Ralph Towner (born March 1, 1940) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the

twelve-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 string (music), strings in six Course (music), courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lo ...

classical guitar The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string (music), string instrument with strings made of catgut, gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

and

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

Biography

Towner was born into a musical family in

Chehalis, Washington Chehalis ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lewis County, Washington, United States. The population was 7,439 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is located in the Chehalis valley and is split by Interstate 5 (I-5) and State Route 6 ...

, United States. His mother was a piano teacher and his father a trumpet player. Towner learned to improvise on the piano at the age of three. He began his career as a conservatory-trained classical pianist, attending the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

from 1958 to 1963, where he also studied composition with

Homer Keller Homer T. Keller (b. Oxnard, California, February 17, 1915; d. Upland, California May 12, 1996) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He graduated from Oxnard Union High School in Oxnard, California in 1933, after which he at ...

. He studied classical guitar at the

Vienna Academy of Music The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university established in 1817 located in Vienna. With a student body of over three thousand, it is the largest institution of its kind in Austria, and one of t ...

with Karl Scheit from 1963 to 1964 and 1967–68. He joined world music pioneer

Paul Winter Paul Winter (born August 31, 1939) is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He is a pioneer of world music and earth music, which interweaves the voices of the wild with instrumental voices from classical, jazz and world music. The ...

's "Consort" ensemble in the late 1960s. He first played jazz in New York City in the late 1960s as a pianist and was strongly influenced by the renowned jazz pianist

Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, a ...

. He began improvising on classical and 12-string guitars in the late 1960s and early 1970s and formed alliances with musicians who had worked with Evans, including flautist

Jeremy Steig Jeremy Steig (September 23, 1942 – April 13, 2016)Peter Keepnews, "Jeremy ...

, bassists

Eddie Gómez Edgar Gómez (born October 4, 1944) is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist, known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio from 1966 to 1977. Biography Gómez moved with his family from Puerto Rico at a young age to New York, where he was raised. ...

, Marc Johnson,

Gary Peacock Gary George Peacock (May 12, 1935September 4, 2020) was an American jazz double bassist. He recorded a dozen albums under his own name, and also performed and recorded with major jazz figures such as avant garde saxophonist Albert Ayler, piani ...

, and drummer

Jack DeJohnette Jack DeJohnette (born August 9, 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, B ...

. Along with bandmates

Paul McCandless Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. (born March 24, 1947) is an American multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the American jazz group Oregon. He is one of the few jazz oboists. He also plays bass clarinet, English horn, flute, penny whistle, ...

Glen Moore Glen Moore (born October 28, 1941) is an American jazz bassist, who occasionally performs on piano, flute and violin. Moore was born in Portland, Oregon, United States. His performing career began at age 14 with the Young Oregonians in Portlan ...

, and

Collin Walcott Collin Walcott (April 24, 1945 – November 8, 1984) was an American musician who worked on jazz and world music. Early life Walcott was born in New York City, United States. He studied violin and tympani in his youth, and was a percussion stud ...

, Towner left the Winter Consort in 1970 to form the group

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, which over the course of the 1970s issued a number of influential records mixing folk music,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n classical forms, and

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz, experimental jazz, or "new thing") is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through the late 1 ...

-influenced free improvisation. At the same time, Towner began a longstanding relationship with the

ECM ECM may refer to the following: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Lenstra's Elliptic curve method for factor ...

record label, which has released virtually all of his non-Oregon recordings since his 1973 debut as a leader ''

Trios / Solos ''Trios / Solos'' is an album by American jazz guitarist Ralph Towner with Glen Moore recorded over two days in November 1972 and released on ECM June the following year. The session features guest appearances from tabla player Colin Walcott and ...

''. Towner appeared as a sideman on

Weather Report Weather Report was an American jazz fusion band active from 1970 to 1986. The band was founded in 1970 by Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul, American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš, American drummer Alphonse Mouzon a ...

