Ralph Towner Was Isolated; All I Did Was Learn to Play the Guitar
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Oregon's c... 0 ::l (/l Classical /Jazz ;;;· < ~ Master the intensity. I lived in a small room and had no distractions. The year in Vienna Ralph Towner was isolated; all I did was learn to play the guitar. Providing you have an excel By Len Lyons lent teacher, I don't think this technical thing is much of a mystery - as much as It is easy to think of playmg to meter, voicing; and written charts for converting this technique into music an instrument as an end in itself, but the the multitude of instruments the quar and emotion." case of Ralph Towner is a reminder that tet uses. Using his solo album as a frame After that year in Vienna, Towner a musical "instrument" is just that ___: a of refere.nce, ·Towner's music can be returned to Oregon for a master's degree device for expressing music. Towner, delicate and sensit~ve (as in- "Entry in .a program in music theory (though he known primarily as the guitarist in the Diary"), pleasingly lyrical ("Icarus"), or never completed his thesis) and fhen contemporary music ensemble, Oregon a ]arring, neaih surrealistic collage of 1 returned to Vienna for another year of (an artistic offspring of the Paul Winter painful alienation ("Images Unseen"). study with Scheit. In 1968, without Consort), is a musician first and a guitar Although he is happy to have his music quite !mowing why, he moved to New ist second. He readily uses the acoustic become a "catalyst for personal reac York City, commenting in retrospect, "I piano, trumpet, and percussives to trans tions," he considers his compositions to wouldn't be here doing this interview if form his musical ideas into physical be an expression, not an objective state I hadn't moved to New York. I met reality. Still, it is the acoustic guitar ment transla table into descriptions such colleagues and influences. It's an amaz (both classical and 12-string) through as those above. He says that he writes ingly energetic place which opened the which the music inside is most com "on the level of sound." doors to playing, recording, and tour pletely and sensitively brought out. Towner's involvement with music ing." "I didn't even know what a guitar began at age three, when he began In New York, however, Towner was until I was 22," Towner says. Now, "improvising" on the piano. Though his started out by earning his living as a at a still boyish 35, his relationship to mother was a piano teacher, Ralph pianist, simply because the acoustic gui the instrument has been serious, single never studied the instrument formally. tar did not fare well in the lounge-trio minded, and intense. It has produced a In fact, his musical training didn't begin gigs he was playing. For him, the elec body of recorded work which includes until he enrolled at the University of tric guitar was not an alternative. "f an appearance on Weather Report's I Oregon as a composition major and never liked the electric guitar," he says. Sing the Body Electric [Columbia, KC- part-time trumpet player. In his last " Of course, I enjoyed it, like listening to 31352), Oregon's three albums on Van year of college, he was on the road to some old Herb Ellis things, but I wasn't guard (Music of Another Present Era becoming a guitarist, though seemingly even remotely interested in playing the [79326) , Distant /fills [79341) , and by chance. "I went to a music store to electric guitar. It appeals to me now, Winter Light [79350] ), and two buy a trumpet mute or music paper, though, because of the modern players. Towner albums on Germany's ECM, something like that," he recalls, "and I'm not on "an anti-electric campaign or Trios/Solos, on which he is backed by there was this salesman type there who anything. It's a valid instrument. I'm the other members of Oregon, and a sold me a classical guitar. I taught just not drawn to it." solo album, Diary. He is also a prolific myself a little bit, · and then wrote a As a pianist (and musician), Towner composer, writing nearly 80% of c;:omposition for flute and guitar." was strongly influenced by Bill Evans, Oregon's music, and a seasoned per Just after college, Towner's serious especially the Evans-Scott LaFaro former, since the group is currently on ness about music became focused on collaboration's, and evidence of this the road ten months of the year. that one instrument, and he traveled to influence still surfaces in his recent com His music is essentially unclassifiable, Vienna, enrolling in the Academy of