I’ve followed and admired Ralph Towner for many years. Now keep in mind that I play the guitar, sometimes professionally, and I do play some jazz. But I have no idea how he creates lush pieces like the one in the video below. I only know that I love listening to his creations. And consider that he didn’t even start learning to play the guitar until he was 22. This is a small sample of what he can do, a song without a name (if you like this, Youtube offers many of his other performances):
Towner formed an incredible group called Oregon in 1970. If you haven’t heard any of their music, you owe it to yourself to click on the video below. They created quite a few albums over the years, and they sound exotically fresh every time I listen. And yes, that’s Ralph Towner in the following video playing jazz piano.
Love the Towner piece! Have you ever heard any of his collaborations with John Abercrombie?
Here's one of my all time favorite pieces with the two of them. Check out the fluid unison line! Magic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mEHz6Gr4uA
Mike: That's fantastic. Thanks. It amazes me that Towner is so incredibly multi-faceted. He excels at both piano and guitar in a difficult genre (he own genre, it seems. It's hard to categorize). Plus, he writes fantastic music. Plus, I have read that he also excels at trumpet and french horn.
Oregon is now touring all over Europe. I only recently thought of looking them up again and it was so cool to see that they have been so busy for the past 15 years. A real treat for my ears.