NYU Steinhardt Jazz Interview Series
Conversations with Paul McCandless
Interviewed by Dr. David Schroeder, NYU Steinhardt Jazz Studies Director
Recorded August 9, 2014
(Edited for content and clarity)
Conversations with Paul McCandless
Interviewed by Dr. David Schroeder, NYU Steinhardt Jazz Studies Director
Recorded August 9, 2014
(Edited for content and clarity)
Dr. David Schroeder: Welcome to the NYU Jazz Interview Series, and today we have a very special guest. We have one of the great multi reed instrumentalists and arguably the one of the great jazz oboe players in the world, Mr. Paul McCandless.
Paul McCandless: Hi, there, thanks for having me.
Dr. David Schroeder: Thanks so much. It's an honor. I've known your work for years and
years and years and I have a million questions for you today.
Paul McCandless: Great! That will make it easy for me to talk.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, let's discuss how you got interested in music. I know that your father and your grandfather were both oboe players.
Paul McCandless: That's right, they were.
Dr. David Schroeder: And did they work professionally?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, they did. My grandfather was in an era in the 20s where they used a lot of mixed instruments like in town bands and orchestras and dance orchestras and he actually played the oboe. He's a real doubler because he played the oboe, the violin, and the baritone horn. He also played brass, double reeds, and strings. My father studied the oboe in college, but his musical training was interrupted by the war. So, he tabled the oboe until later life around his 60s.
Then he started to play again and it was the reason for the oboe running in the family. It was the family
toothbrush. It was all the same oboe.
Dr.David Schroeder: Historically it's interesting talking about your grandfather. He played multiple mixed instruments, right?
Paul McCandless: Right.
Dr. David Schroeder: You just said the violin and the oboe and baritone horn.
Paul McCandless: Baritone horn.
Dr. David Schroeder: And I think musical instruments became codified - you're a sax player or a
trombone player or a trumpet player or a rhythm section player because of the big bands in the 30s and 40s. Prior to that, you'd see musicians playing, oboe, xylophone, timpani, banjo, etc. And that whole thing is kind of lost once the big bands came in because all the work went to people who played those specific instruments in those specific sections. So in a sense, in your career, you've kind of brought back the idea of playing multiple instruments and using them in a variety of genres.
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I think that's true. I noticed that. I did a performance a few years ago that was a replication of the original performance of Rhapsody in Blue of the Paul Whiteman band at the Aeolian
Hall concert in New York. The book was amazing. You'd see the pictures of the band. There was a forest of wood winds around each player they had heckelphone, musette flute, piccolo saxophone. That's where I discovered piccolo saxes. I rented one for the Paul Whiteman show. But those guys, really, Russ Gorman was the lead player in the Whiteman band and he played everything but
flute. It's kind of like me.
Dr. David Schroeder: There's actually a great picture of Ross Gorman surrounded by his various instruments. Xylophone and marimba and various trained instruments but, same thing. There
was an older guy around that same time, Adrienne Rowley, who was the consummate bass saxophone player in the 20s and into the early 30s when the big band era came in with the double bass, he switched to vibraphone. He was like the precursor to Lionel Hampton. So, it's then guys like Lionel Hampton, while Lionel played drums and vibraphone. It's like things changed. I'm glad
that you're one of the guys that kind of moved music back into a multitude of sounds. So, when did that actually happen? I know you studied oboe classically at the Manhattan School and you were maybe destined to be an oboist in the New York Philharmonic. I know you were a finalist.
Paul McCandless: I tried. I auditioned in 1971 for the English horn chair and fortunately I didn't get
it. It allowed me to become more of a jazz player. I think one of the things about the multiple
instrumentalism, if there is such a word, is that the roles of the instruments. They're not so codified. You can use the oboe as an accompanimental instrument. You can use a number of instruments as a
lead. It's not so set in stone that there's five saxes, and, you know, eight brass or whatever. That and the roles in the music shift. For, like, the Oregon group, we have a guitar, bass, percussion,
and reed instrument. And any one of those instruments can take the lead. And it allows for some creativity to blossom when you take away the set-in-stone kind of roles for the instruments.
Dr. David Schroeder: What seems like since you didn't get that position as the English horn player you
may have turned into a rebel, a musical rebel. I would imagine most oboe and English horn players that would audition for orchestras, that's all they do, play that genre of music. So how did you get into playing non classical, non-traditional oboe?
Paul McCandless: I started out in kind of an unusual way in that I did some improvisational stuff on the
saxophone when I was in high school, junior high and high school. I played in blues bands, soul bands, dance bands, and town bands on the saxophone, where the improvisation was involved. The oboe I played, I pursued a real classical path, and worked on my etudes and concerti and all that. And I was in New York at Manhattan School, and my oboe teacher was Robert Blum, who was a very famous
virtuoso of his time. When he was in Israel, he met Paul Winter, who was looking for a new English horn player. And Robert Bloom knew that I had done some improvisation. He didn't know I hadn't done it on the oboe. He recommended me to Paul Winter, who enjoyed what I was what I was trying to
do and allowed me to start developing my skills as an oboist who improvised.
Dr. David Schroeder: So what year was that?
Paul McCandless: That was ‘69.
Dr. David Schroeder: And I believe Paul Winter had already developed his Winter Consort?
Paul McCandless: He was just beginning that at that time.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, were you in that first wave of those musicians?
Paul McCandless: I was. He had a sextet that went to South America and it was a really
Bop oriented kind of ensemble. But when Paul started looking for a new rhythmic idiom and a new way of creating instrumental music that spoke to a large audience, that's where the Consort came
in. I joined them shortly after they got started.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, can you describe that? Were you guys living in a commune? What was that about?
Paul McCandless: We weren't really living in a commune. We created something called a village where a number of Paul's fans and a bunch of musicians came together during the summer. I forgot the year, but it was a summer in the 70s, to try to create the music for a record that was later called
Common Ground. It's one of Paul’s great records, and that was as close to communal living as we got. I think there was more image around that than the reality.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well it was very successful, his new approach.
Paul McCandless: Well, he wanted that. Unlike many musicians, he actually admitted that he wanted success, and wanted to make his point with a larger audience. He used the music to spin some of his favorite causes, which he took very seriously. And music was a way to bring up public awareness to that and to create something new that people hadn't heard before. Musicians making songs with whales and wolf songs and some various birds. One of my best sellers of my life was a duet with an African fish eagle. I had a hard time keeping up with the bird.
