Paul McCandless
and Charged Particles
and Charged Particles
"Awesome!"
- Mark Morganelli, Executive Director
Jazz Arts Forum, Tarrytown, New York
"An exceptional performance"
- Marie Coderre, Executive and Artistic Director
Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, Yellowknife, NT, Canada
"Inventive. Invigorating. Slick. Stunning.
Mesmerizing. Hard-hitting. Beautiful.
Lyrical. Striking. Delicate. Rhapsodic.
Virtuosic. Joyful. Something special."
- Bill Milkowski, Author of "Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius"
Downbeat Magazine
"A Highlight of Our Season."
- Susan Gates, Chelmsford Center for the Arts
"The Week's Best Concerts"
- Jay Boller, Minneapolis City Pages
"Awesome"
- Gianni Valenti, Owner, Birdland
"A wonderful evening!"
- Andreas Stettler, Proprietor, Next Stop Olten Jazz Club,
Olten, Switzerland
"Wonderful journey of ideas and sound
with Paul McCandless and
Charged Particles at the MIM last night."
- Rob Bolton, Twitter
"Great performance!
"A combination of genius and beautiful music in their concert presented at Jazz Mount Bromo 2017"
- Jazz Gunung
"One of the proud moments of the festival was the performance of Paul McCandless with Charged Particles."
-Brillo.net
"Amazing ... Everyone was knocked out."
-John Cox, St. Ives Jazz Club
"Having Paul McCandless and Charged Particles at Jazz Centrum was an unforgettable experience. Not only were they amazing musicians but also amazing teachers and amazing human beings. Jazz Centrum students learned so much from the masterclass that happened before the concert.
The concert was 2 hours long, but the time flew by. Everyone was hypnotized by the complex harmonies and the sweet melodies throughout the songs. Their music is truly an expression of their genuine souls.
People are still talking about the concert. The music really touched their hearts."
-Yason Gunawan, Jazz Centrum, Surabaya, Indonesia
"So marvelous!"
-Judy Montgomery, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
"A brilliant gig"
-David Walden, Fougou Jazz, Torquay, United Kingdom
"Folks are still raving about the show."
-Nick Biondo, Soper Reese Theater, Lakeport, California
- Mark Morganelli, Executive Director
Jazz Arts Forum, Tarrytown, New York
"An exceptional performance"
- Marie Coderre, Executive and Artistic Director
Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, Yellowknife, NT, Canada
"Inventive. Invigorating. Slick. Stunning.
Mesmerizing. Hard-hitting. Beautiful.
Lyrical. Striking. Delicate. Rhapsodic.
Virtuosic. Joyful. Something special."
- Bill Milkowski, Author of "Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius"
Downbeat Magazine
"A Highlight of Our Season."
- Susan Gates, Chelmsford Center for the Arts
"The Week's Best Concerts"
- Jay Boller, Minneapolis City Pages
"Awesome"
- Gianni Valenti, Owner, Birdland
"A wonderful evening!"
- Andreas Stettler, Proprietor, Next Stop Olten Jazz Club,
Olten, Switzerland
"Wonderful journey of ideas and sound
with Paul McCandless and
Charged Particles at the MIM last night."
- Rob Bolton, Twitter
"Great performance!
"A combination of genius and beautiful music in their concert presented at Jazz Mount Bromo 2017"
- Jazz Gunung
"One of the proud moments of the festival was the performance of Paul McCandless with Charged Particles."
-Brillo.net
"Amazing ... Everyone was knocked out."
-John Cox, St. Ives Jazz Club
"Having Paul McCandless and Charged Particles at Jazz Centrum was an unforgettable experience. Not only were they amazing musicians but also amazing teachers and amazing human beings. Jazz Centrum students learned so much from the masterclass that happened before the concert.
The concert was 2 hours long, but the time flew by. Everyone was hypnotized by the complex harmonies and the sweet melodies throughout the songs. Their music is truly an expression of their genuine souls.
People are still talking about the concert. The music really touched their hearts."
-Yason Gunawan, Jazz Centrum, Surabaya, Indonesia
"So marvelous!"
