Upper Lake >> “I had an experience when I was 13 where I felt like the music was playing me,” said Paul McCandless, a classical and jazz multi-instrumentalist performing at the Tallman Hotel this weekend. “At that point I felt like that’s what I really wanted to do, was be a musician.”
To say McCandless comes from a musical family might be an understatement. His mother, father, aunts, uncles, cousins, they’re all involved in music. So it was obvious, even from a young age, that McCandless would inevitably find his home in notes and chords, too. “I never knew anything else,” he added.
At age nine, his band-directing father suggested McCandless pick up the clarinet. Not long after, his father then encouraged him to try out a second instrument: the oboe. “He said, ‘It’s a very unusual instrument, even now … The oboe will take you a lot of places because it’s somewhat rare,’” McCandless recalled. “I found that to be true.”
Now a professional musician, McCandless is accomplished at a number of instruments: oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, two different kinds of saxophones and a verity of folk flutes.
His music has indeed taken him far. Ten years ago he won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental and in 2001 he received two Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Arrangement and Best Instrumental Composition. He’s lent his compositional skills to a variety of projects, from film scores to orchestral scores with the Moscow Tchaikovsky Orchestra. And he’s an accomplished orchestral soloist, performing over the years with the Camerata chamber orchestra of Mexico City, the St. Paul chamber orchestra, and the Los Angeles, Buffalo, Philadelphia and Stuttgart symphony orchestras.
But even with an abundance of orchestral playing, McCandless favors neither classical nor jazz music. Rather, he enjoys the way in which the two strike a balance. “They’re all different sides,” he explained. “They complete each other somehow.”
Tomorrow tonight he’ll be performing jazz in a trio with guitarist Christian Foley-Beining and jazz flutist Tom Shader for a Concert with Conversation. “I think what I like about jazz is the improvisational aspect, the experience of things coming out differently every time you play them,” McCandless said.
The trio is relatively young. They came together about two years ago after an impromptu performance at a farmers’ market in Redwood Valley where Poley-Beining was performing music between vegetable stands and fruit trees. When one of Poley-Beining’s fellow musicians glimpsed McCandless gliding by on his bicycle, they asked if he would join them. McCandless gladly pulled out his horn and played with Foley-Beining right there on stage. It was their first performance together.
Not long after, Foley-Beining introduced McCandless to Shader and the tree eagerly combined their musical talents. The endeavor was a special treat for McCandless, who frequently embarks on European tours with his other musical project, Oregon. “It’s nice to be able to play near home with such a fine group,” he said. “This way I don’t have to go to Europe to find a great group.”
Plus, variety is always a positive thing. “I enjoy kind of a mixed menu,” McCandless said. “I like playing with new musicians. I always learn something.”
Tomorrow night, McCandless, Poley-Beining and Shader will be playing a number of original jazz compositions, plus some familiar numbers. McCandless likes to imbue a traditional jazz sound with his classical leanings, and there’s always an emphasis on melody. Where other bands may focus primarily on instrumentals, the trio likes to pay special attention to their unique compositions.
Because of the composition-heavy nature of their music, McCandless said it’s difficult to relate the group’s sound to one jazz artist or another. “We tend to be self-made musicians,” he added. “We bring our own way of playing to the music. It does not really pattern after anyone else. That’s our aim, is to find something original.”
While the trio as a whole doesn’t have any specific musical inspirations, there are a select few artists McCandless looks to in his own playing. Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Herbie Hancock were the musicians who came to his mind first. “They include many difference influences in their music and make an eclectic mix which still somehow comes out sounding very original,” McCandless explained.
Tomorrow night’s show isn’t McCandless’s first at the Tallman Hotel. He’s played the venue numerous times over the years, and the intimate setting of the Meeting House keeps him coming back time and time again. “It’s a really small venue so you can feel very connected with the audience, which is very enjoyable,” he said.
And much like his work with the trio, McCandless loves to play at the Upper Lake venue because of it’s close proximity to his home in Healdsburg. “We’re very happy to be able to present this music in our locality,” he said. “So often we have to travel great distances to reach our audiences.”
As the name implies, the Concert with Conversation will focus on music, yes, but it’s also about a little bit more than that. Guests can sit down within feet of the musicians and listen to the artists talk about their first experience with a guitar, their life on the road and anything in between. It’s an especially unique experience, one often unavailable in many other settings. “I think anybody who comes to the concert will enjoy it,” McCandless said.
McCandless, Poley-Beining and Shader perform tomorrow, Jan. 16, at the Tallman Hotel Meeting House in Upper Lake at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by calling the hotel at 275-2244 ext. 0. Before the show begins, cookies and coffee will be served.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
