Paul Winter

Paul Winter
Clearwater Festival, 2007
Background information
Born	(1939-08-31) August 31, 1939 Altoona, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, new-age
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Saxophone
Years active	1961–present
Labels	Columbia, A&M, Epic, Living Music
Associated acts	Paul Winter Consort, Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble, Oregon
Website	www.paulwinter.com

Paul Winter (born August 31, 1939) is an American saxophonist who founded the Paul Winter Consort. He has recorded more than 40 albums and won seven Grammy Awards. He has toured and recorded in 52 countries and six continents. He often records while traveling in wilderness areas, including on rafts, mules, dog sleds, horses, kayaks, sailboats, steamers, tug-boats, and Land Rovers. He performs benefit concerts for environmental and world peace organizations.

Biography

Paul Winter attended Altoona Area High School and graduated in 1957. In 1961, while he was in college at Northwestern University, the band that he founded, the Paul Winter Sextet won the Intercollegiate Jazz Festival and was signed by Columbia Records. The next year, the band toured Latin America as cultural ambassadors for the United States State Department, playing 160 concerts in 23 countries. The Sextet was also the first jazz band to perform at the White House. Winter returned to Brazil in the mid-1960s and his interest in Brazilian music and the emerging bossa nova led to the 1965 release of the album Rio, with liner notes by Vinicius de Moraes.

After Winter's band changed its name to the Paul Winter Consort in the late 1960s, it contributed to the development of world music and space music. The Consort's 1972 release, Icarus, was produced by George Martin. Most of the musicians who worked on this album went on to form the jazz group Oregon. The Consort has continued over the years with different musicians.

In 1975, Winter sailed aboard the Greenpeace V anti-whaling expedition for three days of playing saxophone to wild gray whales off the coast of Vancouver Island (Tofino). He was accompanied in this effort by Melville Gregory and Will Jackson, musicians attempting to "communicate" with the whales using various instruments and a Serge synthesizer.^[1] Photos of Winter and the whales [by Rex Weyler] appeared on wire services and in media around the world, helping the ultimate success of the mission against Soviet whalers.

In 1978 Winter released "Common Ground" an album that combined his music and animal sounds (Wolves, Eagles, Whales) and ushered in what became known as "New Age" music.

Awards

Winter received a Global 500 Award from the United Nations, the Joseph Wood Krutch Medal from the United States Humane Society, the Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award, the Spirit of the City Award presented at New York's Cathedral of St John the Divine, and an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Hartford.

Discography

References

External links

• Breen, Terry. "A Winter's Tale", in Northwestern (Northwestern University alumni magazine), Spring 2000. Accessed October 8, 2006
• Knapp, Tom. "Paul Winter: Common Ground (A&M Records, 1978)", review in Rambles. Accessed January 29, 2006
• Allmusic entry for Paul Winter