Results for "Ralph Towner"

Wolfgang Muthspiel: Continuing The Dream

by R.J. DeLuke
April 4, 2020

Jazz has always traveled. It finds inquisitive musicians all over the globe, where often, people outside the U.S. receive the message more readily than those in the country where it was born. Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel was already improvising with his older brother, for fun, in the time leading up to his discovery of the art ...

Farnell Newton, Nuphar Fey and a tribute to Jon Christensen

by Bob Osborne
March 30, 2020

Two featured new albums from Farnell Newton and Nuphar Fey and a comprehensive tribute to Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen who passed away on 18th February Farnell Newton gets up on the good foot and heads off full speed ahead on his second leader album for Posi-Tone. This action packed session features the high powered ...

20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Rex Gregory

by Paul Rauch
March 29, 2020

The city of Seattle has a jazz history that dates back to the very beginnings of the form. It was home to the first integrated club scene in America, on Jackson St in the 1920's and '30s. It saw a young Ray Charles arrive as a teenager to escape the nightmare of Jim Crow in the ...

All About Jazz Contributor Tyran Grillo's book Between Sound and Space: An ECM Records Primer, Available Now

March 20, 2020

A printed compilation of some of ECM’s finest albums to be released over its 50-year history, recorded by musicians from the USA, Norway, Brazil, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, and many other countries. As an independent publisher, we are very happy to present our third English-language book and the first music book in our catalog: Between Sound and ...

Wolfgang Muthspiel: Angular Blues

by Mark Sullivan
March 18, 2020

Austrian jazz guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel's previous two ECM albums have been quintets: Where The River Goes (ECM, 2018) and Rising Grace (ECM, 2016). This trio date is a call back to his ECM leader debut, Driftwood (ECM, 2014), with Brian Blade returning on drums but Scott Colley replacing Larry Grenadier on double bass. The music is ...

Chris Trinidad: Chris Trinidad y Con Todo

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 18, 2020

One might think that Chris Trinidad would have a hard time figuring out his next move after Chris Trinidad's Chant Triptych II (Iridium, 2018), an instrumental album based on traditional Gregorian chants but played on instruments from India, the Balkans and other cultures. But Trinidad eventually landed upon this recipe: Take one Filipino-Canadian bassist. ...

Back in the Day, Around the World

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 11, 2020

Brooklyn Funk Essentials Stay Good Dorado Records 2019 Back in the day, jazz bands like Roy Ayers' Ubiquity and soul bands like the Ohio Players played more than jazz and soul. Jazz and soul were their main ingredient, but only one ingredient among others stirred in ...

Ralph Towner

Born: March 1, 1940

Musical innovation is no easy feat. It not only requires an innate talent, but also a devotion to the art that is not blinded by the commercial glare of the popular culture. Ralph Towner is such an innovator on the modern musical landscape, his ideas ever fresh, though they span a career of more than forty years.

Best known as the lead composer, guitarist, and keyboardist for the acoustic jazz ensemble "Oregon", Towner has also had a rich and varied solo career that has seen fruitful and memorable musical collaboration with such great modern musicians as Gary Burton, John Abercrombie, Egberto Gismonti, Larry Coryell, Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, and Gary Peacock.

John Abercrombie and Don Thompson: Yesterdays

by Don Phipps
January 21, 2020

The late John Abercrombie's outstanding and extensive recorded legacy includes two duet albums with fellow guitarist Ralph Towner, Sargasso Sea (ECM 2008) and Five Years Later (ECM, 2014), four Gateway trio albums (with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette), and three Baseline Trio albums (with bassist Hein Van de Geyn and drummer Joe LaBarbera).

Tumble: Waves

by Don Phipps
January 16, 2020

One can certainly appreciate the effort made by the members of Tumble to carve out a niche on Wave in the expanding and ever-changing world of jazz music. That said, however, there is a bit of disappointment. It's not that the group can be faulted for poor musicianship, but the readings in general are uninspired and ...