* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Books about the arts and some haunts for a Denton October – Denton Record-Chronicle

    Uncover Artistic Treasures and Spooky Adventures to Experience in Denton This October

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Toni Braxton Is Turning Her Biggest Hits Into Lifetime Movies – Yahoo

    Toni Braxton Is Turning Her Biggest Hits Into Lifetime Movies – Yahoo

    Major airline to offer new in-flight entertainment options for passengers – PennLive.com

    Major airline to offer new in-flight entertainment options for passengers – PennLive.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    A Tech Expo Shows What China Can Make, but Not Who’ll Buy It All – The New York Times

    Inside China’s Tech Expo: Cutting-Edge Innovations Face Uncertain Demand

    Steampunk Metal Oval Technology Sense Sunglasses Personality Handmade Chain Multicolor Sunglasses UV400 – The San Joaquin Valley Sun

    Steampunk Metal Oval Sunglasses with Handmade Multicolor Chain – Bold UV400 Protection and Unique Style

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as Chief Technology Officer – Yahoo Finance

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as New Chief Technology Officer

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Books about the arts and some haunts for a Denton October – Denton Record-Chronicle

    Uncover Artistic Treasures and Spooky Adventures to Experience in Denton This October

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Toni Braxton Is Turning Her Biggest Hits Into Lifetime Movies – Yahoo

    Toni Braxton Is Turning Her Biggest Hits Into Lifetime Movies – Yahoo

    Major airline to offer new in-flight entertainment options for passengers – PennLive.com

    Major airline to offer new in-flight entertainment options for passengers – PennLive.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    A Tech Expo Shows What China Can Make, but Not Who’ll Buy It All – The New York Times

    Inside China’s Tech Expo: Cutting-Edge Innovations Face Uncertain Demand

    Steampunk Metal Oval Technology Sense Sunglasses Personality Handmade Chain Multicolor Sunglasses UV400 – The San Joaquin Valley Sun

    Steampunk Metal Oval Sunglasses with Handmade Multicolor Chain – Bold UV400 Protection and Unique Style

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as Chief Technology Officer – Yahoo Finance

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as New Chief Technology Officer

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home General

The Perennially Eclectic Guitarist Ralph Towner Is Still Defying Categorization

October 8, 2023
in General
The Perennially Eclectic Guitarist Ralph Towner Is Still Defying Categorization
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

It’s been 50 years since Ralph Towner’s first album solely under his name, Diary, came out on producer Manfred Eicher’s groundbreaking ECM Records label. Towner had already been recognized as a great up-and-coming player for his work in the Paul Winter Consort and the remarkably eclectic quartet Oregon, both of whom could be labeled chamber jazz groups that also played “world music” before that label existed. Diary, however, was all Towner, playing 12-string acoustic and nylon-string classical guitar, piano, and gong(!) on a wide-ranging set of pieces that found him sometimes performing solo, other times layering in another instrumental voice, effectively duetting with himself. The music was moody, exploratory, often lyrical, occasionally dissonant—and always interesting. 

Towner is usually classified as a jazz player and composer, but to me that feels limiting (even as “jazz” has become so all-encompassing). Yes, he cites John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and many other jazz greats as seminal influences. Yes, he has played and recorded with Charlie Haden, Larry Coryell, Joe Zawinul, Keith Jarrett, John Abercrombie, Paul McCandless, Gary Peacock, Wayne Shorter, and so many other jazz masters. And yes, he has always been devoted to improvisation and using harmonies often found in jazz. But that label disregards such myriad inspirations as Brazilian, Indian, modern classical, folk, and popular tunes from the Great American Songbook, as well as the fact that his guitar style has been hugely informed by classical-guitar technique. 

At 83, the hugely prolific Towner—25 or so albums as a leader, another 30 with Oregon, and many more where he has appeared as a guest player—is still writing and recording vital, involving pieces that draw on his lifetime of musical passions and influences. His latest ECM release, his first since the excellent My Foolish Heart in 2017, is called At First Light, and it was recorded using only solo classical guitar—no 12-string this time out (nor keyboards or trumpet or any other instruments on which he is fluent). The album has achingly beautiful melodic moments, intriguing rhythmic turns, passages that seem to float into the ether, pieces that feel like they tell a wordless story, and others that maybe ask a question: in other words, typical Ralph Towner. 

Towner has lived in Rome, Italy, for many years, and in an email interview, he shared thoughts on his latest project and his process of composing and arranging for guitar. 