Dr. David Schroeder: I don't have any comment on that.
Paul McCandless: Yeah well, It's a non sequitur. I'm sorry about that.
Dr. David Schroeder: Would you say that, and I'm not sure if this is correct, but is that where the
term New Age came from?
Paul McCandless: Paul was about ten years ahead of the New Age movement, and he never really embraced the notion of new age with his music. He was looking for something that really
had its own identity and was not really a part of a trend. But ten years afterwards a lot of people followed in his style and in the language and the references that he used instrumentally
and rhythmically to create this wave of music that was called New Age, which had a very large following. I think the new age music introduced instrumental to a lot of people who
never heard it before. It was recorded in such a way that most of the instruments were either solo or
duo so it was really transparent. You could really experience the sound and the texture of a musical instrument like a piano or a guitar or a harp or flute or things like that.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, through Paul Winter, did you meet your cohorts in Oregon?
Paul McCandless: Yes, yes, the cellist with the Paul Winter group did some recording with a great folk singer, Tim Hardin, who was a great writer. Ralph Towner and Glenn Moore, Ralph Towner on guitar Glen Moore on bass, Collin Walcott on percussion, specifically tabala and sitar. We were working with Jim Hardin at that time on an album that never was finished, never came out. Richard Bach was the cellist and he came back to Paul Winter and said, “You got to get these guys in the band. They're great.” I was already in the band through my connection with Bloom and so the four of us got together and put 27,000 miles on a station wagon in about four months. We became fast friends at that point and we did a lot of jamming backstage and in hotels and on days off. It's really a great beginning for Oregon as a unit that later splintered off from the Winter Consort and made a more of a commitment towards
developing new material and trusting improvisation and doing all the things that Oregon loves to do.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, did you have a model to go by? You're saying, “Well, we're kind of taken from this style and this style in this band” or were you pulling this stuff out of thin air?
Paul McCandless: What happened was we heard the instruments being played together like
the oboe, the tabala, the guitar, and the bass, and it sounded unlike anything we'd ever heard before. I think that's what drew us and what keeps us, causing us to escape from definition, is that it's unique and we were dazzled by the uniqueness of it. We tried to develop the language that we had sort of
discovered and I think there were models for us. I know though the Bill Evans trio was considered, you know, it wasn't the material that we were using from Bill but more than notion of this three-sided triangle that and any instrument could take the lead or bake a complemental at any given point. There was a kind of a flexibility of roles that we kind of took from the Bill Evans trio and there were other things. The only band that really sounded like us at that time was the second side of John McLaughlin's record, “My Goal’s Beyond”. That had Dave Liebman on sax, soprano sax, and Badal Roy on tabala and John on acoustic guitar. That had the tone of Oregon. It, was, uh, was the only other band that really was in that direction that was good. When the world was getting a lot louder at that point with emerging electronics and rock with jazz, we were getting softer.
Dr. David Schroeder: And how were you perceived? How was your success with audiences?
Paul McCandless: Mixed. It took a while to really get what we were doing. The music was somewhat
challenging and was more in the lyrical style of music rather than the display of a great mastery and great speed and velocity and things that audiences seem to have an easier time getting, dazzling virtuosity than they do Bel Canto. So, it was a hard road at the beginning. Our bands sounded very exotic but not everyone was attracted to the sound of Indian music. Although we didn't play Indian music, our music really had the miasma of Indian music with the sitar and the tabala.
Dr. David Schroeder: Yeah, that's interesting. Was there any additional support from your early record label? It was Vanguard and you eventually moved to ECM. Was Vanguard large enough to really support you and get your music out there? Because I know we'll talk about ECM in a minute but it's a much broader base audience.
Paul McCandless: I think, well, one of the things that drew us to Vanguard was that they had done a number of blues and folk music. That was what Collin Walcott really appreciated. And Vanguard was on 23rd Street. He and I called, and I brought our tape that we had made in California and presented it to Vanguard Records. They looked it over and listened to the music and got back to us and said they'd like to sign us for a ten-record deal, which was the best learning experience we could ever have. They had their own studio, so studio time was unlimited. I mean, they charged it against our account but no money changed hands. And we were able to try things to see what works, what doesn't work, have fights; break up, eat, and go back, and record again. It was a very flexible situation.
Dr. David Schroeder: Who has all those tapes?
Paul McCandless: I think Vanguard must have them.
Dr. David Schroeder: And did you make any money from Vanguard?
Paul McCandless: (Laughs) We did get paid. But in the meantime, we had done a few records.
ECM wanted to record Ralph and Glen. We decided if the four of us didn't play at the same time it wasn't really Oregon. So, we made a record for ECM, which generated a lawsuit, which froze our pay for a couple of years. It froze our contract so instead of a five-year contract, we had a contract for six
and a half years with no records coming.
Dr. David Schroeder: The issue is with ECM?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, it was with ECM and I guess was with us also. We were the ones who were
penalized for stepping outside the label.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, we won't get into any legal issues today.
Paul McCandless: Yeah, that's, that's too boring.
Dr. David Schroeder: Yeah. Let's talk about being an oboe player on the road. I know I'm not a double reed player, but every time I talk to you, you know, you're saying, “Oh, I've got to work on my reeds. I got to work on my reeds, and then I've got to work on my reeds.” So, tell us for those who aren't oboe players the life of an oboe player.
Paul McCandless: Well, I think for all oboe players in here, there might be a bassoon. No? But anyway, the oboe is a double reed. It's made from cane with the flaps against each other and
creates a buzzing sound that energizes the bore of the oboe and gives you the notes in the sound color. Every one's a little bit different and you have to make the reed before you know if it's going to work or not. So, you wind up putting some time in. It's sometimes a wasted effort because at the end of the hour or forty-five minutes you just go, “Wow” (thumbs down) and start over. It's another discipline from playing, like you play the oboe, you practice your excerpts, you do your scales...for a jazz musician you practice running the changes. But in addition, for the oboe you have another, I don't know, 10 to 20 hours a week making reeds and as John de Lancie said, “If you don't play them, they last forever.” But we oboe players play them all. They don't last forever. I always find myself as my reed gets to its perfect spot, it's gonna be a sad day when this one dies, because it will.
