PAUL HORN: NEW-AGE MUSIC MAN

When reedman Paul Horn had a friend bring along a tape recorder to document his impromptu solo flute performance inside India’s Taj Mahal in 1968, he perceived the recording as merely a memento of a special occasion, not something that would drastically change his career.

But when the tape was ultimately released by Epic Records as “Inside,” Horn--a jazzman who had been making a very good living as a top-call Los Angeles studio musician--suddenly became a celebrity with listeners around the world anxious to hear his distinctive sound.

“The ‘Inside’ record definitely opened up a whole new audience,” said Horn, who has played everywhere from the Soviet Union to Brazil. “Many people think my career began with the Taj Mahal LP, but it was my 14th (album). It’s funny because I never envisioned myself playing solo flute or sax (in concert), which now I do quite often.”

Horn, a graduate of Oberlin College and Manhattan School of Music, has since played a variety of music--frequently working with bassist David Friesen--that today comes under the banner of New Age music. In the late ‘60s, the multi-reedman found his then-new style was just an outgrowth of what he’d always been playing.

“Even back when I played ‘straight-ahead,’ I mixed it up,” said Horn, in town to make a promotional video for a song from his recent “Traveler” LP (Global Pacific). “I played some free-form, classical adaptations, solo flute stuff. It was New Age in its own way.

“The group that gave me my start was Chico Hamilton’s quintet, which was a New Age group in those days (1956-58). It featured cello and guitar. We would play be-bop, funk and blues, but then we would play things which were not channeled conveniently into the straight-ahead slot.”

Today--with albums such as “Inside the Magic of Findhorn” and “Live From Russia (With Love)” in release--Horn is one of the principal proponents and most persuasive advocates of New Age music.

“(New Age music) does something wonderful to the nervous system,” explained Horn, 57. “It settles you down into a deep state of relaxation. When people want to ‘cool out,’ a (New Age) record will do it real quick. It’s meditative music.”

Answering critics who call New Age “elevator music,” Horn responded, “It’s not music you can evaluate in traditional ways. If you look around at a concert, you might see what look like bored people, or maybe they’re drifting, but they’re just having another kind of experience, an inner thing.”

In 1976, Horn traveled to Egypt to record his second solo flute “Inside” LP, “Inside the Great Pyramid.”

“It was a deep experience, to be alone in there,” he said. “Anyone can go in during certain hours but I got permission to go after closing, so it was just my recording engineer and myself in this amazingly large ancient structure. We recorded in the King’s Chamber, a room about 17 by 34 feet, with a 19-foot ceiling, located about dead center, 300 feet up. The room’s all polished red granite--polished by time, not by hand or machine. I felt there was a lot of energy in there.”

Of his worldwide travels, Horn considers his visit to the Soviet Union in 1983 a highlight.

“We were the first small American jazz group since Sidney Bechet in 1927 to play for the public in Moscow and Leningrad,” he recalled. “The audiences were fantastic. In Moscow, we played eight sold-out nights in a hall that seated 3,000--that’s how much they wanted to hear this music. They came up on stage during the concerts, bringing flowers. Afterward, the stage looked like a flower shop.”

Horn was given a great degree of freedom. “I could go where I wanted to--at least I wasn’t obviously followed,” he said. “We got to meet people and always went to someone’s house for a spread after the concerts. Though people were interested in the life style over here, we talked mostly about music and the jazz fans were very knowledgeable. Willis Conover, the announcer for the Voice of America, is God. He’s known all over. He’s probably the single person most responsible for jazz getting into Eastern (bloc) countries.”

Horn, who has made plans to return to the Soviet Union next year, resides with his wife in a tranquil setting near Victoria, British Columbia, where he moved 17 years ago, leaving behind his studio career. “One day I realized I’d had enough,” he said.

“It was basically a dissatisfaction with the (studio musician) life style. When you’re playing for microphones all day long, you forget what music’s all about--you don’t get that instant feedback like in live concerts. You hang in the studios too long and the music goes and the conversation is the stock market, your swimming pool, your condo, anything but music. Because (for many studio musicians) music is just a means to making money. It has nothing to do with music from the heart, from the soul.”