Ralph Towner with John Abercrombie.Towner with John Abercrombie. Photo: Roberto Masotti

Searching for Songs

Most of the tracks on At First Light are original compositions, including a stripped-down version of the spirited early-’90s Oregon tune “Guitarra Picante” (see transcription in this issue) and an extended extrapolation on “Ubi Sunt” from My Foolish Heart. As has often been the case on his solo records, there are also a couple of imaginative interpretations of standards—Hoagy Carmichael’s “Little Old Lady” and Jule Styne’s “Make Someone Happy”—plus the traditional Irish tune “Danny Boy.” 

“Each standard attracted me at some time,” he said when I asked about his approach to the songs he pulled apart and reworked. “I try to make them sound comfortable on the classical guitar, along with reharmonizations that set the melodies in relief.”

“Flow,” from At First Light

As for his own new originals on the album, Towner noted, “The songs were composed or arranged at separate times during the few years that preceded the recording.” His pieces usually evolve from improvisations that he writes down as they take form. “I listen to myself,” he said, “and differentiate between what is a catalyst for a composition and what is a random collection of sounds.” 

In a 2017 interview from Anil Prasad’s book Innerviews: Music Without Borders, Towner expanded on his writing methodology: “It’s related to wanting to complete an idea. “I basically write by playing. If I discover something as I’m practicing on the instrument, I’ll want to pursue it further. I’ll discover the first few elements of it and then telescope it into a whole piece. I’m curious to see how the stories turn out. Writing is like reading for me. Similar to when I start a book, if the material reaches out and grabs me, I’m pulled along just like a reader is, wondering where the piece is going to go. In that way, I’m almost a member of the audience seeing how the piece will unfold. I’ve always been quite driven in the solo element. I’ve always wanted to ensure my work, particularly on the classical guitar, holds together and is fully realized.” 

Towner noted in an ECM label interview that his own compositions include trace elements of composers and musicians that attract him, including George Gershwin, John Coltrane, Baroque-era Irish harpist John Dowland, and perhaps his biggest influence, jazz pianist Bill Evans. At First Light, Towner said, “is a good example of shaping this expanse of influences into my personal music.” 

And as he added in our interview, “Upon hearing the rough mix of this album, I found that the songs all seemed to be mileposts in my life of music.”

Ralph Towner with Paolo Fresu on trumpetTowner with Paolo Fresu. Photo: Stefan Oldenburg

A Pianist Who Plays Guitar

As befits a musician whose mother was a piano teacher and whose father was trumpeter, Towner was a skilled pianist and horn player long before he seriously took up the guitar. During his years at the University of Oregon, where he studied composition, Towner walked into a music store to buy “a trumpet mute or music paper, and there was a salesman-type there who sold me a classical guitar,” he recalled. “I taught myself a little bit and then wrote a composition for flute and guitar.” 

Smitten with the guitar, he enrolled in the prestigious Vienna Academy to study classical guitar intensively with esteemed teacher and player Karl Scheit (sometimes called the “Segovia of Austria”) in 1963–64 and again in 1967–68. All through the ’60s, too, Towner was listening to Brazilian music that featured nylon-string guitar played by such notables at João Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá, and Baden Powell—much of which seeped into the American jazz world.

Ralph Towner plays “Guitarra Picante” in Copenhagen in 2019.

However, when Towner moved from Oregon to New York City following his second stint with Scheit, he found it easier to get gigs as a pianist than as a guitarist, so his evolution as primarilya guitarist happened gradually. 

In 1970, a new wrinkle was added when Towner joined the Paul Winter Consort and Winter asked him to try playing 12-string guitar. Though it was quite a change from nylon-string acoustic, Towner mastered the instrument fairly quickly, and it became an important part of his arsenal for the rest of his career—especially once he and Consort bandmates Paul McCandless, Glen Moore, and Collin Walcott split to form the groundbreaking group Oregon. Just as Towner’s playing and composing for nylon-string is utterly unique, so too is his 12-string repertoire. Even so, he has often referred to himself as a piano player who plays guitar. 

“Piano technique plays an important role in my guitar playing and composition in general,” he told me. “Julian Bream was a great example of a guitarist playing in a more pianistic style.”

The trio MGT: Ralph Towner in the studio with Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava GrigoryanThe trio MGT: Towner with Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan. Photo: Dániel Vass.

Tools of His Trade

Towner has played a variety of classical guitars through the years, including a pair of Ramírez models from 1964 and 1972. Over the past three decades, however, his favored nylon-string guitars have been custom models. “The guitar I used on At First Light was built by Australian luthier Jim Redgate,” Towner says. 

Redgate first made Towner a double-top guitar around 2010. (Fairly common in the classical guitar world, the double-top design employs two thin wooden soundboards sandwiching a very thin layer of honeycombed strengthening material such as the polymer Nomex, said to enhance the projection and flexibility of the top.) 