Dr. David Schroeder: So how do you manage reeds and stay on the road as long as you do? You're
Traveling, you're in cars and buses, and you get to the gigs that night. Do you just have a stockpile of
reeds ready?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I try to get ahead of the game because it's no fun to make reeds on the road.
But sometimes I have to. I have to say that I've really been blessed at this point that a really fine reed
maker offered some years ago to make reeds for me at which point I said, “Thank you”. So that's a
real blessing for me. It's allowed me to take up another instrument.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, there's this quandary now. It's like is it better to be an oboe player and just carry an oboe but you have to deal with the reeds? Or is it better to be a pianist and the instrument is there waiting for you?
Paul McCandless: You take what you get. I mean, that's one of the good things about the oboe, also, is that you can solve your problems by yourself, you know, with scraping and clipping and opening and closing and all the things you can do.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, we'll talk about your other instruments in a bit. I just want to go back to Oregon for a minute and the integrity of your original group. Your quartet was significant. Everybody had a unique voice. Can you talk about when Collin Walcott was killed in a car accident and how that changed things?
Paul McCandless: Well, it did change things a lot. Collin and I, we were very, very close, and it was a tremendous blow to everyone emotionally in every way, that he was gone. He was such a fine person and there's no sense of justice or rightness about this going down. It was really tragic. He died before he reached 40 and he had so much of life ahead of him. He had a young daughter, and it was a real, real tragedy. We considered not playing anymore. Or not playing the Oregon music anymore. And we let some time go by and there was a memorial for Collin in the spring. He died in the fall. A tremendous collection of musicians was there. Jack de Jeanette and Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Nana Vasconcelos, Liz and Don Cherry, all the Oregon guys Trilock Gurtu - I mean it was a really quite a panoply of great jazz musicians. But we played with Trilock, we played one tune with him. Trilock’s a great Indian percussionist who also plays western drums. He's a great player. Colin, after he met Trilock, he came back to Oregon and said, “Well, guys, I found my replacement. I found a guy who plays jazz on the kit and is a great tabala player. And if you ever need to replace me, he’s the one.” Which is really strangely prophetic. So, we played a couple tunes with Trilock, and it was a blast, you know, and it was a different direction. Colin tended more towards folk references and classical music. Trilock was very much into fusion and jazz and it was really kind of thrilling for the rest of the band. We were able to develop this part of our band identity that we hadn't really been able to do before. And so our palette gradually widened a little bit as we started working with Trilock. And so that was so one of the ways that our voice shifted.
Dr. David Schroeder: Now, staying with drummers for a moment, Oregon also recorded with Elvin Jones for a record.
Paul McCandless: Right.
Dr. David Schroeder: How did that come about?
Paul McCandless: Well, Elvin was on the Vanguard label, and one of the producers at the label realized that both Oregon and Elvin were an album late, and that we needed to deliver an album, and in a quick time. He suggested we play together, which is a kind of a wild idea because Elvin is like a force of nature, and plus, he had a tremendously powerful sound. We had all grown up living listening to
Elvin and fantasizing what we would do if we ever got the chance to play with Elvin. So we did the recording in two days. We went in and did, like, two takes of each tune and the drums were so loud in the microphones compared to the guitar or the oboe that if we needed to fix something there was no leakage whatsoever. There was more drums in the oboe mic than there was oboe. But it was a thrilling experience to work with him because he just brought a lot of really surging energy out of the rest of us.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well was this something that Elvin was delighted to play with you guys or
it was just contractual or was it a mutual admiration?
Paul McCandless: It was definitely not only contractual. Collin had met Elvin and they really connected.
Elvin was a very warm kind of guy and Collin Wolcott was very outgoing and they connected. Elvin heard some of our music, and because there was no trap kit there, he didn't hear any drums. So, he said he could hear himself in our music. It was something that he was drawn to, and between the
connection with Colin and hearing the music and hearing himself in it, it brought us to this project.
Dr. David Schroeder: Did you ever play any live gigs with Elvin after that?
Paul McCandless: No, I mean, it would have probably been nearly impossible. Just from the
volume.
Dr. David Schroeder: I was imagining a 40-minute oboe and drum duet.
Paul McCandless: Right, yeah, you don't hear the oboe.
Dr. David Schroeder: You know what? Let's talk about your solo career, now, because
you put out a variety of records playing multiple winds. So how did you step out as
a leader?
Paul McCandless: Well, I wrote a little bit of music when I was in high school, but I became
really enamored of Ralph Towner’s music and realized that I wanted to develop my writing. I started in 1973 to really write as much as I could, to write in earnest. And it generated a lot of music that I didn't have anything to do with. And finally, when Oregon left the Vanguard label, we were torn between going with ECM, right at that spot, or going with Elektra Asylum, who had offered us a deal. And our great manager, Bill Trout, made that deal. He's just recently passed. And part of the deal was that Ralph and Colin had done records for ECM, solo records, and part of our record deal was to do some solo records with Glenn Moore, our bass player, and myself. That was my first real solo record. It was called “All the Mornings Bring.” It was with Dave Samuels and Art Lande as a trio on the first side. On the second side were some very large ensembles, woodwind octets, plus a rhythm section that had been generated out of this early period of writing. After that, I made a couple of solo records for the Windham Hill jazz label. On those, I got a chance to work with Art Lande and Trilok Gurtu and Steve Rodby, Will Kennedy, Lyle Mays, and some really marvelous musicians of our time. It was a chance for me to also air this kind of a long form writing that I was enjoying. I'd have an intro and a theme, and basically trying to develop the composed side to balance the improvisational within a jazz style.
Dr. David Schroeder: How do you like stepping out as a leader?
Paul McCandless: That's nerve-racking. Yeah, I have as the son of a band leader, once I get in the musical situation I feel pretty comfortable getting things to where I want them, but doing all the interviews and taking care of various business aspects of the of the job doesn't appeal to me that much.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, did you find it difficult to sustain a career as a leader and having your band travel?
Paul McCandless: Yes, yes, I had a brief tour with Lyle and Steve Rodby and Fred Simon on electronic keyboards and Mark Walker and myself. We toured around, and we played the Montreal Jazz Festival which was great, and toured around the some of the major cities of the states to popularize this record, “Premonition”. At the end of the tour I had generated so much debt it kind of frightened me and so I felt I didn't have the kind of drive that some people have who just they just go deeper and deeper and deeper until they finally come out the other side, if they do at all. I didn't have the constitution to run up that kind of debt. I kind of scaled back and started working more with other people and/or working in smaller ensembles. Like with Art Lande as a duo.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, I will say that I heard you live with your group at the Bottom Line
in the late 80s.