positions (for example, "Icarus"). Thus, though it is often associated with jazz Music and Dramatic Arts. He explains, most of his playing in New York was because of its 'free,' improvisational "I went there to study with one man, either jazz or the Brazilian-oriented jazz nature. But its serious (in the sense of Karl Scheit, and he turned out to be a ' which was in vogue in the latter half of "classical") dimension cannot be great teacher. I feel that I made up for the Sixties. It brought him into groups ignored, given his meticulous attention my 'late start' in one year because of Continued on page 28 10 RALPH TOWNER better." Continued from page 10 Despite his initial reluctance, the 12- with singer Astrud Gilberto, percussion string still has a place in Oregon's instru ist Airto (then on traps), and bassists ~entation. " It's a pretty fascinating Miroslav Vitous and Dave Holland. mstrument," explains Ralph, "so I still Occasionally, he did jazz guitar work, use the 1 2-string when I write some playing with Miles Davis and Keith thing on it, though it would be easier Jarrett. However, he recalls that during for me not to play it as far as having this whole period he was "trying to find consistent fingernail length is con a place for the guitar." cerned." Towner now owns three Guild The commercial opportunity finally 12-strings, preferring one he bought in a presented itself in 1970, when he was pawn shop because · the width of the invited to join the Paul Winter Consort. neck suits him. He uses medium gauge Yet, his classical training had to accom silk and steel compound strings. modate another variation: "When I joined Paul Winter's group, he had a The Consort, aside from providing a 12-string and he wanted me to play it. I steady format for his acoustic guitar dragged my heels at first because of the work, was important to Towner in two fingernail problem and the steel strings, other respects. " I was forced," he says, but then I found a way to play it" " to learn how to integrate all those (Towner plays both strings simultan instruments in my writing." Second, it eously). " If I hit one string," he con brought him, Glen Moore, and Colin tinues, "I'd be sort of digging at it by Walcott, who had known each other ... , t ... J-\ PtC,<UPS lifting up on it, which would break my previously, into a working relationship THE CLEAREST SOUND AROUND fingernails right off. Those double with oboist Paul McCandless. After two FOR GUITAR OR BASS strings form a little plateau, a plane, and years in the Consort, Oregon was LIST. ... $66.00 you push down on those two strings as formed and so named because Ralph and bassist Moore had a penchant for DISTRIBUTED EXCLUSIVELY BY: if they were a wide band, because if you lift up on a string, even in classical, telling stories about their home state. you'll lose all your sound. It'll just Towner feels that it would be a "misrep evaporate. But this push-and-roll tech resentation" to say the group split from jiiiiiM nique, and a very flat plane of plucking Paul Winter (the groups, in fact, have 2831 7th St. Room 21 - trying to make the strings vibrate since shared a stage at the Great Ameri Berkeley, CA 94710 horizontally (parallel to the face of the can Music Hall in San Francisco). guitar) - bring the sound out much Continued on page 30 ' ASURE SIGN OF LIFE! Look For I~ A~ Your Music Dealer's Our Here's Where It's At! counter card is a sure sign of life. Lively, long-lasting strings for all fretted instruments. A lively dealer attuned to your needs. ·Enjoy the finer things of life. UseG.H.S. strings. gltsc0 r p 0 r a t i 0 n Dept. HW P.O. Box 136 Battle Creek, Mich. 49016 RALPH TOWN ER note. Your note will change pitch. And Continued from page 28 l do that too, sometimes. But, generally, Rather, the quartet decided to pursue all the stop tones are done with the their own musical identities. right hand. A note will sustain, and Though Oregon has no "leader" as such Towner seems to have received the most' notoriety, largely because of his guitar work. There is no denying that his sound is unique, a.nd he attributes its individuality not just to his musical ideas, but to the way he plays the instrument. "It's a method," he says, " no t a style." The most singular and curio us aspect of this method is that he considers it pianistic. " The classical guitar is really just a keyboard ," he explains. " There's a very important difference between plectrum playing and , not just fingerstyle, but the whole classical approach, which is the control of the volume and identity of each voice.