Ralph Towner

Ralph Towner helped establish the group Oregon at its outset and stands among the rare jazz artists who have devoted themselves primarily to acoustic guitar. Working with nylon-string classical models alongside 12-string acoustics, he fuses classical themes and worldwide folk idioms with jazz-based harmonies and pulses. His discography abounds in landmark collaborative sessions. The follow-up album Diary from 1973 highlighted his layered approach to guitars and piano. Standout group efforts such as Solstice in 1975, Batik in 1978, and Old Friends, New Friends in 1979 rank among his strongest achievements. Blue Sun, the 1984 solo project, introduced restrained synthesizer textures into the instrumental blend. Anthem, issued solo in 2001, mixed original material with jazz interpretations. Chiaroscuro from 2008 captured a duo performance alongside trumpeter Paolo Fresu. Travel Guide in 2012 presented a three-guitar lineup featuring Slava Grigoryan and Wolfgang Muthspiel. My Foolish Heart from 2017 fulfilled a long-held goal of documenting the piece alone. At First Light, released in 2023, encompassed new compositions, Broadway standards, and a folk melody.

Towner entered the world in Chehalis, Washington. His mother taught piano while his father performed on trumpet, creating a household atmosphere that nurtured open-ended musical play among the children. He started piano lessons at age three and took up the trumpet two years later. In 1958 he arrived at the University of Oregon intending to study art, yet soon shifted focus to composition and classical piano. There he encountered bassist Glenn Moore, who would later share the stage with him for decades in Oregon.

During his student years Towner encountered the early recordings of pianist Bill Evans. Captivated by the pianist and composer, he absorbed and adapted that approach into his own keyboard work and writing. At twenty-two, on a sudden decision, he purchased a classical guitar; the instrument held him so completely that he relocated temporarily to Vienna for lessons with Karl Scheit. Shortly afterward he appeared with classical chamber ensembles.

Towner relocated to New York in 1968 and immersed himself in the expanding jazz community. Early employment came with Jimmy Garrison and Jeremy Steig, after which he secured a position in Paul Winter’s Winter Consort from 1970 to 1971. Fellow members included Moore, Collin Walcott, and Paul McCandless. Late in 1971 the four musicians departed to establish Oregon, though only after Winter presented Towner with his first 12-string guitar. The quartet cultivated an expansive musical vocabulary to which every member contributed, drawing from jazz, classical sources, free improvisation, and diverse global folk practices.

Also in 1971 Towner contributed guitar to Wayne Shorter’s “The Moors,” a track on Weather Report’s second album I Sing The Body Electric.

Oregon secured a contract with Vanguard Records and delivered its groundbreaking first release, Music of Another Present Era, in 1972. The album earned a Grammy nomination the following year. In 1973 Towner met producer and ECM founder Manfred Eicher, who signed him and issued the debut Trios / Solos featuring Moore and Walcott; ECM has remained his principal home for more than fifty years. Between 1974 and 1975 he began collaborating informally with Gary Burton. Although Diary, his 1974 solo album, employed overdubbing techniques borrowed from Bill Evans’ Conversations With Myself, Towner and Burton released the well-received duo album Matchbook in 1975. That same year he issued one of his most commercially successful recordings. Solstice, taped in December 1974 with saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Eberhard Weber, and drummer Jon Christensen, found favor among college listeners and European audiences alike. Many observers have since regarded it as the recording that first articulated the signature “ECM Sound.”

Alongside his solo work, Towner remained deeply engaged with Oregon. The band produced an album annually from 1972 through 1983 and maintained a steady touring schedule. In 1976 he released the admired duet recording Sargasso Sea with guitarist John Abercrombie.

In 1977 the ensemble of Garbarek, Christensen, Weber, and Towner followed up with Solstice/Sound and Shadows. In 1978 Towner realized an ambition with Batik, featuring bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette, the same rhythm section that had backed Evans in the late 1960s. Old Friends, New Friends in 1979 departed from his usual sparse format by adding cellist David Darling and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler to Gomez while replacing DeJohnette with drummer and percussionist Michael DiPasqua; on this date Towner also played French horn in addition to guitars and piano. Solo Concert appeared in 1980, and in 1981 Towner and Abercrombie issued the sequel Five Years Later.

Early in the 1980s Towner moved beyond his earlier minimalism. He began incorporating the Prophet 5 synthesizer into writing and performances both inside and outside Oregon, granting his compositions fresh dimensions and lending a bold, idiosyncratic quality to the band’s extended improvisations. Blue Sun, the 1983 solo album, marked his first use of the instrument.

