Paul Winter & the Earth Band
Journey with the Sun
Living Music

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Reviewed by Syd Baumel

For decades, American saxaphonist/composer Paul Winter has been a fount of progressive New Age music, bridging multiple genres, cultures, and faiths with his shapeshifting Consort and Earth Band. In this latest Grammy-nominated offering, Winter and company dazzle with 13 tracks drenched mostly in an Eastern mystical brine, complemented by Celtic. 

Journey with the Sun is a "best of" the repertoire Winter and the Earth Band have developed in recent years as artists in residence at New York's socially progressive Cathedral of St. John the Divine – the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. The most significant breakthrough of those last two years has probably been the discovery that Armenian percussionist Artu Tuncboyaciyan can sing. And can he ever – on most every track.

Know-no-boundaries music like Winter's often brings to light wonderful crosscultural affinities. The revelation here is the soul-brotherhood of the alternately searing and tender – and always exquisitely nuanced – voice of Tuncboyaciyan and the similarly endowed Uillean pipes of Ireland's Davy Spillane. Both musicians are outstanding. Together, as on "Last Oasis," their work borders on the sublime. 

Another song that likely draws many requests at St. John the Divine is "Pas de Deux." This rivetting duet pairs Spillane's send-a-shiver-up-your-soul pipes with a stately, mostly pizzicato cello accompaniment by Eugene Friesen. To pick up the pace, the exultant "Land of the Pipers" hearkens back to Winter's breezy jazz roots. Add the Earth Band's many other musical charms – including Grateful Dead percussionist extraordinnaire Mickey Hart and Winter's patentedly lyrical soprano sax – and this 66-minute trip lives up to its billing as an exalting journey with the sun.