Ralph Towner, a boundary-pushing jazz guitarist, pianist, composer and founding member of the seminal jazz-world quartet Oregon, died on Sunday, Jan. 18 in Rome, Italy. He was 85.
His death was confirmed by ECM Records, with which he had a close association spanning more than 50 years.
Known for his rich, layered, and original sound that blended jazz harmony, classical precision, and world music aesthetics, Towner was one of the earliest artists to be signed to ECM Records, the groundbreaking record label that gave rise to a uniquely spacious, contemplative, and European-influenced movement in progressive jazz.
Throughout his career, Towner collaborated with a number of jazz pioneers, including bassist Gary Peacock, pianist Keith Jarrett, and his fellow guitarist John Abercrombie. He released more than 20 innovative albums with ECM as a solo artist or a leader, all of which deeply influenced a generation of musicians in jazz and beyond.
Nels Cline, the adventurous guitarist and composer best known as a member of the rock band Wilco, hailed Towner in a Facebook post as "one of my favorite musicians and a massive influence and inspiration to me since I was a teenager." He added: "I cannot overstate the importance of this man in my life's musical development."
Ralph Towner was born on Mar. 1, 1940 in the small town of Chehalis, Wash., about 90 minutes south of Seattle. Both parents were musicians: his mother, Bernice (Caverly) Towner, was a piano teacher, and his father, Milo Towner, played trumpet.
In 1958, Towner made his way to the University of Oregon, where he first studied art, and then switched to music composition, at that time focused on piano. During his time at university, Towner met bassist Glen Moore, who would later become a long-term collaborator in Oregon.
That group coalesced following Towner's move to New York City in 1968. There he landed a spot in the Paul Winter Consort, which introduced him to 12-string guitar, as well as to his soon-to-be Oregon bandmates, woodwind player Paul McCandless and percussionist Collin Walcott.
The members of Oregon were beginning to explore their own sound as a band in 1970, and made their debut in New York the following year (under the name Thyme — Music of Another Present Era). Their first album, Music of Another Present Era, was released on Vanguard Records in 1972.
Around that time, Towner met ECM's founder, Manfred Eicher. In 1973, Towner debuted on the label with his record, Trios/Solos. Over the next five decades, he would release a plethora of pioneering solo, duo and group albums on the label, including his last, a 2023 solo classical guitar record entitled At First Light.
Despite several lineup changes following Walcott's tragic death in a tour bus crash in 1984, and Moore's departure from the group in 2015, Oregon continued to record and tour until 2019.
Towner left New York City in 1982 and moved to Seattle, where he lived and performed for a decade before meeting his wife, Italian actress Mariella Lo Sardo, at an Oregon performance in Italy. In the early '90s, Towner moved to Palermo, Italy to be with Lo Sardo, whom he married in 1994. The couple later relocated to Rome, where Towner remained until his death.
In addition to Lo Sardo, Towner is survived by his ex-wife, Janet Towner; his daughter from that first marriage, Celeste Towner; and Phoenix Siewert, the son of his daughter's partner.
Edited by Nate Chinen, WRTI
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