Ralph Towner, Glen Moore – Trios / Solos (1973/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:59 minutes | 833 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
Trios / Solos is an album by American jazz guitarist Ralph Towner with Glen Moore.
At AllMusic, critic Thom Jurek gave the album four stars, stating, “While Trios/Solos has its moments of pure unadulterated noodling yawn, there are more than enough dimensions where the four elements meet and spark to compensate”.
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Ralph Towner – Solstice (1975/2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 41:06 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
Considered one of Ralph Towner’s greatest albums, this 1975 release features the guitarist leading a quartet consisting of Jan Garbarek on saxophones and flute, Eberhard Weber on bass and cello and drummer Jon Christensen. Towner composed all the songs except for one contribution from Weber.
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Ralph Towner – My Foolish Heart (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:26 minutes | 715 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
After critically-lauded projects with trumpeter Paolo Fresu (Chiaroscuro) and with fellow guitarists Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan (Travel Guide), Ralph Towner returns to solo guitar for My Foolish Heart. Whether on classical guitar or 12-string guitar Towner’s touch is immediately identifiable. Solo music is an important thread through his rich discography and this new album – recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in February 2016 and produced by Manfred Eicher – follows in the great tradition of Diary, Solo Concert, Ana, Anthem, and Time Line. It features finely-honed new compositions as well as a pair of tunes (“Shard” and “Rewind”) from the songbook of Oregon, a dedication to the late Paul Bley (“Blue As In Bley”) and a single standard – Victor Young’s “My Foolish Heart” which Towner first came to love in Bill Evans’s interpretation.
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Ralph Towner – At First Light (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:06 minutes | 721 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
An ECM artist for his entire musical career, US guitarist Ralph Towner has built up a unique body of work in his recordings for the label.
Central to his oeuvre are his solo albums, the first of which, Diary, was issued 50 years ago. At First Light extends this great tradition, drawing inspiration from a broad palette of music. “My solo recordings have always included my own compositions in which there are trace elements of the many composers and musicians that have attracted me,” writes Towner in a liner note, citing the influence of, among others, George Gershwin, John Coltrane, John Dowland and Bill Evans: “I feel that At First Light is a good example of shaping this expanse of influences into my personal music.”
In addition to his own pieces, Towner also plays Hoagy Carmichael’s “Little Old Lady”, Jule Styne’s “Make Someone Happy” and the traditional tune “Danny Boy.”
Recorded at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, in February 2022, At First Light was produced by Manfred Eicher.
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Ralph Towner & John Abercrombie – Five Years Later (1981/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:12 minutes | 980 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: HDTracks | Artwork: Digital booklet | @ ECM
In 1976, guitarists Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie teamed up for a duet session, Sargasso Sea, that was released under Abercrombie’s name. Five years later, they made this ECM date. One can easily tell the two guitarists apart, since Abercrombie mostly plays electric and has a more forceful sound, while Towner’s solos are usually more introverted. They perform three of Towner’s songs, a pair of Abercrombie originals, and three collaborations. Although the interaction tends to be fairly quiet, there is a lot of subtle passion. (more…)
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Ralph Towner, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Slava Grigoryan – Travel Guide (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 00:50:32 minutes | 601 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: Q0buz | @ ECM Records GmbH
An international summit meeting, “Travel Guide” features US guitarist Ralph Towner, Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Kazakhstan-born and Australia-raised guitarist Slava Grigoryan. The three musicians first came together in 2005, initially for concerts in Australia, and have since toured widely. A 2009 recording on Muthspiel’s Material Records label documented the group’s early progress. Ralph Towner subsequently brought the project to ECM and the trio recorded this album in Lugano in August 2012, with Manfred Eicher as producer. Towner has been a key ECM recording artist for more than 40 years, while Muthspiel and Grigoryan make label debuts here. Grigoryan is well known as the preeminent Australian classical guitarist of his generation, and Muthspiel’s been an important figure on the transatlantic jazz scene for two decades, with his own bands and as a contributor to groups of Gary Burton, Paul Motian and many others. What all three guitarists share is a strong feeling for structure, a sense for lyrical improvisation and a feeling for space, harnessing instrumental technique to very graceful musical ends. Repertoire features five compositions by Towner, and five by Muthspiel.
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Ralph Towner – Solo Concert
Vinyl | LP Cover (1:1) | FLAC | 24bit/96kHz & 16bit/44kHz
Label: ECM Records / ECM 1173 | Release: 1980 | Genre: Acoustic-Jazz Fusion
Ralph Towner’s Solo Concert holds a special place in my ECM-adoring heart, for it was my introduction to a guitarist whose skills have since become staples of my listening life. Lovingly recorded in the open concert spaces of Munich and Zurich, Solo Concert is to the guitar what Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert is to the piano. It’s that good.
Towner’s own compositions make up the bulk of the album. The opening “Spirit Lake” is the most transcendent of these and exemplifies Towner’s craft as both technician and melodic wellspring. Notes drip from his 12-string with shimmering lucidity, dipping below every motif it can swing from as it blossoms into a brilliant flourish of an ending. What at first seems an abstract improvisational exercise in “Train Of Thought” reveals the instrument’s hidden voices, in which a pulsing bass lingers and harmonic clusters soar. The staggered melodies and banjo-like articulations of “Zoetrope” contrast superbly with “Chelsea Courtyard,” in which dissonant arpeggios lie in the grass, above which the clouds are so thin they’re barely visible, and motivations even more so. Still, the music offers more than enough provocation as nostalgias flit by the windows of our attention, the curtains of which Towner opens to let in the light of a half-remembered day.
Towner also lays his hands on a pocketful of sparkling covers. Of these, the two by John Abercrombie—“Ralph’s Piano Waltz” and “Timeless”—are notable for their use of thumbed anchors, which provide a ghostly counterpoint to wider runs in the upper registers. Lilting syncopations trade places with jazzier throwbacks, packing melodic energy into increasingly compact cells. Yet it is with “Nardis” (Davis/Evans) that Towner truly enthralls. Played on classical guitar, it is a vivid standout that jumps headfirst into its themes before unraveling them in a blissful wave. Towner’s deft harmonies and prowess at the fingerboard leap with the precision of synchronized swimmers about to clinch a gold.
This is an intelligently assembled program of complementary music that shows the depth and breadth of Towner’s abilities more than any single disc. My only complaint is the applause that breaks the spell of every piece when it ends. Then again, I’d have done the same had I been there.
If you’ve ever wondered just how high a guitar can fly, then here’s your plane ticket.
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