During a 1984 German tour Oregon’s bus suffered a severe crash that claimed the lives of Walcott and manager Jo Härting. Crossing, released in 1985, was the final album to include the multi-instrumentalist. That year also brought Slide Show, a second duo project with Burton. When Oregon returned with Ecotopia in 1987, Trilok Gurtu assumed Walcott’s chair, though he departed after Always, Never, And Forever in 1991, after which the group continued as a trio for six years.

City of Eyes, the 1988 quintet album, ranked among Towner’s most exploratory efforts and featured Oregon’s McCandless, bassist Peacock, drummer Jerry Granelli on both acoustic and electronic percussion, and trumpeter and flugelhornist Markus Stockhausen. Open Letter followed in 1992. Recorded with drummer and percussionist Peter Erskine, the duo date received mixed notices for the first time in Towner’s catalog. Of its eleven selections he composed eight, co-wrote “Infection” with Erskine, and included two standards, among them Evans’ “Waltz For Debby.” The next year Towner and his wife moved to Italy, where he has resided ever since. He joined bassist Arild Andersen and Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos for the bassist’s If You Look Far Enough and recorded Oracle with Peacock in 1994. That same year he collaborated with pianist Marc Copland on Songs Without End for the Japanese Tokuma label. Lost And Found, a 1996 trio session with Christensen and bassist Marc Johnson, appeared next. Ana, issued in 1997, divided its program between solo nylon-string pieces and the suite Seven Pieces For Twelve Strings. Also in 1997 Towner and Gomez joined drummer Bill Bruford for the widely praised acoustic-trio album If Summer Had Its Ghosts.

Multi-instrumentalist Mark Walker joined Oregon in 1997 in time to appear on Northwest Passage and became fully integrated on Music For A Midsummer Night’s Dream the following year. He contributed to the expanded tonal and textural palette heard on the 2000 best-seller Oregon In Moscow, recorded with The Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra and nominated for four Grammy awards. Towner’s final leader date of the century, A Closer View, paired him again with Peacock in 1998. Entering the new millennium, his inventive and technical command remained undiminished. Anthem arrived in 2001. The sixteen-track guitar-only collection included interpretations of Charles Mingus’ “Goodbye, Pork-Pie Hat” and Scott LaFaro’s “Gloria’s Step,” framed by originals that featured two brief, multi-section interludes. It outsold any of his previous decade’s leader releases. In 2005 Towner, Granelli, and guitarist Robben Ford participated in Helium Tears, a Charlie Haden session originally taped in 1988. Time Line, issued by ECM the next year, gathered solo originals and standards; the release became his first solo chart entry, reaching number 15 on Traditional Jazz Albums and number 22 on Jazz Albums.

While touring with guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel in 2003, Towner met Kazakhstanian classical guitarist Slava Grigoryan, who proposed a trio project. Towner organized a 2005 tour that presented each musician in solo, duet, and trio formats. The three continued to perform together whenever schedules aligned, occupying much of Towner’s time and delaying further solo recordings.

Oregon earned a Grammy nomination for 2006’s 1000 Kilometers on CAM Jazz. In 2008 Towner and Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu delivered the duet album Chiaroscuro on ECM, which reached number 12 on Traditional Jazz Albums and number 15 on Jazz Albums. That year he also recorded From A Dream with Grigoryan and Muthspiel for Muthspiel’s Material label under the name MGT, issued in 2009. Four years later the trio moved to ECM for Travel Guide, which charted at number 11 on Traditional Jazz Albums and number 16 on Jazz Albums. Oregon released Family Tree on CAM Jazz the same year.

In 2016 Towner collaborated with Argentine saxophonist Javier Girotto and the ensemble Aires Tango on Duende for CAM Jazz. He returned to ECM in 2017 with My Foolish Heart, his first solo album in ten years. Balancing jazz and classical elements in a manner reminiscent of Evans, the recording’s title track—written by Victor Young and Ned Washington—was drawn from the pianist’s celebrated trio with LaFaro and Paul Motian. The release became his highest-charting album, peaking at number three on Jazz Albums, number two on Traditional Jazz Albums, and appearing on multiple streaming charts.

In March 2023, shortly after Towner’s eighty-third birthday, ECM issued At First Light, marking fifty years of his solo recording career. Alongside eight originals the album contained “Danny Boy,” Hoagy Carmichael’s “Little Old Lady,” and Jules Styne’s “Make Someone Happy.”