Paul Winter Consort

Paul Winter (born Aug. 31, 1939) is an American soprano saxophonist from Altoona, Penn., who issued his first albums on Columbia during the early 1960s. In 1968, he formed his first lineup of the ethno-jazz/rock ensemble Winter Consort with future mainstays of the ECM label. The band issued three 1968–70 albums on A&M and a fourth, Icarus, on Epic in 1972.

The Winter Consort members (1968-69): Paul Winter (saxophone), Gene Murrow (English horn, 1968), Virgil Scott (flute, 1968), Gene Bertoncini (guitar, 1968), Karl Herreshoff (guitar, lute, 1968), Richard Bock (cello, 1968), John Beal (bass, 1968), Ruth Ben-Zvi (darabukka, marimba, 1968), Paul McCandless (English horn, oboe, 1969), David Darling (cello, 1969), Ralph Towner (Spanish guitar, 12-string guitar, 1969), Glen Moore (bass, 1969), Collin Walcott (congas, surdo, tabla, tambourine, trap set, 1969)

Paul Winter and The Winter Consort (1969): Paul Winter (saxophone), Paul McCandless (English horn), Virgil Scott (alto flute), Richard Bock (cello), John Beal (bass), Steve Booker (drums)

Paul Winter Consort (1972-present): Paul Winter (soprano saxophone, vocals), Ralph Towner (cathedral organ, acoustic guitar, Spanish guitar, 12-string guitar, piano, regal, vocals, 1972), Paul McCandless (contrabass, English horn, oboe, vocals, 1972), David Darling (cello, vocals, 1972), Herb Bushler (electric bass, 1972), Collin Walcott (congas, kettledrums, bass marimba, mridangam, sitar, surdo, tabla, trap set, 1972), John Clark (French horn, 1985), Paul Halley (keyboards, piano, 1985-92), Oscar Castro-Neves (guitar, 1985-87), Jim Scott (guitar, vocals, 1985), Eugene Friesen (cello, 1985-92), Russ Landau (bass, 1985-87), Glen Velez (percussion, 1985-92), Guilherme Franco (percussion, 1985), Kimati Dinizulu (percussion, 1985), Ted Moore (percussion,1985-87), Susan Osborn (vocals, 1985), Rhonda Larson (flute, 1992), Eliot Wadopian (bass, 1992)

Background

The Paul Winter Consort formed in 1967 when alto saxophonist Paul Winter assembled cellist Richard Bock, English-horn player Gene Murrow, alto flutist Virgil Scott, guitarist Gene Bertoncini, bassist John Beal, and percussionist Ruth Ben-Zvi. Winter had led the Paul Winter Sextet to a Columbia contract after the group won the 1961 Intercollegiate Jazz Festival. The sextet toured Latin America for the U.S. State Department and played the White House after the tour.

Winter lived in Rio de Janeiro for most of an eleven-month period from July 1964 and recorded The Sound of Ipanema with Carlos Lyra and Rio with Luiz Bonfá, Roberto Menescal, and the Tamba Trio. Brazilian guitar, hand percussion, and the chamber instrumentation of Heitor Villa-Lobos shaped his plans for a smaller ensemble built around woodwinds, strings, and percussion. Winter tested the format on a 1966 tour as the Paul Winter Brazilian Consort with guitarist Dori Caymmi.

Winter continued the plan with Bock, a nineteen-year-old first-chair cellist in Leopold Stokowski’s American Symphony Orchestra and a student of Bernard Greenhouse. Winter recruited Murrow through musician contacts and Ben-Zvi after hearing an album by the Israeli darbuka player, who had recently moved to New York. Scott and Beal completed the wind and bass positions, while Bertoncini joined after work with the Tonight Show band.

Noel Paul Stookey invited the Consort to back “The House Song” on the 1967 Peter, Paul & Mary album Album 1700. The session marked the first Consort recording and featured Winter, Bock, Murrow, Scott, Bertoncini, Beal, and guitarist Karl Herreshoff with engineer Phil Ramone. The ensemble subsequently toured as the Paul Winter Contemporary Consort and spent summer 1968 on a month-long Israel Festival circuit through cities and kibbutzim.

Manager Billy James represented the eight-piece Consort by the close of 1968. A&M Enterprises vice president Gil Friesen announced an A&M recording contract in December, with percussionist Jim Kappes added to the contracted lineup. A&M scheduled the first album for January under producer Noel Paul Stookey.

Discography:

• Something in the Wind (1969)
• The Winter Consort (1969)
• Road (live, 1970 • The Winter Consort )
• Icarus (1972)
• Common Ground (1978)
• Callings (1980)
• Missa Gaia / Earth Mass (1982)
• Sun Singer (1983)
• Canyon (1985)
• Concert for the Earth (1985)
• Wintersong (1986)
• Earthbeat (Пульс земли) (1987 • The Paul Winter Consort with The Dimitri Pokrovsky Singers)
• Whales Alive (1987 • Paul Winter & Paul Halley)
• Whales Alive (1987 • Paul Winter / Paul Halley)
• Earth: Voices of a Planet (1990)