Mornings Bring, 1979, and Skylight, 1981) and plays along with several other musicians, such as Eberhard Weber, Michael Di Pasqua and David Darling. In 1985, he toured in a trio with Barre Phillips and Theo Jörgensmann in Europe. In a double concert of Oregon McCandless improvised at the second gig with Andreas Vollenweider. As a sideman he worked, inter alia, with Billy Hart, John Scofield, Nguyên Lê, Jerry Goodman, Zbigniew Seifert, Eddie Gomez, Bela Fleck and Bob Moses.

With a wind octet, he realized his own Third Stream compositions. For his work as a composer and arranger on the album Oregon In Moscow ( 2000) McCandless was nominated in two categories for Grammys 2002.