Paul McCandless

{{Multiple issues|

{{BLP sources|date=June 2017}}}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Paul McCandless

| image = Paul Mc Candless.JPG

| caption = McCandless with Oregon in Treibhaus, Innsbruck, 2010

| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

| birth_name = Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr.

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|1947|3|24}}

| birth_place = Indiana, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| genre = Jazz, folk jazz, new age

| occupation = Musician

| instrument = Oboe, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, English horn

| years_active = 1968–present

| label = Atlantic, Windham Hill, Vanguard, ECM

| associated_acts = Paul Winter Consort, Oregon, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Charged Particles

| website = {{URL|paulmccandless.com}}

}}

Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. (born March 24, 1947){{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|pages=1547/8}} is an American multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the American jazz group Oregon.{{cite web |url=http://oregonband.com/ |title=Oregonband.com |website=oregonband.com |language=en-US |access-date=2017-09-12 |archive-date=2018-10-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011181705/http://oregonband.com/ |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_30077398/jazz-band-charged-particles-welcomes-fusion-icon-paul|title=Jazz band Charged Particles welcomes fusion icon Paul McCandless into the fold|website=Mercurynews.com|date=30 June 2016|access-date=2016-07-08|archive-date=2016-08-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804081251/http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_30077398/jazz-band-charged-particles-welcomes-fusion-icon-paul|url-status=live}}

Biography

Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, United States, into a musical family. His father (who was also an oboe and English horn player) taught him clarinet, his mother piano,{{cite book |last1=Rinzler |first1=Paul |last2=Kernfeld |first2=Barry |editor1-last=Kernfeld |editor1-first=Barry |title=The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz |date=2002 |publisher=Grove's Dictionaries |location=New York |isbn=1-56159-284-6 |page=647 |volume=2 |edition=2 }} and he attended the Manhattan School of Music. In 1971 he auditioned with the New York Philharmonic playing English horn and was a finalist.{{cite web|url=http://paulmccandless.com/bio/|title=Paul McCandless|website=paulmccandless.com|access-date=2017-09-12|archive-date=2020-02-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203215223/http://paulmccandless.com/bio/|url-status=dead}}

McCandless has released a series of records of his own compositions with bands he led, including All the Mornings Bring (Elektra/Asylum, 1979), Navigator (Landslide, 1981), Heresay (Windham Hill, 1988), Premonition (Windham Hill, 1992). With Oregon, he has recorded over twenty albums, as well as several albums with Paul Winter.{{cite web |url=http://paulmccandless.com/discography/ |title=discography {{!}} Paul McCandless |website=Paulmccandless.com |access-date=2017-09-12 |archive-date=2017-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912234635/http://paulmccandless.com/discography/ |url-status=live }}

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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/paul-mccandless |title=Paul McCandless |date=2017-05-14 |work=GRAMMY.com |access-date=2017-09-12 }} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.chargedparticles.com/with-saxophonist-paul-mccandless.html |title=Charged Particles:Plugged-In Jazz With a Spark! |publisher=Charged Particles |access-date=2017-06-30 |archive-date=2017-05-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506060406/http://www.chargedparticles.com/with-saxophonist-paul-mccandless.html |url-status=live }}

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{{cite web |url=http://www.slojazzfest.org/press.html |title=Press |website=SLO Jazz Festival |access-date=2017-09-12 |archive-date=2017-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912235028/http://www.slojazzfest.org/press.html |url-status=live }} and headlining at the Stanford Jazz Festival.{{Cite news |url=https://stanfordjazz.org/more-info/paul-mccandless-and-charged-particles/ |title=Paul McCandless and Charged Particles |date=2016-04-07 |work=Stanford Jazz |access-date=2017-09-12 |archive-date=2017-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912234901/https://stanfordjazz.org/more-info/paul-mccandless-and-charged-particles/ |url-status=live }} The quartet has appeared at Birdland (in New York City), Blues Alley (in Washington, D.C.), Yoshi's Jazz Club, The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, The Dakota Jazz Club,{{Cite news |url=http://www.dakotacooks.com/event/paul-mccandless-charged-particles/ |title=Paul McCandless & Charged Particles |work=Dakota Jazz Club |access-date=2017-09-12 |archive-date=2017-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912235610/http://www.dakotacooks.com/event/paul-mccandless-charged-particles/ |url-status=live }} and other venues throughout the U.S.{{cite web |url=http://www.chargedparticles.com/with-saxophonist-paul-mccandless.html |title=cp-with-paul-mccandless |website=Charged Particles:Plugged-In Jazz With a Spark! |access-date=2017-09-12 |archive-date=2017-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912235132/http://www.chargedparticles.com/with-saxophonist-paul-mccandless.html |url-status=live }} In 2017, McCandless and Charged Particles did a ten-day tour of Indonesia, performing at the Motion Blue Jazz Club (Jakarta),{{cite web |url=https://www.motionbluejakarta.com/schedule |title=Schedule |website=www.motionbluejakarta.com |access-date=2017-09-12 |archive-date=2022-07-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706030441/https://motionbluejakarta.com/schedule |url-status=live }} Jazz Centrum (Surabaya),{{cite web |url=http://www.mytag.club/p/jazzcentrum |title=Profile from A Music School & Cafetaria jazzcentrum |website=www.mytag.club |access-date=2017-09-12 |archive-date=2017-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912234648/http://www.mytag.club/p/jazzcentrum |url-status=live }} and the Jazz Gunung Bromo Festival (on Mount Bromo){{Cite news |url=http://wartaevent.com/event/jazz-gunung-bromo-2017-tampilkan-paul-mccandless-with-charged-particles |title=Jazz Gunung Bromo 2017 Tampilkan Paul McCandless with Charged Particles |access-date=2017-09-12 |archive-date=2017-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912234521/http://wartaevent.com/event/jazz-gunung-bromo-2017-tampilkan-paul-mccandless-with-charged-particles |url-status=live }}

Reception

The London Telegraph called McCandless's contribution to The Great Jubilee Concert "remarkable".{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11368211/Eberhard-Weber-Jubilee-Concert-Stuttgart-review-magical.html|title=Eberhard Weber Jubilee Concert, Stuttgart, review: 'magical'|website=Telegraph.co.uk|date=25 January 2015 |access-date=2016-07-08|archive-date=2017-03-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320050549/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11368211/Eberhard-Weber-Jubilee-Concert-Stuttgart-review-magical.html|url-status=live}} Said Jazz Journal, "Paul McCandless delivered terrific, beautifully modulated solos on both oboe and soprano."{{cite web|url=http://www.jazzjournal.co.uk/magazine/860/review-eberhard-weber-jubilee-stuttgart|title=Review: Eberhard Weber Jubilee, Stuttgart|last=Publishing|first=JJ|website=Jazzjournal.co.uk|access-date=2016-07-08|archive-date=2016-08-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829045735/http://www.jazzjournal.co.uk/magazine/860/review-eberhard-weber-jubilee-stuttgart|url-status=live}}

The Washington Post called McCandless a "stellar player" who plays "sparkling harmonic cascades."{{cite web |url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-632379.html |title=THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT "'Round the Wheel" Fidelity; KELLER WILLIAMS "Breathe" Sci Fidelity - the Washington Post | HighBeam Research |access-date=2016-07-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911164827/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-632379.html |archive-date=2016-09-11 }}

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