Paul McCandless: Okay, that would have been for the first record which is called “Heresay”. That featured Art Lande, and Steve Rodby, and Eliot Sigmund played drums, Wally Kane on winds, and
John Clark on French horn. Yeah, that was quite an adventurous ensemble. The charts were tremendous, but these are such great musicians that they could take it all in and pull it
off in a live performance and with great effect.
Dr. David Schroeder: Let's talk about you as a sideman now. I know one of the interesting
people you worked with briefly was Jaco Pastorius. So, can you tell us how you got
that gig and what Jaco was like as a leader and as a musician?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I met Jaco when Glenn Moore and I were sharing a loft on Lispenard
Street. I'm not sure the year but around 1973 or four. Jaco had just come up from Florida to play with Paul Bley at what became Richie Havens Club and is now Cafe Wha?. It was with Bruce Ditmas on drums and Pat Metheny on guitar and Jacko on bass and Paul on Fender Rhodes. Ross Trout subbed Matheny one night. And he’s a good friend of mine. Jaco got to our house and needed a place to stay.
He wound up, like, crashing with us for a while. It was at the time we were making Oregon recordings and Jaco had this fretless bass that he had created himself. He offered it to Glen Moore to play on our record. He brought it by the studio and demonstrated how to execute on this instrument, which was flabbergasting. It's like hearing Paul Hanson play the bassoon. You just can't believe it can be done. I connected with Jaco in a personal way and I was practicing all the time at that point. He heard me play and he'd heard the Oregon band. And he came to me and he said at one point when he's putting together a band said, “Paul, you're the cat.” Which I think he said to everybody but it was quite thrilling to me to hear that from him because I had so much admiration for what he was doing and in
the music. So one day in 1981 he had a tour to Japan. He was the Musician of the
Year in 1981 or 80 and he brought a sextet and a big band. We did the “Twins” record, which was released as “Invitation” here in the States. I remember when I first got there I was wandering around, jet-lagged out of my brain, in the lobby of a big, gigantic Japanese hotel and I see this guy. He
kind of looks like a street person and he's got a robe on. It's down to his ankles and his face is all covered with pancake makeup. It turned out to be Jaco who was just arriving had just been in a fight in Florida before he came out and so he was covering up all his bruises with it. He's wearing a
Miccosukee Indian Big Chief shirt that had been awarded to him by the Miccosukee Indians. We were both up padding around the around the lobby. He recognized me before I recognized him because I thought he was some kind of wino or something. He said, “Paul McCandless, get over here. We should have called rehearsal for 6:00 a.m. because you know the whole band is up.” Jaco was starting to become somewhat manic at that point. I mean, up and down, and I didn't feel that he was really always there with the music. He tended to get wrapped up in himself as a legend and thinking about what people would say about his wild hijinks. It took away from his concentration on the music, even though
you listen to the record, and it sounds great. But it could have been so much more.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, he's definitely a larger-than-life personality on stage and in real life.
Paul McCandless: Yeah, yeah.
Dr. David Schroeder: Yeah. So, let's talk about your other side man opportunity.
What about Bela Fleck?
Paul McCandless: Well, that that was an interesting combination for me and for Bela.
He specializes in one of the all-time weird instruments for jazz. I mean, not originally because originally it was an African instrument and jazz was played on the banjo. But nowadays it's always like The Beverly Hillbillies. So he was quite open to someone playing jazz on the oboe.
Dr. David Schroeder: Did you mesh well with that group?
Paul McCandless: I did. You know, I mentioned earlier a lot of the style of music that I play is more like
sort of Bel Canto. You're looking for a new melody and not playing a lot of patterns. In the Bela Fleck
band was a lot about matching sixteenth notes and, that stuff us at the edge of my abilities. It was great for me. It actually really improved my playing quite a bit. But as time went on we also realized that the oboe and soprano and bass clarinet and all the instruments I play were better on the big notes and not the little notes. So I wound up having my usual melodic parts to play in that band. But it was really
fun to be on a winning team because Oregon's been kind of an uphill battle, and the Flecktones, like,
every time we come to a town there'd be more people that would be coming to hear the show. We played bigger and bigger venues, and it was really and heartening and enlivening to be with a young band that was really going places.
Dr. David Schroeder: How do you account for that?
Paul McCandless: I think Bela is extremely intelligent. He balances entertainment and comedy with fantastic music making and a really high level of new challenges for the further players. And I think he
takes the audience into account without actually losing the integrity of his own music. I think that's a lot of what makes it work. The audiences are also drawn to the band. Each one is a different character.
Future Man and Vic Wooten on the bass. And it's just staggering talents so there's a lot for the audience to enjoy.
Dr. David Schroeder: You ever think you'd be more popular if you changed your name to something like
Future Man?
Paul McCandless: (Laughs). Past Man? Well, Oboe Man is already taken.
Dr. David Schroeder: Probably oboeman.com is taken.
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I think it is.
Dr. David Schroeder: Yeah, so what have you learned? I mean, you've played with so many
different people and so many brilliant people and out of control amazing talents like Jaco and Bela Fleck, and just all the string groups and Art Lande, and all. What do you take away with that?
How do you do you find a formula for success or a formula to break through into new audiences? I mean, I know that you're multi instruments, but, in oboe in particular, you're that sound. You've really created this thing. Is there anything that you've taken from these other experiences, as hey, I can move this music here and all of a sudden attract another audience?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I think being a multi-instrumentalist does make me kind of transplantable, but I think what I try to do is to bring whatever music I'm involved with to its best expression. I tend to fit with a lot of different ensembles. I'm a quick learner but I think also what I bring to the situation is a kind of
integrity and an emotional connection to the music that comes through the melodies and the instrumental tones and I think that's what I offer.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, listen, in closing, I know that there are gonna be a lot of woodwind and double reed musicians listening to this interview. Your lifetime of experience as a road warrior oboe reed maker. What advice do you have, words of wisdom, something that you can impart that has
kept you going all these years? Ah, because it's probably not the paycheck.