-Judy Montgomery, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
"A brilliant gig"
-David Walden, Fougou Jazz, Torquay, United Kingdom
"Folks are still raving about the show."
-Nick Biondo, Soper Reese Theater, Lakeport, California
Jazz88 Public Radio Feature on Paul
McCandless' Appearance in Minneapolis
KJZZ Public Radio Feature on
Paul McCandless' Appearance in Phoenix
Sizzle Reel:
The McCandless/Charged Particles
Project
Appearances
Birdland
(New York, New York)
Blues Alley
(Washington DC)
Yoshi's Jazz Club
(San Francisco, California)
The Dakota Jazz Club
(Minneapolis, Minnesota)
The Musical Instrument Museum
(Phoenix, Arizona)
The Ark
(Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Jazz Forum Arts
(Tarrytown, New York)
Rochester International Jazz Festival
(Rochester, New York)
Jazz at the Lake Festival
(Lake George, New York)
Erie Art Museum Blues and Jazz Festival
(Erie, Pennsylvania)
Stanford Jazz Festival
(Stanford, California)
Jazz Gunung Bromo 2017
(Mount Bromo, Indonesia)
The Spin Jazz Club
(Oxford, United Kingdom)
Birmingham Jazz Club
(Birmingham, United Kingdom)
Band on the Wall
(Manchester, United Kingdom)
ParrJazz
(Liverpool, United Kingdom)
Fouguy Jazz
(Torquay, United Kingdom)
Spike's Place Jazz Club
(Beckenham, United Kingdom)
Harborough Jazz Club
(Leicestershire, United Kingdom)
St. Ives Jazz Festival
(St. Ives, United Kingdom)
Ambleside Days Jazz Festival
(Ambleside, United Kingdom)
Jazz Centrum
(Surabaya, Indonesia)
Motion Blue
(Jakarta, Indonesia)
Jazz at Pierson Park
(Tarrytown, New York)
Eureka Springs Jazz Festival
(Eureka Springs, Arkansasa)
Nighttown
(Cleveland, Ohio)
Deer Head Inn
(Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania)
The Falcon
(Marlboro, NY)
THE Jazz Club
(Cloverdale, California)
Vernon Jazz Club
(Vernon, British Columbia, Canada)
Yardbird Suite Jazz Club
(Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
Kelowna Secondary School
(Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada)
Ricardo's
(Kelowna British Columbia, Canada)
Soper Reese Theater
(Lakeport, California)
MacEwan University
(Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
Next Stop Olten
(Olten, Switzerland)
Chorus
(Lausanne, Switzerland)
Hochschul fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim
(Mannheim, Germany)
Mampf
(Frankfurt, Germany)
Lebewohlfabrik
(Zurich, Switzerland)
Jazz Club Ferrara
(Ferrara, Italy)
Franz.K
(Reutlingen, Germany)
University of Arkansas
(Fayetteville, Arkansas)
Royal Northern College of Music
(Manchester, United Kingdom)
Bath Spa University
(Bath, United Kingdom)
Peninsula Jewish Community Center
Concert Series
(Foster City, California)
Brookdale Battery Park
(New York, New York)
Chelmsford Center for the Arts
(Chelmsford, Massachusetts)
Northern Arts and Cultural Centre
(Yellowknife, Canada)
Swedenborgian Church Concert Series
(San Francisco, California)
Music of the Spheres Concert Series
Lick Observatory
(Mount Hamilton, California)
Foster City Library Spring Jazz Concert Series
(Foster City, California)
@america
(Jakarta, Indonesia)
Music Republicain
(Jakarta, Indonesia)
Sekolah Pelita Harapan
(Jakarta, Indonesia)
"I'm playing my original music with the incredible Charged Particles. It's a pleasure to be working with such talented musicians."
- Paul McCandless
- Paul McCandless
Grammy Award winner and world renowned jazz superstar Paul McCandless is now touring and performing his original compositions with the celebrated Bay-Area jazz trio Charged Particles.
During a distinguished career spanning over five decades, McCandless brings a soaring lyricism to his playing and composing that has been integral to the ensemble sound of two seminal iconic bands of jazz: the original Paul Winter Consort and the relentlessly innovative quartet, OREGON.
