Paul Horn

When one evaluates Paul Horn's career, it is as if he were two people, pre- and post-1967. In his early days, he was an excellent cool-toned altoist and flutist, while later he became a new age flutist whose music was often used as background music for meditation. He played with the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra and the Chico Hamilton Quintet (1956-1958), and recorded cool jazz albums from 1957 to 1966. In 1964, Horn recorded one of the first Jazz Masses. In 1967, his career shifted after studying transcendental meditation in India. He recorded unaccompanied flute solos at the Taj Mahal, performed in the Great Pyramid, toured China and the Soviet Union, and used killer whale sounds in his music. Horn also founded his own label, Golden Flute.