's 1972 album ''

I Sing the Body Electric "I Sing the Body Electric" is a poem by Walt Whitman from his 1855 collection ''Leaves of Grass''. The poem is divided into nine sections, each celebrating a different aspect of human physicality. Its original publication, like the other poems in ...

''. His 1975 album ''

Solstice A solstice is the time when the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly sun path, excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around 20–22 June and 20–22 December. In many countries ...

'', which featured a popular track called "Nimbus", demonstrated his skill and versatility to the full using a 12-string guitar. Since the early 1990s, Towner has lived in Italy, first in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

and then in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Technique

Towner plays only acoustic guitars, using six-string nylon-string and 12-string steel-string guitars. As a result, he tends to avoid high-volume musical environments, preferring small groups of mostly acoustic instruments that emphasize dynamics and group interplay. Towner obtains a percussive effect (e.g., "Donkey Jamboree" from ''

Slide Show A slide show, or slideshow, is a presentation of a series of still images ( slides) on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals or they may b ...

'' with

Gary Burton Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz Vibraphone, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused ...

) from the guitar by weaving a matchbook among the strings at the neck of the instrument. Both with

and as a solo artist, Towner has made use of

overdubbing Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio Music track, tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto o ...

, allowing him to play piano (or synthesizer) and guitar on the same track; his most notable use of the technique came on his 1974 album ''

Diary A diary is a written or audiovisual memorable record, with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digita ...

'', in which he plays guitar-piano duets with himself on most of the album's eight tracks. In the 1980s, Towner began using the

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith and John Bowen in 1977. It was the first polyphonic synthesizer with fully programmable memory. Before the Prophet-5, synt ...

synthesizer extensively, but has since de-emphasized his synthesizer and piano playing in favor of guitar.

Honors

Two

lunar craters Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated. History The wo ...

were named by the

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the Apollo program and the fourth Moon landing. It was the first List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greate ...

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

after two of Towner's compositions, "Icarus" and "Ghost Beads."

Discography

As leader

* ''

'' with

(

, 1973) * ''

'' (ECM, 1974) * ''

'' (ECM, 1975) * ''

Matchbook A matchbook is a small paperboard folder (known as a matchcover) enclosing a quantity of matches and having a coarse striking surface on the exterior. The folder is opened to access the matches, which are attached in a comb-like arrangement ...

'' with

(ECM, 1975) * ''

Sargasso Sea The Sargasso Sea () is a region of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents forming an ocean gyre. Unlike all other regions called seas, it is the only one without land boundaries. It is distinguished from other parts of the Atlantic Oc ...

'' with John Abercrombie (ECM, 1976) * '' Solstice/Sound and Shadows'' (ECM, 1977) * ''

Batik Batik is a dyeing technique using wax Resist dyeing, resist. The term is also used to describe patterned textiles created with that technique. Batik is made by drawing or stamping wax on a cloth to prevent colour absorption during the dyein ...

'' (ECM, 1978) * '' Old Friends, New Friends'' (ECM, 1979) * '' Solo Concert'' (ECM, 1980) * ''

Five Years Later ''Five Years Later'' is a collaborative album by American jazz guitarists Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie (guitarist), John Abercrombie, recorded in March 1981 and released on ECM Records, ECM February the following year.Blue Sun The Sun may appear blue after volcanic eruptions or major forest fires. This is typically due to scattering by aerosol An aerosol is a suspension (chemistry), suspension of fine solid particles or liquid Drop (liquid), droplets in air or an ...

'' (ECM, 1983) * ''

'' with Gary Burton (ECM, 1986) * ''

City of Eyes ''City of Eyes'' is an album by American jazz guitarist Ralph Towner recorded in 1988 and released on ECM April the following year. The quintet features trumpeter, Markus Stockhausen, oboist Paul McCandless, and rhythm section Gary Peacock and J ...

'' (ECM, 1989) * ''

Open Letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

'' (ECM, 1992) * ''If You Look Far Enough'' with

Arild Andersen Arild Andersen (born 27 October 1945) is a Norwegian jazz musician bassist, known as the most famous Norwegian bass player in the international jazz scene. Career Andersen was born at Strømmen, Norway. He started his musical career as jazz g ...