A gifted multi-instrumentalist and composer, he specializes in the oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, soprano and sopranino saxophones and a collection of folk flutes reflecting his grounding in both classical and jazz disciplines. Trained at the Manhattan School of Music, he was a finalist in the 1971 English horn auditions for the New York Philharmonic. As a collaborator and solo artist, he has performed on more than 200 albums and appeared with such musicians as Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Wynton Marsalis, Lyle Mays, Mark Isham, Boz Scaggs, Steve Reich, Al Jarreau, Bruce Hornsby, Art Lande, Carla Bley, Michael McDonald, Tony Furtado, the String Cheese Incident, Nguyen Le, Proteus 7, Fred Simon, and many more.
In 1996, he won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. McCandless’ fine-tuned compositional skills have been featured in a number of film scores. Most notably, he wrote music for the video Squanto and the First Thanksgiving, a Rabbit Ears Production, with Graham Greene as narrator. Paul recorded three of his orchestral scores for a CD called “Oregon In Moscow”, featuring OREGON and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Orchestra.
“Round Robin,” the opening track, received two 2001 Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Instrumental Arrangement. As an orchestral soloist, he has performed with the Camerata Chamber Orchestra of Mexico City, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Philadelphia, Buffalo, Los Angeles, and Stuttgart Symphony Orchestras.
McCandless was a featured soloist alongside Pat Metheny and Gary Burton at “The Great Jubilee Concert”, a huge tribute event in Theaterhaus Stuttgart in 2015, by the SWR Big Band celebrating the music and the career of the legendary German bassist Eberhard Weber. The event was encapsulated on the CD “Hommage a Eberhard Weber” (2015, ECM Records). McCandless appears on two of Weber’s CDs as a leader. The London Telegraph called McCandless' contributions to the concert "remarkable". Said Jazz Journal, "Paul McCandless delivered terrific, beautifully modulated solos on both oboe and soprano."
McCandless has been called "one of only a handful of master oboists playing jazz" by the Marin Independent Journal. And of one of McCandless' own group's concerts, the Washington Post said: "the group deftly explored more imaginatively orchestrated pieces, balancing contemplative and colorfully textured works that made use of a broad variety of mostly reed instruments (and an electronic wind synthesizer) with more rhythmically aggressive pieces that were often marked by spirited and sometimes rhapsodic improvisations by McCandless". The South China Morning Post said he is "a particular pleasure to hear." Said the Birmingham Post, "McCandless soars". And the Washington Post described McCandless as a "stellar player" and as offering "sparkling harmonic cascades." The Jerusalem Post said when McCandless performs, he "sprinkles feather-light soprano saxophone touches."
McCandless has been recognized numerous times in Downbeat Magazine's Readers Polls and Critics Polls:
- 1974: Finalist in the Critics Poll - Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition, Misc. Instrument (Oboe)
- 1974: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (Oboe)
- 1975: Finalist in the Critics Poll - Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition, Misc. Instrument (oboe),
- 1975: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1976: Winner - Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition, Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1976: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1977: Finalist in the Critics Poll - Established Artist, Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1977: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1978: Winner - Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition, Misc. Instrument (oboe & English horn)
- 1978: Finalist in the Critics Poll - Established Artist, Misc. Instrument (oboe, English horn & bass clarinet)
- 1978: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1979: Finalist in the Critics Poll - Established Artist, Misc. Instrument (oboe & English horn)
- 1979: Finalist - Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1979: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1980: Finalist in the Critics Poll - Established Artist, Misc. Instrument (oboe & English horn)
- 1980: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1981: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1982: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
- 1983: Finalist in the Readers Poll - Misc. Instrument (oboe)
Paul McCandless Interview on KCSM - July 2016
Program Notes from the
Stanford Jazz Festival Concert
Every composer wants to hear his or her music performed, but some make it easier than others. Paul McCandless, the multi-reed master who co-founded the pioneering world jazz ensemble Oregon in the late 1960s, has developed an expansive body of music over the past three decades that tends to scare away admirers inclined to tackling the tunes. So he was particularly pleased when drummer Jon Krosnick, the leader of the creatively ambitious power trio Charged Particles contacted him about collaborating. Undaunted by the music’s complexity, they’ve performed around the country with McCandless, breathing new life into pieces drawn largely from his acclaimed but hard to find 1992 album Premonition (Windham Hill Jazz) featuring pianist Lyle Mays.