Paul McCandless: No, I'm definitely not in it for the money. I just think I take every situation seriously and try to bring the music to its best voice and to try to treat the people that I work with and their music with respect.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, I certainly respect you and your music, and it's great to have you here
today and I want to thank you for spending this time with us.
Paul McCandless: Well, thanks for your informed questions.
Paul McCandless: Hi, there, thanks for having me.
Dr. David Schroeder: Thanks so much. It's an honor. I've known your work for years and
years and years and I have a million questions for you today.
Paul McCandless: Great! That will make it easy for me to talk.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, let's discuss how you got interested in music. I know that your father and your grandfather were both oboe players.
Paul McCandless: That's right, they were.
Dr. David Schroeder: And did they work professionally?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, they did. My grandfather was in an era in the 20s where they used a lot of mixed instruments like in town bands and orchestras and dance orchestras and he actually played the oboe. He's a real doubler because he played the oboe, the violin, and the baritone horn. He also played brass, double reeds, and strings. My father studied the oboe in college, but his musical training was interrupted by the war. So, he tabled the oboe until later life around his 60s.
Then he started to play again and it was the reason for the oboe running in the family. It was the family
toothbrush. It was all the same oboe.
Dr.David Schroeder: Historically it's interesting talking about your grandfather. He played multiple mixed instruments, right?
Paul McCandless: Right.
Dr. David Schroeder: You just said the violin and the oboe and baritone horn.
Paul McCandless: Baritone horn.
Dr. David Schroeder: And I think musical instruments became codified - you're a sax player or a
trombone player or a trumpet player or a rhythm section player because of the big bands in the 30s and 40s. Prior to that, you'd see musicians playing, oboe, xylophone, timpani, banjo, etc. And that whole thing is kind of lost once the big bands came in because all the work went to people who played those specific instruments in those specific sections. So in a sense, in your career, you've kind of brought back the idea of playing multiple instruments and using them in a variety of genres.
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I think that's true. I noticed that. I did a performance a few years ago that was a replication of the original performance of Rhapsody in Blue of the Paul Whiteman band at the Aeolian
Hall concert in New York. The book was amazing. You'd see the pictures of the band. There was a forest of wood winds around each player they had heckelphone, musette flute, piccolo saxophone. That's where I discovered piccolo saxes. I rented one for the Paul Whiteman show. But those guys, really, Russ Gorman was the lead player in the Whiteman band and he played everything but
flute. It's kind of like me.
Dr. David Schroeder: There's actually a great picture of Ross Gorman surrounded by his various instruments. Xylophone and marimba and various trained instruments but, same thing. There
was an older guy around that same time, Adrienne Rowley, who was the consummate bass saxophone player in the 20s and into the early 30s when the big band era came in with the double bass, he switched to vibraphone. He was like the precursor to Lionel Hampton. So, it's then guys like Lionel Hampton, while Lionel played drums and vibraphone. It's like things changed. I'm glad
that you're one of the guys that kind of moved music back into a multitude of sounds. So, when did that actually happen? I know you studied oboe classically at the Manhattan School and you were maybe destined to be an oboist in the New York Philharmonic. I know you were a finalist.
Paul McCandless: I tried. I auditioned in 1971 for the English horn chair and fortunately I didn't get
it. It allowed me to become more of a jazz player. I think one of the things about the multiple
instrumentalism, if there is such a word, is that the roles of the instruments. They're not so codified. You can use the oboe as an accompanimental instrument. You can use a number of instruments as a
lead. It's not so set in stone that there's five saxes, and, you know, eight brass or whatever. That and the roles in the music shift. For, like, the Oregon group, we have a guitar, bass, percussion,
and reed instrument. And any one of those instruments can take the lead. And it allows for some creativity to blossom when you take away the set-in-stone kind of roles for the instruments.
Dr. David Schroeder: What seems like since you didn't get that position as the English horn player you
may have turned into a rebel, a musical rebel. I would imagine most oboe and English horn players that would audition for orchestras, that's all they do, play that genre of music. So how did you get into playing non classical, non-traditional oboe?
Paul McCandless: I started out in kind of an unusual way in that I did some improvisational stuff on the
saxophone when I was in high school, junior high and high school. I played in blues bands, soul bands, dance bands, and town bands on the saxophone, where the improvisation was involved. The oboe I played, I pursued a real classical path, and worked on my etudes and concerti and all that. And I was in New York at Manhattan School, and my oboe teacher was Robert Blum, who was a very famous
virtuoso of his time. When he was in Israel, he met Paul Winter, who was looking for a new English horn player. And Robert Bloom knew that I had done some improvisation. He didn't know I hadn't done it on the oboe. He recommended me to Paul Winter, who enjoyed what I was what I was trying to
do and allowed me to start developing my skills as an oboist who improvised.
Dr. David Schroeder: So what year was that?
Paul McCandless: That was ‘69.
Dr. David Schroeder: And I believe Paul Winter had already developed his Winter Consort?
Paul McCandless: He was just beginning that at that time.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, were you in that first wave of those musicians?
Paul McCandless: I was. He had a sextet that went to South America and it was a really
Bop oriented kind of ensemble. But when Paul started looking for a new rhythmic idiom and a new way of creating instrumental music that spoke to a large audience, that's where the Consort came
in. I joined them shortly after they got started.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, can you describe that? Were you guys living in a commune? What was that about?
Paul McCandless: We weren't really living in a commune. We created something called a village where a number of Paul's fans and a bunch of musicians came together during the summer. I forgot the year, but it was a summer in the 70s, to try to create the music for a record that was later called
Common Ground. It's one of Paul’s great records, and that was as close to communal living as we got. I think there was more image around that than the reality.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well it was very successful, his new approach.
Paul McCandless: Well, he wanted that. Unlike many musicians, he actually admitted that he wanted success, and wanted to make his point with a larger audience. He used the music to spin some of his favorite causes, which he took very seriously. And music was a way to bring up public awareness to that and to create something new that people hadn't heard before. Musicians making songs with whales and wolf songs and some various birds. One of my best sellers of my life was a duet with an African fish eagle. I had a hard time keeping up with the bird.
Dr. David Schroeder: I don't have any comment on that.
Paul McCandless: Yeah well, It's a non sequitur. I'm sorry about that.
Dr. David Schroeder: Would you say that, and I'm not sure if this is correct, but is that where the
term New Age came from?
