Paul McCandless Hails From a Lineage of Classical Oboists

By John Pietaro

Paul McCandless deftly rides the wind through the confined double-reeds of his oboe. His sound, one synonymous with the expanse of the very environment, is unmistakable. Among improvisational musicians, he maintains a unique hold on double-reed horns, yet his command of sopranino and soprano saxophones as well as bass clarinet and pennywhistle stands just as profound. Never one to seek out standard jazz gigs, neither did McCandless choose the common tools of the trade. And through decades of making legendary music, his career trajectory remains angled comfortably high. “I suppose I’m one of the lucky ones, because the calls keep coming in,” he explained.

Born in 1947, McCandless hails from a lineage of classical oboists. Hoping to extend the legacy, he began clarinet lessons at age 9 and by 13 was playing transcriptions of Bach’s Unaccompanied Cello Suites with fleeting accuracy. “Suddenly,” he recalled, “I felt the music pouring through me.”

McCandless began a quest for other voices, embarking on an expansive vision of instrumental doubling (“[clarinetist] Richard Stoltzman recently referred to me as a quintupler”). He rapidly developed skills on oboe and saxophone and the rest followed.
Ironically, during studies at the Manhattan School of Music with celebrated oboist Robert Bloom, McCandless began a strict focus on classical oboe. “It was Robert’s suggestion that I sell all of my instruments except for my oboe and English horn. My future as an orchestral oboist seemed clear.”

However, the call of improvisation would unsettle this blueprint; McCandless’ experiments with jazz found him drawn to the Paul Winter Consort. It was 1968 and melds of culture, sound and social commentary were vibrant calls to artists of conscience.

“Paul was very inspired by people like Pete Seeger. Bob Dylan too,” said McCandless, in addition to jazz and ethnic musical traditions. The Consort was unique even in a time of startling originality. “We were melodic, fresh, open-sounding. And I came to see that you could make a living playing without relying on the clubs. Our venues allowed for a wide range of dynamics.”

Shortly after McCandless joined the Paul Winter Consort, they recorded Something in the Wind (1969), produced by Noel Paul Stookey (“Paul” of Peter, Paul and Mary) and began touring. “In 1970 while I was out with Winter, I flew into New York to audition for the Philharmonic on English horn. I had done a lot of soulsearching over this and Paul was very understanding. I got through the first round and realized that I might get this job, yet in the jazz world I have more room for expression. I didn’t want to lose that. But I didn’t make the finals so didn’t need to make the decision.”

By 1972, the Consort’s album Icarus, produced by George Martin, was released to critical acclaim. The album offered, via the title track, a theme song for Winter. But for McCandless, the most important aspect of the record may have been the composer of that theme, guitarist Ralph Towner, along with other key members of the ensemble: percussionist/sitar player Colin Walcott and bassist Glen Moore. “[our band] Oregon is 46 years old now,” he reminisced. “We began making music as a quartet in dressing rooms and backstage at Winter Consort performances. We had a wonderful connection from the start.” This ensemble saw McCandless moving into new realms of woodwinds, too. “After 10 years to get out of jail I took up the bass clarinet. Then soprano saxophone. These instruments, especially the saxophones, have become very important to me.”

In 1973, a year after Oregon released Music of Another Present Era, the band departed Winter as a unit.
But there was no major loss in their instrumental palette. “Each member played multiple instruments: for Ralph that meant cornet, mellophone and piano.
And Colin was incredibly musical. Everything he touched sounded good,” McCandless recalled fondly.

Oregon embarked on a journey over decades, filtered through compelling technical skill and the wealth of imagination. Two years into it, they released In Concert, which McCandless recalls as “a new high in terms of our live performance. It took years on the road to develop this new expression of music.”

There were many peaks along the way but the band, like the new music community, experienced a great mourning with the untimely death of Walcott in 1984. “When Colin died we weren’t sure if we’d carry on. It was such a tremendous loss. We didn’t know if we could face each other so we took nine months off until the memorial. We were all there, so was Trilok Gurtu. We played with him then and then invited him to come play with the band. After he left we worked as a trio. In each case, we explored the situation before us.” The dedication the members of Oregon have for the ensemble is best exemplified by their unity in the face of tragedy. Thus far they’ve recorded an astounding 28 albums and tour regularly (percussionist Mark Walker became a member in the late ‘90s and Moore left the band in 2015, replaced by Paolino Dalla Porta).

Winter, too, reached out to McCandless at the passing of Walcott. The two began working together again and McCandless has returned to the Consort for some of its releases and solstice concerts. Beyond this familiar turf, the woodwind player has also engaged in an array of projects, ranging from Jaco Pastorius to Béla Fleck, Art Lande to Al Jarreau and Carla Bley to Steve Reich. Never slowing down, he’s booked well into next year including at Birdland this month with the fluid, intrepid trio Charged Particles. “These are three wonderfully talented musicians that honored me by playing a lot of my compositions,” McCandless stated.
“If this music is fusion, it’s one of a whole other sort.”

For more information, visit paulmccandless.com; McCandless is at Birdland Sep. 15th.
Recommended Listening:
• Paul Winter Consort—
Something in the Wind (A&M, 1969)
• Oregon—Music of Another Present Era
(Vanguard, 1972)
• Art Lande/David Samuels/Paul McCandless—
Skylight (ECM, 1981)
• Ralph Towner—City of Eyes (ECM, 1988)
• Paul McCandless—Shapeshifter (Synergy, 2003)
• Oregon—1000 Kilometers (CAM Jazz, 2006)