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| Ralph Towner at Jazzwerkstatt Peitz in 2020 |
By Paul Acquaro
Saddened to learn about the passing of guitarist Ralph Towner over the
weekend. Towner had a truly distinctive and influential voice on the
acoustic guitar and in modern jazz. His use of the nylon-string and
12-String guitar was formative in style and always a pleasure to hear on
recordings and especially in concert. To steal from my own review of My Foolish Heart (ECM, 2017), Towner's playing was a perfect blend of sophistication and irreverence to
genre. Not really jazz, certainly not free jazz, and not classical either,
his compositions lived comfortable between and outside of categorization.
Though Towner is probably most well known for his work with the band Oregon, he also
had a long and fruitful recording career with ECM. Some of my favorites recordings of his include the two duo recordings with John Abercrombie, Sargasso Sea
(1976) and Five Years Later (1982), but even more so, Solstice
(1975), his first as a leader of the group with saxophonist
Jan Garbarek, bassist
Eberhard Weber
and drummer
Jon Christensen. This recording, and its successor, Sounds and Shadows (1977), exemplify the best of ECM and his own approach, namely spacious,
lyrical, and harmonically rich music.
Of course, Towner's work is far more complete than these few recordings and are all worth a visit, up to his last release, At First Light from 2023. In addition
to his warm, narrative, and harmonically adventurous guitar playing, Towner also
played piano, synthesizer, trumpet and French horn. However, it was really
on guitar, in which he applied his classical training to create a unique mix
of jazz, folk, classical and world music.
Ralph Towner passed away on 18 January 2026 at age 85 in Rome.
1 comments:
I was lucky enough to see him play a short set of selections from the album "Sargasso Sea" with John Abercrombie in DC in 1976 as part of the ECM festival of music. It was my first "serious" jazz concert. I also heard him play in Boston with Oregon and had a chance to speak with him between sets. What surprised me was how tall he was (6'5" my estimate) and how enormous and thick his hands were. The guy was a monster on guitar and left a strong legacy of incredible "stick in your head tunes." My fav albums include the adventurous "Solstice" (ECM 1975), the hauntingly beautiful "Dis" - with saxophonist Jan Garbarek (ECM 1976), the sweeping "Sargasso Sea" (ECM 1976) with Abercrombie, and "Ana" (ECM 1997), a solo guitar effort. He saw me through the dark days of youth where everyone wrestles with meaning and purpose. I'll miss him dearly.
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