"They had taken a real liking to my compositions, which are rather complicated and forbidding to musicians," says McCandless, 69, who settled in Northern California in the mid-1980s. "Some of the charts are 10 pages, with a lot of counterpoint that would usually require at least a quintet, but they were more than ready for the challenge. It’s a thrill to have such talented and skillful musicians enjoy working on my music. I haven’t had a chance to perform it much in live situations and we’re getting around to some interesting places this summer."
Best known for his extraordinary expressiveness on oboe and English horn, McCandless usually travels with soprano and piccolo saxophones, bass clarinet and various penny whistles. He first gained attention in the late 1960s in the Paul Winter Consort, an ensemble that combined European classical music, jazz, and various international traditions. By the end of 1969, he and bandmates Ralph Towner (guitar and piano), Glenn Moore (bass and violin) and Colin Wolcott (sitar and tabla) "discovered we had a real affinity for each other," McCandless says.
"We developed music for the quartet while we were on tour with the Winter Consort. There was a strong Indian influence with the sitar and tabla, which didn’t always appeal to everyone. We also did a lot of free improvisation with varying results. It was a much risker proposition than the Winter Consort, and when I was forced to make a choice I realized I was going to learn a lot more in the quartet."
The musicians in Charged Particles bring a similarly adventurous mentality to the band’s repertoire. The group’s third incarnation features ace bassist Aaron Germain and pianist/keyboardist Murray Low, a widely esteemed Latin jazz expert. They’ve both contributed tunes to the Charged Particles repertoire, which has evolved from its roots in metrically intricate fusion to a more acoustic approach. As the same time, the group has also developed a tribute to tenor sax titan Michael Brecker that encompasses his funk and fusion outings.
From Brecker to Oregon might seem like a stretch, but Krosnick is used to balancing conflicting agendas. As the director of the Political Psychology Research Group at Stanford University, where he’s also a professor of political science and communication, Krosnick is one of the nation’s foremost experts on voter decision-making. And for as long as he’s been scaling the heights of academia he’s also pursued his passion for jazz.
Born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey, he grew up studying classical percussion at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the prestigious program where he spent every summer from age nine to his late teens. He caught the jazz bug during a groundbreaking Interlochen residency by the Stan Kenton Orchestra, when a remarkable young drummer named Peter Erskine powered the brass-laden band. He sought out Erskine for lessons, which led to an ongoing friendship that shaped Krosnick’s approach to the drum kit. It also provided him with a front row seat to Weather Report’s early-80s heyday when Erskine teamed up with electric bassist Jaco Pastorius.
Krosnick kept the drums as a constant companion, performing through his undergraduate years and graduate studies in psychology at University of Michigan. By the mid-1980s he was teaching in the departments of psychology and political science at Ohio State University while also forging ties with some of the best players in the region. Charged Particles first came into being as a hard-grooving plugged-in trio that Krosnick documented on two critically acclaimed CDs (while performing at high profile venues like the Kennedy Center). When mainstream jazz’s zeitgeist unplugged and turned away from fusion, Charged Particles built on the innovations of Chick Corea, who incorporated Brazilian and flamenco influences during his jazz-rock period.
"I had loved Chick’s music, but Mike and Caleb were doing the original composing, and it was their vision," Krosnick says. "Fusion had come and gone, but audiences were still really open to that sound."
Hired by Stanford in 2004, he arrived in the Bay Area with few musical contacts and rapidly accelerating academic responsibilities. For several years he traveled back to Ohio to get his musical fix, but eventually he connected with Low, who teaches jazz piano at Stanford. Low suggested electric bassist Jason Muscat, and Charged Particles was reborn on the West Coast. When Muscat got busy with the popular ’80s cover band Tainted Love, Germain took over the bass chair.
Krosnick’s love of McCandless’s music shifted the trio in the new direction, and the collaboration has allowed the double reed master another exquisite vehicle to pursue "a style that comes from the strength of the instrument," McCandless says, "rather than trying to play oboe like a saxophone, which just sounds wimpy."
