Ralph Towner

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Ralph Towner
Ralph Towner.JPG
Ralph Towner in concert with Paolo Fresu, Treibhaus, Innsbruck, Austria, 2010
Background information
Birth nameRalph Towner
Born (1940-03-01) March 1, 1940 (age 84)
Chehalis, Washington, United States
Genres Jazz, classical, world, folk
Occupation(s)Guitarist, arranger, bandleader, composer
Instrument(s) 12-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion, trumpet, french horn
Years active1960s–present
Labels ECM
Website www.ralphtowner.com

Ralph Towner (born March 1, 1940) [1] is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the twelve-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion, trumpet and French horn. [2]

Contents

Biography

Ralph Towner with Oregon at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay, California, April 30, 1989 Ralph Towner1989.jpg
Ralph Towner with Oregon at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay, California, April 30, 1989

Towner was born into a musical family in Chehalis, Washington, United States. [1] His mother was a piano teacher and his father a trumpet player. Towner learned to improvise on the piano at the age of three. He began his career as a conservatory-trained classical pianist, attending the University of Oregon from 1958 to 1963, where he also studied composition with Homer Keller. [3] He studied classical guitar at the Vienna Academy of Music with Karl Scheit from 1963 to 1964 and 1967–68. [1]

He joined world music pioneer Paul Winter's "Consort" ensemble in the late 1960s. He first played jazz in New York City in the late 1960s as a pianist and was strongly influenced by the renowned jazz pianist Bill Evans. He began improvising on classical and 12-string guitars in the late 1960s and early 1970s and formed alliances with musicians who had worked with Evans, including flautist Jeremy Steig, bassists Eddie Gómez, Marc Johnson, Gary Peacock, and drummer Jack DeJohnette. [4] [5]

Along with bandmates Paul McCandless, Glen Moore, and Collin Walcott, Towner left the Winter Consort in 1970 to form the group Oregon, [1] which over the course of the 1970s issued a number of influential records mixing folk music, Indian classical forms, and avant-garde jazz-influenced free improvisation. At the same time, Towner began a longstanding relationship with the ECM record label, which has released virtually all of his non-Oregon recordings since his 1973 debut as a leader Trios / Solos . [1]

Towner appeared as a sideman on Weather Report's 1972 album I Sing the Body Electric . [1] His 1975 album Solstice , which featured a popular track called "Nimbus", demonstrated his skill and versatility to the full using a 12-string guitar. [6]

Since the early 1990s, Towner has lived in Italy, first in Palermo and then in Rome. [7]

Technique

Towner plays only acoustic guitars, using six-string nylon-string and 12-string steel-string guitars. As a result, he tends to avoid high-volume musical environments, preferring small groups of mostly acoustic instruments that emphasize dynamics and group interplay. Towner obtains a percussive effect (e.g., "Donkey Jamboree" from Slide Show with Gary Burton) from the guitar by weaving a matchbook among the strings at the neck of the instrument. [8] Both with Oregon and as a solo artist, Towner has made use of overdubbing, allowing him to play piano (or synthesizer) and guitar on the same track; his most notable use of the technique came on his 1974 album Diary , in which he plays guitar-piano duets with himself on most of the album's eight tracks. [9] In the 1980s, Towner began using the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer extensively, [10] but has since de-emphasized his synthesizer and piano playing in favor of guitar.

Honors

Two lunar craters were named by the Apollo 15 astronauts after two of Towner's compositions, "Icarus" and "Ghost Beads." [11] [12]

Discography

As leader

As group

Atmosphere

Oregon

Paul Winter Consort

As sideman or guest

With Horacee Arnold

With Jerry Granelli

With Vince Mendoza

With Maria Pia De Vito

With others

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<i>Solstice</i> (album) 1975 studio album by Ralph Towner

Solstice is an album by American jazz guitarist Ralph Towner recorded in December 1974 and released on ECM the following year. The Solstice quartet features saxophonist Jan Garbarek and rhythm section Eberhard Weber and Jon Christensen.

<i>Sound and Shadows</i> 1977 studio album by Ralph Towner / Solstice

Sound and Shadows is an album by American jazz guitarist Ralph Towner, recorded in February 1977 and released on ECM later that year, Towner's second album with his Solstice quartet, featuring saxophonist Jan Garbarek and rhythm section Eberhard Weber and Jon Christensen.

<i>Matchbook</i> (Ralph Towner & Gary Burton album) 1975 studio album by Ralph Towner & Gary Burton

Matchbook is an album by guitarist Ralph Towner and vibraphonist Gary Burton recorded over two days in July 1974 and released on ECM the following year.

<i>Oregon</i> (album) 1983 studio album by Oregon

Oregon is an album by American jazz fusion band Oregon recorded in February 1983 and released on ECM later that year. The quartet features guitarist Ralph Towner, reed player Paul McCandless, bassist Glen Moore, and sitarist Collin Walcott.

<i>Crossing</i> (album) 1985 studio album by Oregon

Crossing is an album by jazz fusion band Oregon recorded in October 1984 and released on ECM the following year. The quartet features guitarist Ralph Towner, reed player Paul McCandless, bassist Glen Moore, and percussionist Collin Walcott—their final album with Walcott, who died a month after its recording.

<i>Ecotopia</i> (album) 1987 studio album by Oregon

Ecotopia is an album by jazz fusion band Oregon recorded in March 1987 and released on ECM later that year. The quartet consists reed player Paul McCandless, guitarist Ralph Towner, bassist Glen Moore, and percussionist Trilok Gurtu—replacing Collin Walcott following his accidental death.

<i>Family Tree</i> (Oregon album) 2012 studio album by Oregon

Family Tree is an album by American world music/jazz group Oregon featuring Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless, Glen Moore, and Mark Walker recorded in April 2012 and released on the CAM Jazz label. It was the final Oregon recording to feature bassist Glen Moore.

<i>Icarus</i> (Paul Winter Consort album) 1972 studio album by Paul Winter Consort

Icarus is the fourth album by American musical group Paul Winter Consort. It was recorded in 1971 for the Epic Records label and released in 1972. It was re-released by Epic in 1978 and by Living Music in 1984. The album was produced by George Martin.

<i>Travel Guide</i> 2013 studio album by Ralph Towner, Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Slava Grigoryan

Travel Guide is an album by guitarists Ralph Towner, Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Slava Grigoryan recorded in Switzerland in August 2012 and released on ECM September the following year.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 2520. ISBN   0-85112-939-0.
  2. ↑ "Biography". Ralphtowner.com. 1940-03-01. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  3. ↑ "Oregon ComposersWatch: Homer Keller". Composerswatch.proscenia.net. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  4. ↑ Feather, Leonard (2007). The biographical encyclopedia of jazz. Gitler, Ira. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 650. ISBN   9780195320008. OCLC   123233012.
  5. ↑ "Ralph Towner | Biography & History". AllMusic . Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  6. ↑ Cline, Nels (2017). "Focused: An appreciation of the genre-bending guitar work of Ralph Towner". Fretboard Journal . Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  7. ↑ "Ralph Towner: The Accidental Guitarist". Allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  8. ↑ Dale Turner. "Ralph Towner's Nylon and 12-String Craftsmanship". Guitarworld.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  9. ↑ "Diary - Ralph Towner". Ecmrecords.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  10. ↑ Grillo, Tyran (2011-12-20). "Ralph Towner: Blue Sun (ECM 1250)". Ecmreviews.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  11. ↑ "The Consort". Paulwinter.com. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  12. ↑ "Now he's over the moon about Icarus". The Sydney Morning Herald . 2002-11-25. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
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