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Ralph Towner


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  • 2 months later...

There's an interesting passage in Bill Bruford's bio where he talks with great admiration for Towner. He reports conversations with Towner about flying into Oslo, failing to sleep and then going into the studio jet-lagged:

"He'll tell you that his entire body of recorded work has been extracted from him between stifled yawns and that he has never made a record yet on which he was not half-asleep."

Of course, some wags would maintain this was standard ECM recording policy!

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I saw that, I still haven't read the entire book. Too many books, not enough time.

Yesterday at work I was listening to Batik and was thinking about how different the results were (If Summer Had...) with another drummer (Bruford replacing DeJohnette). Of course the Bruford album has different composers (mostly Bruford).

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  • 9 months later...

There's an interesting passage in Bill Bruford's bio where he talks with great admiration for Towner. He reports conversations with Towner about flying into Oslo, failing to sleep and then going into the studio jet-lagged:

"He'll tell you that his entire body of recorded work has been extracted from him between stifled yawns and that he has never made a record yet on which he was not half-asleep."

Of course, some wags would maintain this was standard ECM recording policy!

Ha, that's kind of funny :crazy:

Happy Birthday to Mr. Towner!

I don't have many of his recordings yet, but the two Touchstones (Solstice and Batik) are fine!

And his recent one, "Chiaroscuro" with Paolo Fresu, is very good, too!

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Happy Birthday to Mr. Towner!

I don't have many of his recordings yet, but the two Touchstones (Solstice and Batik) are fine!

two classics from my youth!

And his recent one, "Chiaroscuro" with Paolo Fresu, is very good, too!

gotta get that one.

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Wow there is a Ralph Towner thread and I haven't pitched in. One of my favorites. Solstice is indeed gorgeous and was a great bridge for a prog rock fan like me back in the day. On the whole I love the sound of his twelve string most of all, but my single favorite cut, Oregon's Yet To Be doesn't feature 12 string at all, Ralph is on piano. The solo versions of the "Hits" on Diary are to die for, Icarus and Silence of a Candle. A melodist and composer first and an improviser second, his projects denied easy genre classification. One could view him as a pioneer paving the way for increased prominence for both New Age and World Music.

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Wow there is a Ralph Towner thread and I haven't pitched in. One of my favorites. Solstice is indeed gorgeous and was a great bridge for a prog rock fan like me back in the day. On the whole I love the sound of his twelve string most of all, but my single favorite cut, Oregon's Yet To Be doesn't feature 12 string at all, Ralph is on piano. The solo versions of the "Hits" on Diary are to die for, Icarus and Silence of a Candle. A melodist and composer first and an improviser second, his projects denied easy genre classification. One could view him as a pioneer paving the way for increased prominence for both New Age and World Music.

Yet I always think of him as a jazz guy influenced by classical music. I guess I'm just more interested in his solo albums.

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[

I don't have many of his recordings yet, but the two Touchstones (Solstice and Batik) are fine!

And his recent one, "Chiaroscuro" with Paolo Fresu, is very good, too!

yes, Chiaroscuro is a good one, nice to hear him on the 12 String on a few tracks on it.

My all time favorite by him is Batik.

Edited by WorldB3
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  • 1 month later...

I've been spinning this a lot in the car in the last few weeks.

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Ralph Towner - Open Letter.

I really love it too. The combination of classical guitar & Prophet synth is real nice.

Edited by 7/4
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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

I heard Oregon play@Birdland, NYC last week. It's the first time I've heard Towner play live and I was pretty thrilled, I wish I stayed for the second set. I wish he played more guitar, he also plays keyboards. I enjoyed myself anyway, the band was great. It was first time I’d heard Towner live. If only he’d perform more solo gigs in the states!

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I've picked up a bunch of stuff over the past few years.

Diary

Open Letter

Solstice

Batik

Oregon:

Winter Light; Music Of Another Present Era; s/t on ECM; Ecotopia

Winter Light is great! The instrumental version of Jim Pepper's Witchi Tai-To is sublime!

Kenny Wheeler-Deer Wan, terrific album!

Would love to purchase a CD of Old Friends New Friends if it gets reissued.

Oregon fans might be interested in Nguyen Le's Walking On The Tiger's Tail. A great record

featuring Paul McCandless, Art Lande, and Jamie Haddad.

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  • 2 years later...
  • 11 months later...

Rare ECM video! Ralph Towner with Solstice. Where is more ECM video from the early days???

NRK TV
Jazz i Munch-museet
28. februar 1975

"Norwegian music program. Surrounded by Munch paintings met four leading jazz musicians, two Norwegian and two overseas, to its first public interaction. The American guitarist Ralph Towner, the Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, the German bassist Eberhard Weber and Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen - Ralph Towner's quartet. The recording is from an exercise in the Munch Museum in Oslo. "

 

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