Paul McCandless: Paul was about ten years ahead of the New Age movement, and he never really embraced the notion of new age with his music. He was looking for something that really
had its own identity and was not really a part of a trend. But ten years afterwards a lot of people followed in his style and in the language and the references that he used instrumentally
and rhythmically to create this wave of music that was called New Age, which had a very large following. I think the new age music introduced instrumental to a lot of people who
never heard it before. It was recorded in such a way that most of the instruments were either solo or
duo so it was really transparent. You could really experience the sound and the texture of a musical instrument like a piano or a guitar or a harp or flute or things like that.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, through Paul Winter, did you meet your cohorts in Oregon?
Paul McCandless: Yes, yes, the cellist with the Paul Winter group did some recording with a great folk singer, Tim Hardin, who was a great writer. Ralph Towner and Glenn Moore, Ralph Towner on guitar Glen Moore on bass, Collin Walcott on percussion, specifically tabala and sitar. We were working with Jim Hardin at that time on an album that never was finished, never came out. Richard Bach was the cellist and he came back to Paul Winter and said, “You got to get these guys in the band. They're great.” I was already in the band through my connection with Bloom and so the four of us got together and put 27,000 miles on a station wagon in about four months. We became fast friends at that point and we did a lot of jamming backstage and in hotels and on days off. It's really a great beginning for Oregon as a unit that later splintered off from the Winter Consort and made a more of a commitment towards
developing new material and trusting improvisation and doing all the things that Oregon loves to do.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, did you have a model to go by? You're saying, “Well, we're kind of taken from this style and this style in this band” or were you pulling this stuff out of thin air?
Paul McCandless: What happened was we heard the instruments being played together like
the oboe, the tabala, the guitar, and the bass, and it sounded unlike anything we'd ever heard before. I think that's what drew us and what keeps us, causing us to escape from definition, is that it's unique and we were dazzled by the uniqueness of it. We tried to develop the language that we had sort of
discovered and I think there were models for us. I know though the Bill Evans trio was considered, you know, it wasn't the material that we were using from Bill but more than notion of this three-sided triangle that and any instrument could take the lead or bake a complemental at any given point. There was a kind of a flexibility of roles that we kind of took from the Bill Evans trio and there were other things. The only band that really sounded like us at that time was the second side of John McLaughlin's record, “My Goal’s Beyond”. That had Dave Liebman on sax, soprano sax, and Badal Roy on tabala and John on acoustic guitar. That had the tone of Oregon. It, was, uh, was the only other band that really was in that direction that was good. When the world was getting a lot louder at that point with emerging electronics and rock with jazz, we were getting softer.
Dr. David Schroeder: And how were you perceived? How was your success with audiences?
Paul McCandless: Mixed. It took a while to really get what we were doing. The music was somewhat
challenging and was more in the lyrical style of music rather than the display of a great mastery and great speed and velocity and things that audiences seem to have an easier time getting, dazzling virtuosity than they do Bel Canto. So, it was a hard road at the beginning. Our bands sounded very exotic but not everyone was attracted to the sound of Indian music. Although we didn't play Indian music, our music really had the miasma of Indian music with the sitar and the tabala.
Dr. David Schroeder: Yeah, that's interesting. Was there any additional support from your early record label? It was Vanguard and you eventually moved to ECM. Was Vanguard large enough to really support you and get your music out there? Because I know we'll talk about ECM in a minute but it's a much broader base audience.
Paul McCandless: I think, well, one of the things that drew us to Vanguard was that they had done a number of blues and folk music. That was what Collin Walcott really appreciated. And Vanguard was on 23rd Street. He and I called, and I brought our tape that we had made in California and presented it to Vanguard Records. They looked it over and listened to the music and got back to us and said they'd like to sign us for a ten-record deal, which was the best learning experience we could ever have. They had their own studio, so studio time was unlimited. I mean, they charged it against our account but no money changed hands. And we were able to try things to see what works, what doesn't work, have fights; break up, eat, and go back, and record again. It was a very flexible situation.
Dr. David Schroeder: Who has all those tapes?
Paul McCandless: I think Vanguard must have them.
Dr. David Schroeder: And did you make any money from Vanguard?
Paul McCandless: (Laughs) We did get paid. But in the meantime, we had done a few records.
ECM wanted to record Ralph and Glen. We decided if the four of us didn't play at the same time it wasn't really Oregon. So, we made a record for ECM, which generated a lawsuit, which froze our pay for a couple of years. It froze our contract so instead of a five-year contract, we had a contract for six
and a half years with no records coming.
Dr. David Schroeder: The issue is with ECM?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, it was with ECM and I guess was with us also. We were the ones who were
penalized for stepping outside the label.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, we won't get into any legal issues today.
Paul McCandless: Yeah, that's, that's too boring.
Dr. David Schroeder: Yeah. Let's talk about being an oboe player on the road. I know I'm not a double reed player, but every time I talk to you, you know, you're saying, “Oh, I've got to work on my reeds. I got to work on my reeds, and then I've got to work on my reeds.” So, tell us for those who aren't oboe players the life of an oboe player.
Paul McCandless: Well, I think for all oboe players in here, there might be a bassoon. No? But anyway, the oboe is a double reed. It's made from cane with the flaps against each other and
creates a buzzing sound that energizes the bore of the oboe and gives you the notes in the sound color. Every one's a little bit different and you have to make the reed before you know if it's going to work or not. So, you wind up putting some time in. It's sometimes a wasted effort because at the end of the hour or forty-five minutes you just go, “Wow” (thumbs down) and start over. It's another discipline from playing, like you play the oboe, you practice your excerpts, you do your scales...for a jazz musician you practice running the changes. But in addition, for the oboe you have another, I don't know, 10 to 20 hours a week making reeds and as John de Lancie said, “If you don't play them, they last forever.” But we oboe players play them all. They don't last forever. I always find myself as my reed gets to its perfect spot, it's gonna be a sad day when this one dies, because it will.
Dr. David Schroeder: So how do you manage reeds and stay on the road as long as you do? You're
Traveling, you're in cars and buses, and you get to the gigs that night. Do you just have a stockpile of
reeds ready?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I try to get ahead of the game because it's no fun to make reeds on the road.
