Paul Winter: howling wolves in New York City

Paul Winter: howling wolves in New York City

If you've never heard Paul Winter's duet with a wolf, you just haven't done New York. His legendary concerts at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on Manhattan's upper west side have become must-experience shows for New Yorkers in the know. He plays a summer solstice concert and a winter solstice concert there each year, and has done so for some thirty years now.

At one point in the concert, he plays "Wolf Eyes," the song he wrote to the music of a wolf howl. As on the original record, he plays the central duet with the wolf, and the combination of Paul's horn and the wolf's musicality is simply chilling. Add to that a "rising sun" gong played a man suspended above the church floor wielding a giant mallet, and you begin to understand that this is theater of the spirit.

Yes, his music is classified as new age, but as Paul says, "That's not a genre, it's a gamut." There is no new age sentimentality here, just very smart, sensitive arrangements of songs that are becoming classics. His "Icarus" is something like a sing-along instrumental--many of the audience members know it well--and his closing "Minuit" often inspires the audience to sing all three overlapping parts at once.

This past Grammy season, The Paul Winter Consort won in the new age category Miho: Journey to the Mountain. This album, as with all of the Winter Consort's work, is designed to "celebrate the cultures and creatures of the earth," according to Winter's tag line on all his communications.

For those of you who may be queasy about new age, it is interesting to note that past Grammy winners in the new age category have included Peter Gabriel and Pat Metheny. Paul Winter offers intelligent music, with extraordinary counterpart and a healthy sampling of influences from the Andes to Japan. His concerts are gentle celebrations that draw packed crowds and have garnered a worldwide following.

Despite all this adoration, it is quite easy to meet Paul at his concerts. He steps down off the stage at intermission and visits with old and new friends. He has managed to inspire awe without the usual superiority complex. He is at once accessible and above it all--he works on an internationalscale to bridgecountries and conflicts in ways that many diplomats would surely envy.

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