A true original and virtuoso has left the stage
Music has lost an original and virtuoso after guitarist Ralph Towner died, aged 85. His record label ECM posted on January 18 that he had died in Italy, where he lived for several decades.
Towner’s website posted this epitaph: “Never has one person conceived of such beautiful music, a triumph of human creativity, and brought it to a world audience. He was one of the greatest of men, not only in his artistic spirit, but in his generous and magnanimous character.”
Absolutely true. Though his playing began on the piano, he transferred his heart, soul and passion to the guitar, giving it a flow of musicality in both ensemble and solo work. The way he played the six- and 12-string guitar changed the way others heard guitar music and how other musicians contemplated the crafting of music. His range traversed acoustic, jazz and fusion.
So much was this evident that it felt like Towner could encapsulate the universe in both the cascade of notes, the melding of chords, and the silence between the notes. He was a true original.
In an interview with this masthead, he once said, “When I’m playing solo, I still approach the music as though it were a group music. I use the colours of the guitar to imply a lot more musicians than are there.”
He played with the giants of the jazz and fusion world, from Weather Report, Paul Winter and John Abercrombie to Keith Jarrett, Gary Burton and Jan Garbarek, and also formed the legendary jazz/fusion group Oregon.
In an interview with Jazz Times a few years ago, he said: “There’s something about having the freedom to basically direct the music yourself. Guitar is such a good solo instrument; there’s a sense of playing an ensemble kind of music, but on your own.”
There was an Australian connection too. Towner teamed up with Slava Grigoryan to record the album Travel Guide with Wolfgang Muthspiel. The trio, plus Leonard Grigoryan, toured Australia about a decade ago.
Towner studied musical composition at the University of Oregon. The work of jazz pianist Bill Evans was hugely influential. He took the nuances and phrasing and mere way of looking at how to play the piano and imparted it first upon the classical guitar, and then with the greater harmonic opportunities of the 12-string to create new music: Towner music.
The tributes from the music world have flowed, upon news of his death. Perhaps there are even tears on the moon. It seems somehow appropriate that two lunar craters are named after his compositions: Icarus and Ghost Beads. The crew of Apollo 15 named them. His, then, was truly the music of the spheres.
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