But sometimes I have to. I have to say that I've really been blessed at this point that a really fine reed
maker offered some years ago to make reeds for me at which point I said, “Thank you”. So that's a
real blessing for me. It's allowed me to take up another instrument.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, there's this quandary now. It's like is it better to be an oboe player and just carry an oboe but you have to deal with the reeds? Or is it better to be a pianist and the instrument is there waiting for you?
Paul McCandless: You take what you get. I mean, that's one of the good things about the oboe, also, is that you can solve your problems by yourself, you know, with scraping and clipping and opening and closing and all the things you can do.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, we'll talk about your other instruments in a bit. I just want to go back to Oregon for a minute and the integrity of your original group. Your quartet was significant. Everybody had a unique voice. Can you talk about when Collin Walcott was killed in a car accident and how that changed things?
Paul McCandless: Well, it did change things a lot. Collin and I, we were very, very close, and it was a tremendous blow to everyone emotionally in every way, that he was gone. He was such a fine person and there's no sense of justice or rightness about this going down. It was really tragic. He died before he reached 40 and he had so much of life ahead of him. He had a young daughter, and it was a real, real tragedy. We considered not playing anymore. Or not playing the Oregon music anymore. And we let some time go by and there was a memorial for Collin in the spring. He died in the fall. A tremendous collection of musicians was there. Jack de Jeanette and Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Nana Vasconcelos, Liz and Don Cherry, all the Oregon guys Trilock Gurtu - I mean it was a really quite a panoply of great jazz musicians. But we played with Trilock, we played one tune with him. Trilock’s a great Indian percussionist who also plays western drums. He's a great player. Colin, after he met Trilock, he came back to Oregon and said, “Well, guys, I found my replacement. I found a guy who plays jazz on the kit and is a great tabala player. And if you ever need to replace me, he’s the one.” Which is really strangely prophetic. So, we played a couple tunes with Trilock, and it was a blast, you know, and it was a different direction. Colin tended more towards folk references and classical music. Trilock was very much into fusion and jazz and it was really kind of thrilling for the rest of the band. We were able to develop this part of our band identity that we hadn't really been able to do before. And so our palette gradually widened a little bit as we started working with Trilock. And so that was so one of the ways that our voice shifted.
Dr. David Schroeder: Now, staying with drummers for a moment, Oregon also recorded with Elvin Jones for a record.
Paul McCandless: Right.
Dr. David Schroeder: How did that come about?
Paul McCandless: Well, Elvin was on the Vanguard label, and one of the producers at the label realized that both Oregon and Elvin were an album late, and that we needed to deliver an album, and in a quick time. He suggested we play together, which is a kind of a wild idea because Elvin is like a force of nature, and plus, he had a tremendously powerful sound. We had all grown up living listening to
Elvin and fantasizing what we would do if we ever got the chance to play with Elvin. So we did the recording in two days. We went in and did, like, two takes of each tune and the drums were so loud in the microphones compared to the guitar or the oboe that if we needed to fix something there was no leakage whatsoever. There was more drums in the oboe mic than there was oboe. But it was a thrilling experience to work with him because he just brought a lot of really surging energy out of the rest of us.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well was this something that Elvin was delighted to play with you guys or
it was just contractual or was it a mutual admiration?
Paul McCandless: It was definitely not only contractual. Collin had met Elvin and they really connected.
Elvin was a very warm kind of guy and Collin Wolcott was very outgoing and they connected. Elvin heard some of our music, and because there was no trap kit there, he didn't hear any drums. So, he said he could hear himself in our music. It was something that he was drawn to, and between the
connection with Colin and hearing the music and hearing himself in it, it brought us to this project.
Dr. David Schroeder: Did you ever play any live gigs with Elvin after that?
Paul McCandless: No, I mean, it would have probably been nearly impossible. Just from the
volume.
Dr. David Schroeder: I was imagining a 40-minute oboe and drum duet.
Paul McCandless: Right, yeah, you don't hear the oboe.
Dr. David Schroeder: You know what? Let's talk about your solo career, now, because
you put out a variety of records playing multiple winds. So how did you step out as
a leader?
Paul McCandless: Well, I wrote a little bit of music when I was in high school, but I became
really enamored of Ralph Towner’s music and realized that I wanted to develop my writing. I started in 1973 to really write as much as I could, to write in earnest. And it generated a lot of music that I didn't have anything to do with. And finally, when Oregon left the Vanguard label, we were torn between going with ECM, right at that spot, or going with Elektra Asylum, who had offered us a deal. And our great manager, Bill Trout, made that deal. He's just recently passed. And part of the deal was that Ralph and Colin had done records for ECM, solo records, and part of our record deal was to do some solo records with Glenn Moore, our bass player, and myself. That was my first real solo record. It was called “All the Mornings Bring.” It was with Dave Samuels and Art Lande as a trio on the first side. On the second side were some very large ensembles, woodwind octets, plus a rhythm section that had been generated out of this early period of writing. After that, I made a couple of solo records for the Windham Hill jazz label. On those, I got a chance to work with Art Lande and Trilok Gurtu and Steve Rodby, Will Kennedy, Lyle Mays, and some really marvelous musicians of our time. It was a chance for me to also air this kind of a long form writing that I was enjoying. I'd have an intro and a theme, and basically trying to develop the composed side to balance the improvisational within a jazz style.
Dr. David Schroeder: How do you like stepping out as a leader?
Paul McCandless: That's nerve-racking. Yeah, I have as the son of a band leader, once I get in the musical situation I feel pretty comfortable getting things to where I want them, but doing all the interviews and taking care of various business aspects of the of the job doesn't appeal to me that much.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, did you find it difficult to sustain a career as a leader and having your band travel?
Paul McCandless: Yes, yes, I had a brief tour with Lyle and Steve Rodby and Fred Simon on electronic keyboards and Mark Walker and myself. We toured around, and we played the Montreal Jazz Festival which was great, and toured around the some of the major cities of the states to popularize this record, “Premonition”. At the end of the tour I had generated so much debt it kind of frightened me and so I felt I didn't have the kind of drive that some people have who just they just go deeper and deeper and deeper until they finally come out the other side, if they do at all. I didn't have the constitution to run up that kind of debt. I kind of scaled back and started working more with other people and/or working in smaller ensembles. Like with Art Lande as a duo.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, I will say that I heard you live with your group at the Bottom Line
in the late 80s.
