Ralph Towner

Ralph Towner (* March 1, 1940 in Chehalis, Washington) is an American jazz guitarist.

Life and work

Towner completed a classical trumpet training and learned self-taught next to the piano. He graduated in 1958 to study composition at the University of Oregon and went in 1963 to study the classical guitar playing to Karl log in Vienna. This was followed by studies with Homer Keller at the University of Oregon in 1967 was another year of study at log.

In 1968 he went as a guitarist and pianist in New York City, where he became in 1970 a member of the Paul Winter Consort. In 1972 he founded with Glen Moore, Collin Walcott and Paul McCandless, the group Oregon, which he grossed more than thirty albums over the years. In addition, he also worked with musicians like Keith Jarrett, Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter ( Weather Report ), Egberto Gismonti, Gary Burton, John Abercrombie, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, Jan Hammer, Eddie Gomez, Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, the trio Azimuth and 2009 in a duo with Paolo Fresu ( on the Enjoy Jazz Festival).

Towner occurs worldwide, in North and South America, Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He received the 1974 Down Beat Critics Poll and won in 1976 with Solstice and in 1988 with the album Oregon Ecotopia the German Record Prize.

He composed orchestral works, which, inter alia, from the Stuttgart Opera Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Freiburg Festival Orchestra were listed, a solo suite for guitar and chamber music and film scores, and wrote a book about technique and improvisation on the classical guitar.

Bibliography

• Improvisation and Performance Techniques for Classical and Acoustic Guitar (1982 )
• Solo Guitar Works, vol. 1 (2002), ISBN 0971727805
• Solo Guitar Works, vol. 2 (2006), GSP 01-910034

Discography

• Trios Solos, 1973 ( with Glen Moore)
• Diary, 1973
• Matchbook, 1974 ( with Gary Burton)
• Solstice, 1975 ( with Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber, Jon Christensen )
• Sargasso Sea, 1976 ( with John Abercrombie )
• Dis, 1976 ( with Jan Garbarek )
• Solstice: Sounds & Shadows, 1977
• Batik, 1978
• Old Friends New Friends, 1979
• Solo Concert 1979
• Five Years Later, 1981
• Blue Sun, 1982
• Works Compilation (ed. 1984)

• Slideshow, 1985 ( with Gary Burton)
• City of Eyes, 1986 ( with Markus Stockhausen, Paul McCandless, Gary Peacock, Jerry Granelli )
• Open Letter, 1992 ( with Peter Erskine )
• Ana, 1996
• Un Altra Vita, 1992 ( with Massimo Moriconi, Fabrizio Sferra )
• A Closer View, 1998 ( with Gary Peacock)
• Maria Pia De Vito: Verso, 2000
• Anthem, 2000
• Timeline, 2005
• From a Dream, 2007 ( with Slava Grigoryan and Wolfgang Muthspiel )
• Chiaroscuro, 2008 ( with Paolo Fresu )
• Travel Guide, 2012 ( with Wolfgang Muthspiel Slava Grigoryan and )