Paul Winter celebrates the Earth through music

(Media credit: Ben O'Brien Smith

(As published in the Racquette newspaper)

Soprano saxophonist and composer Paul Winter performed in Hosmer Hall on April 21 as part of the SUNY Potsdam 2010 Academic Festival.

Armed with nothing more than a soprano saxophone, some backing tracks and a metallic shaker, Paul Winter entertained a well-sized audience by performing works inspired by his travels of the past few decades. The concert was essentially comprised of Earth-inspired fusion music performed on soprano saxophone with recorded accompaniment. The backing tracks helped fill out the sound by providing a bed over which Winter wove melodic and improvised content.

The pre-recorded accompanying tracks were a combination of studio performances mixed with field-recorded samples of various animals, which were triggered by sound engineer Greg Hanawalt. The integration of recorded accompaniment and live performance was impressively seamless. Hanawalt helped broaden the sonic environment by adding various amounts of digital reverberation to the saxophone performance.

With low, dramatic lighting and ethereal sounds filling the hall, the atmosphere was quite relaxing and enjoyable. The key to this show was keeping an open mind and absorbing as much as possible from the music. Simply closing one’s eyes and sitting back was all it took. The sound of the hall helped create a very calming environment as opposed to the unwanted slap back often experienced during other musical performances in Hosmer.

The first piece performed included samples of whales recorded with underwater microphones in the Atlantic Ocean. The studio tracks harmonized the melody of the whales while Winter interacted with the melody in a call-and-response manner. The result, though it may sound contrived in text, was astounding.

Winter made a point of providing back-story for each of the pieces performed during the concert. From Colorado River raft remote recording sessions to interactive nighttime conversations between saxophone and elk in Yellowstone National Park, Winter managed to capture the music of the Earth in a very organic manner.

Though many of the field-recorded samples used in the backing tracks were left in a mostly raw format and included with studio content, portions of samples included digital delay, which detracted from the natural sound of the environment.

After a short intermission, Winter returned to the stage with a much shorter second set which included more storytelling and simply listening to recordings. Though this may have turned off some people who were expecting an evening of performance, the insight offered by Winter was important in appreciating his art.

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