Paul Winter Biography

Paul Winter (born August 31, 1939 in Altoona, Pennsylvania) is an American saxophonist (alto and soprano saxophone).

In 1961, while Winter was in college at Northwestern University, the Paul Winter Sextet won the Intercollegiate Jazz Festival and was signed by Columbia Records.

The next year, the band toured the Latin America as cultural ambassadors for the United States State Department, playing 160 concerts in 23 countries. The Sextet was also the first jazz band to perform at the White House.

Winter returned to Brazil in the mid-1960s and his interest in Brazilian music and the emerging bossa nova led to the 1965 release of the album Rio, with liner notes by Vinicius de Moraes.

After Winter's band changed its name to the Paul Winter Consort in the late 1960s, it contributed to the development of world music, new age music and healing music. The Consort's 1972 release, Icarus, was produced by George Martin. Most of the musicians who worked on this album went on to form the jazz group Oregon. The Consort has continued over the years with different musicians.