Paul McCandless: Okay, that would have been for the first record which is called “Heresay”. That featured Art Lande, and Steve Rodby, and Eliot Sigmund played drums, Wally Kane on winds, and
John Clark on French horn. Yeah, that was quite an adventurous ensemble. The charts were tremendous, but these are such great musicians that they could take it all in and pull it
off in a live performance and with great effect.
Dr. David Schroeder: Let's talk about you as a sideman now. I know one of the interesting
people you worked with briefly was Jaco Pastorius. So, can you tell us how you got
that gig and what Jaco was like as a leader and as a musician?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I met Jaco when Glenn Moore and I were sharing a loft on Lispenard
Street. I'm not sure the year but around 1973 or four. Jaco had just come up from Florida to play with Paul Bley at what became Richie Havens Club and is now Cafe Wha?. It was with Bruce Ditmas on drums and Pat Metheny on guitar and Jacko on bass and Paul on Fender Rhodes. Ross Trout subbed Matheny one night. And he’s a good friend of mine. Jaco got to our house and needed a place to stay.
He wound up, like, crashing with us for a while. It was at the time we were making Oregon recordings and Jaco had this fretless bass that he had created himself. He offered it to Glen Moore to play on our record. He brought it by the studio and demonstrated how to execute on this instrument, which was flabbergasting. It's like hearing Paul Hanson play the bassoon. You just can't believe it can be done. I connected with Jaco in a personal way and I was practicing all the time at that point. He heard me play and he'd heard the Oregon band. And he came to me and he said at one point when he's putting together a band said, “Paul, you're the cat.” Which I think he said to everybody but it was quite thrilling to me to hear that from him because I had so much admiration for what he was doing and in
the music. So one day in 1981 he had a tour to Japan. He was the Musician of the
Year in 1981 or 80 and he brought a sextet and a big band. We did the “Twins” record, which was released as “Invitation” here in the States. I remember when I first got there I was wandering around, jet-lagged out of my brain, in the lobby of a big, gigantic Japanese hotel and I see this guy. He
kind of looks like a street person and he's got a robe on. It's down to his ankles and his face is all covered with pancake makeup. It turned out to be Jaco who was just arriving had just been in a fight in Florida before he came out and so he was covering up all his bruises with it. He's wearing a
Miccosukee Indian Big Chief shirt that had been awarded to him by the Miccosukee Indians. We were both up padding around the around the lobby. He recognized me before I recognized him because I thought he was some kind of wino or something. He said, “Paul McCandless, get over here. We should have called rehearsal for 6:00 a.m. because you know the whole band is up.” Jaco was starting to become somewhat manic at that point. I mean, up and down, and I didn't feel that he was really always there with the music. He tended to get wrapped up in himself as a legend and thinking about what people would say about his wild hijinks. It took away from his concentration on the music, even though
you listen to the record, and it sounds great. But it could have been so much more.
Dr. David Schroeder: So, he's definitely a larger-than-life personality on stage and in real life.
Paul McCandless: Yeah, yeah.
Dr. David Schroeder: Yeah. So, let's talk about your other side man opportunity.
What about Bela Fleck?
Paul McCandless: Well, that that was an interesting combination for me and for Bela.
He specializes in one of the all-time weird instruments for jazz. I mean, not originally because originally it was an African instrument and jazz was played on the banjo. But nowadays it's always like The Beverly Hillbillies. So he was quite open to someone playing jazz on the oboe.
Dr. David Schroeder: Did you mesh well with that group?
Paul McCandless: I did. You know, I mentioned earlier a lot of the style of music that I play is more like
sort of Bel Canto. You're looking for a new melody and not playing a lot of patterns. In the Bela Fleck
band was a lot about matching sixteenth notes and, that stuff us at the edge of my abilities. It was great for me. It actually really improved my playing quite a bit. But as time went on we also realized that the oboe and soprano and bass clarinet and all the instruments I play were better on the big notes and not the little notes. So I wound up having my usual melodic parts to play in that band. But it was really
fun to be on a winning team because Oregon's been kind of an uphill battle, and the Flecktones, like,
every time we come to a town there'd be more people that would be coming to hear the show. We played bigger and bigger venues, and it was really and heartening and enlivening to be with a young band that was really going places.
Dr. David Schroeder: How do you account for that?
Paul McCandless: I think Bela is extremely intelligent. He balances entertainment and comedy with fantastic music making and a really high level of new challenges for the further players. And I think he
takes the audience into account without actually losing the integrity of his own music. I think that's a lot of what makes it work. The audiences are also drawn to the band. Each one is a different character.
Future Man and Vic Wooten on the bass. And it's just staggering talents so there's a lot for the audience to enjoy.
Dr. David Schroeder: You ever think you'd be more popular if you changed your name to something like
Future Man?
Paul McCandless: (Laughs). Past Man? Well, Oboe Man is already taken.
Dr. David Schroeder: Probably oboeman.com is taken.
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I think it is.
Dr. David Schroeder: Yeah, so what have you learned? I mean, you've played with so many
different people and so many brilliant people and out of control amazing talents like Jaco and Bela Fleck, and just all the string groups and Art Lande, and all. What do you take away with that?
How do you do you find a formula for success or a formula to break through into new audiences? I mean, I know that you're multi instruments, but, in oboe in particular, you're that sound. You've really created this thing. Is there anything that you've taken from these other experiences, as hey, I can move this music here and all of a sudden attract another audience?
Paul McCandless: Yeah, I think being a multi-instrumentalist does make me kind of transplantable, but I think what I try to do is to bring whatever music I'm involved with to its best expression. I tend to fit with a lot of different ensembles. I'm a quick learner but I think also what I bring to the situation is a kind of
integrity and an emotional connection to the music that comes through the melodies and the instrumental tones and I think that's what I offer.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, listen, in closing, I know that there are gonna be a lot of woodwind and double reed musicians listening to this interview. Your lifetime of experience as a road warrior oboe reed maker. What advice do you have, words of wisdom, something that you can impart that has
kept you going all these years? Ah, because it's probably not the paycheck.
Paul McCandless: No, I'm definitely not in it for the money. I just think I take every situation seriously and try to bring the music to its best voice and to try to treat the people that I work with and their music with respect.
Dr. David Schroeder: Well, I certainly respect you and your music, and it's great to have you here
today and I want to thank you for spending this time with us.
Paul McCandless: Well, thanks for your informed questions.