After playing that double top for a few years, Towner wanted a traditional instrument similar to one Redgate had made for Australian classical guitarist Slava Grigoryan. (Towner made two exceptional trio albums with Grigoryan and Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel as MGT—don’t miss their 2013 release Travel Guide.) Redgate says, “The one I made for Ralph that he uses now is a traditional fan-braced cedar top guitar with Honduras rosewood back and sides and a full French polish finish. He sold the double top and just has the traditional guitar now.” 

Since 1995, Towner has also owned several classical guitars made by Portland, Oregon–based luthier Jeffrey Elliott, the first of which was a co-build with Elliott’s colleague Cyndy Burton made from European spruce and Indian rosewood. Towner described the Elliott/Burton guitar a few years ago as “old faithful; the most perfectly balanced guitar I’ve ever played.” 

As for Towner’s 12-strings, they’ve all been Guilds, such as an F-212 that he played on the Weather Report track “The Moor” on that group’s first record. He also has a series of custom instruments from the Guild workshop, including a mahogany-bodied Florentine cutaway F-212 and an F-512, both with necks that more closely match the width of his classical guitars.

RalphTowner seated with guitar. Photo by John CroninPhoto: John Cronin

Daily Practice

Towner doesn’t travel as much as he once did, but his playing schedule is still sprinkled with occasional gigs in various European cities (which are easily accessible since he’s based in Rome), and in April 2023 he even played in Shanghai. In recent years, he’s recorded his ECM albums with Manfred Eicher at a studio in nearby Lugano, Switzerland—usually in just a couple of days of live tracking, as they have done for the last 50 years. Hey, if it ain’t broke…

“I still play every day,” Towner says when I ask whether he’s made adjustments to his practice regimen as he’s gotten older. “I have a few exercises that wake up my hands, but I find it better to immediately play music, as it deals directly with the refinements in muscular control necessary to produce the tone and dynamics needed. Then, a week before a concert I usually start working with pieces I intend to perform.”

He’s also still writing all the time—sitting down with a guitar or at a piano keyboard and improvising, or retrieving fragments of ideas from his extremely fertile mind, perhaps remembering and reworking some riff or passage from one his hundreds of compositions, or the thousands of others he has played; shaping them slowly but surely into something brand new. Because that’s what he does.

I concluded our interview by asking Towner if he listens much to his older music and what he thinks when he hears it. His answer was typically self-effacing: “I am listening more often to music I previously recorded and am often surprised at how well-played those albums were.” No surprise here. That’s what the rest of us—the fans—have thought all along.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : AcousticGuitar – https://acousticguitar.com/ralph-towner-is-still-defying-categorization/

Previous Post

Rio Tinto Bets Big On World’s Largest Untapped Iron Ore Mine

Next Post

NFL London score: Bills-Jaguars highlights, top plays, more

MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

October 4, 2025
Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki opens up about pitching in relief – Yahoo Sports

Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki opens up about pitching in relief – Yahoo Sports

October 4, 2025
Ageing and health – World Health Organization (WHO)

Ageing and health – World Health Organization (WHO)

October 3, 2025
CFOs confident in their own companies but not in the economy – CFO.com

CFOs Reveal Unshakable Confidence in Their Companies Amid Economic Uncertainty

October 3, 2025
Books about the arts and some haunts for a Denton October – Denton Record-Chronicle

Uncover Artistic Treasures and Spooky Adventures to Experience in Denton This October

October 3, 2025
WFSD Announces Northwell Mental Health Partnership – William Floyd School District

WFSD Announces Northwell Mental Health Partnership – William Floyd School District

October 3, 2025
The current state of shutdown politics – CNN

Inside the High-Stakes Battle Over Government Shutdowns

October 3, 2025
Bhagwat rings ‘warning bell’ on Himalayas, ecology threats – Times of India

Bhagwat rings ‘warning bell’ on Himalayas, ecology threats – Times of India

October 3, 2025
117-Year-Old Woman’s Diet Could Help Us All Live Longer – ScienceAlert

117-Year-Old Woman’s Diet Could Help Us All Live Longer – ScienceAlert

October 3, 2025
The Best Time to Eat Breakfast, Backed by Science—and Why It Matters More Than You Think – Real Simple

The Ideal Time to Eat Breakfast: Surprising Science-Backed Reasons Why It Matters

October 3, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (849)
  • Economy (870)
  • Entertainment (21,744)
  • General (17,393)
  • Health (9,913)
  • Lifestyle (882)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (871)
  • Politics (881)
  • Science (16,080)
  • Sports (21,371)
  • Technology (15,853)
  • World (853)

Recent News

MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

October 4, 2025
Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki opens up about pitching in relief – Yahoo Sports

Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki opens up about pitching in relief – Yahoo Sports

October 4, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version