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“Conch shells and canyon wren call us to river.
[Southwest Indian people have used the conch for centuries in ceremonies to bring rain.]
Run the river...new sights, new sounds around every bend...peace of slow water, exultation of rapids...rhythm never ceases, river flows on.”
(from the liner notes of the Canyon album)

In this piece for our Canyon album, I wanted to revisit the experience of riding on these redoutable rubber rafts on which we travelled for several hours each day, during the three weeks it takes to traverse the 280 miles of the Colorado as it winds through the Grand Canyon.

I aspired to evoke in this music the kind of motion the rafts make in the water, and also the kinds of exhilaration and emotion you experience going through the rapids you encounter.

We created a special rhythm section of frame-drum, pizzicato cello, and acoustic guitar, and I love the unique, bouncing groove it achieved. David’s syncopated pizz lines provided the bass propulsion, and demonstrated his superb ability as a rhythm player.

I’ve long thought this was the most organic rhythm section of any recording the Consort ever made. (I have always welcomed the opportunity to get away from boiler-plate bass-and-drums rhythm sections.)

The themes woven into this piece came from the archive of improvisations we had, after our several river-rafting recording expeditions in the Canyon.

David’s cello, consigned here to the rhythm section, is not in its usual role as one of the “horns” of the Consort. For this album, and on our fourth Canyon expedition, we actually had an official horn: French horn, played magnificently by John Clark. However, David’s signature voice/cello unison is heard in the introduction, as a kind of ghost voice, beckoning us on the journey; and then heard again later in the piece.

credits

from Consorting with David, released February 26, 2021
Written by Paul Winter, Glen Velez, Paul Halley, Oscar Castro-Neves, Eugene Friesen
(Living Earth Music, BMI)

Paul Winter / soprano sax
Paul McCandless / oboe
John Clark / French horn
David Darling / cello, voice
Paul Halley / harmonium
Oscar Castro-Neves / guitar
Glen Velez / frame drum
Sam West / conch shell
Canyon Wren

From the album Canyon
Produced by Paul Winter and Sam West
Recorded in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York
July 16, 1985

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Paul Winter Litchfield

Paul Winter is a seven-time Grammy-winning saxophonist, whose sextet was the first jazz group to perform at the White House in 1962. His second group, the Paul Winter Consort, interweaves sounds from the natural world with classical and ethnic traditions, and the spontaneous spirit of jazz. Their annual Winter Solstice Celebrations and Earth Mass are among the most popular events in New York. ... more

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