"They had taken a real liking to my compositions, which are rather complicated and forbidding to musicians," says McCandless, 69, who settled in Northern California in the mid-1980s. "Some of the charts are 10 pages, with a lot of counterpoint that would usually require at least a quintet, but they were more than ready for the challenge. It’s a thrill to have such talented and skillful musicians enjoy working on my music. I haven’t had a chance to perform it much in live situations and we’re getting around to some interesting places this summer."
Best known for his extraordinary expressiveness on oboe and English horn, McCandless usually travels with soprano and piccolo saxophones, bass clarinet and various penny whistles. He first gained attention in the late 1960s in the Paul Winter Consort, an ensemble that combined European classical music, jazz, and various international traditions. By the end of 1969, he and bandmates Ralph Towner (guitar and piano), Glenn Moore (bass and violin) and Colin Wolcott (sitar and tabla) "discovered we had a real affinity for each other," McCandless says.
"We developed music for the quartet while we were on tour with the Winter Consort. There was a strong Indian influence with the sitar and tabla, which didn’t always appeal to everyone. We also did a lot of free improvisation with varying results. It was a much risker proposition than the Winter Consort, and when I was forced to make a choice I realized I was going to learn a lot more in the quartet."
The musicians in Charged Particles bring a similarly adventurous mentality to the band’s repertoire. The group’s third incarnation features ace bassist Aaron Germain and pianist/keyboardist Murray Low, a widely esteemed Latin jazz expert. They’ve both contributed tunes to the Charged Particles repertoire, which has evolved from its roots in metrically intricate fusion to a more acoustic approach. As the same time, the group has also developed a tribute to tenor sax titan Michael Brecker that encompasses his funk and fusion outings.
From Brecker to Oregon might seem like a stretch, but Krosnick is used to balancing conflicting agendas. As the director of the Political Psychology Research Group at Stanford University, where he’s also a professor of political science and communication, Krosnick is one of the nation’s foremost experts on voter decision-making. And for as long as he’s been scaling the heights of academia he’s also pursued his passion for jazz.
Born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey, he grew up studying classical percussion at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the prestigious program where he spent every summer from age nine to his late teens. He caught the jazz bug during a groundbreaking Interlochen residency by the Stan Kenton Orchestra, when a remarkable young drummer named Peter Erskine powered the brass-laden band. He sought out Erskine for lessons, which led to an ongoing friendship that shaped Krosnick’s approach to the drum kit. It also provided him with a front row seat to Weather Report’s early-80s heyday when Erskine teamed up with electric bassist Jaco Pastorius.
Krosnick kept the drums as a constant companion, performing through his undergraduate years and graduate studies in psychology at University of Michigan. By the mid-1980s he was teaching in the departments of psychology and political science at Ohio State University while also forging ties with some of the best players in the region. Charged Particles first came into being as a hard-grooving plugged-in trio that Krosnick documented on two critically acclaimed CDs (while performing at high profile venues like the Kennedy Center). When mainstream jazz’s zeitgeist unplugged and turned away from fusion, Charged Particles built on the innovations of Chick Corea, who incorporated Brazilian and flamenco influences during his jazz-rock period.
"I had loved Chick’s music, but Mike and Caleb were doing the original composing, and it was their vision," Krosnick says. "Fusion had come and gone, but audiences were still really open to that sound."
Hired by Stanford in 2004, he arrived in the Bay Area with few musical contacts and rapidly accelerating academic responsibilities. For several years he traveled back to Ohio to get his musical fix, but eventually he connected with Low, who teaches jazz piano at Stanford. Low suggested electric bassist Jason Muscat, and Charged Particles was reborn on the West Coast. When Muscat got busy with the popular ’80s cover band Tainted Love, Germain took over the bass chair.
Krosnick’s love of McCandless’s music shifted the trio in the new direction, and the collaboration has allowed the double reed master another exquisite vehicle to pursue "a style that comes from the strength of the instrument," McCandless says, "rather than trying to play oboe like a saxophone, which just sounds wimpy."