Nana Vasconcelos Nana, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People * Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname * Nana (chief) (died 1896), Mimbreño A ...

(ECM, 1993) * ''

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

'' with

(ECM, 1994) * ''

Lost and Found A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property, lost articles th ...

'' (ECM, 1996) * '' Ana'' (ECM, 1997) * ''

A Closer View ''A Closer View'' is an album by American jazz guitarist Ralph Towner and bassist Gary Peacock recorded in December 1995 in Norway and released on ECM in 1998.

'' with Gary Peacock (ECM, 1998) * ''Verso'' with

Maria Pia De Vito Maria Pia De Vito is an Italian jazz singer, composer, and arranger. Career A native of Naples, Italy, she studied classical music, opera, and Italian folk music. In 1976 she performed folk songs as a singer, guitarist, and pianist. In 1980 she ...

(Provocateur, 2000) * ''

Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to sho ...

'' (ECM, 2001) * '' Time Line'' (ECM, 2006) * '' From a Dream'' with

Wolfgang Muthspiel Wolfgang Muthspiel (born 2 March 1965) is an Austrian jazz guitarist and record label owner. He is the brother of musician Christian Muthspiel. Music career When he was six, he began playing violin, and at fourteen he moved on to classical gui ...

and

Slava Grigoryan Slava Grigoryan is an Australian classical guitarist and recording artist. He frequently collaborates and performs with his younger brother, fellow guitarist Leonard Grigoryan, performing as the Grigoryan Brothers. Career Grigoryan signed with ...

(Material, 2008) * ''

Chiaroscuro In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

'' (ECM, 2009) * ''

Travel Guide A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

'' with Wolfgang Muthspiel, Slava Grigoryan (ECM, 2013) * '' My Foolish Heart'' (ECM, 2017) * ''

At First Light At First Light may refer to: * At First Light (band), an Irish Celtic musical group * ''At First Light'' (film), a 2018 Canadian film See also * First Light (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

'' (ECM, 2023)

As group

Atmosphere * ''Atmospheres Featuring Clive Stevens & Friends'' (Capitol, 1974) * ''Voyage to Uranus'' (Capitol, 1974)

* ''Music of Another Present Era'' (Vanguard, 1972) * ''Distant Hills'' (Vanguard, 1973) * ''Winter Light'' (Vanguard, 1974) * ''In Concert'' (Vanguard, 1975) * ''Together'' (Vanguard, 1976) * ''Friends'' (Vanguard, 1977) * '' Out of the Woods'' (Elektra, 1978) * ''Violin'' (Vanguard, 1978) * ''Roots in the Sky'' (Elektra, 1979) * ''Moon and Mind'' (Vanguard, 1979) * ''In Performance'' (BGO, 1980) * ''Our First Record'' (Vanguard, 1980) * ''

'' (ECM, 1983) * '' Crossing'' (ECM, 1985) * ''

Ecotopia ''Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston'' is a utopian novel by Ernest Callenbach, published in 1975. The society described in the book is one of the first ecological utopias and was influential on the counterculture and the gree ...

'' (ECM, 1987) * ''45th Parallel'' (Portrait, 1989) * ''Always, Never, and Forever'' (veraBra, 1991) * ''Troika'' (veraBra, 1994) * ''Beyond Words'' (Chesky, 1995) * ''Northwest Passage'' (ECM, 1997) * ''Music for a Midsummer Night's Dream'' (Oregon Music, 1998) * ''Oregon in Moscow'' (ECM, 2000) * ''Live at Yoshi's'' (ECM, 2002) * ''Prime'' (C.A.M. Jazz, 2005) * ''1000 Kilometers'' (C.A.M. Jazz, 2007) * ''In Stride'' (C.A.M. Jazz, 2010) * ''

Family Tree A family tree, also called a genealogy or a pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. More detailed family trees, used in medicine and social work, are known as genograms. Representations of ...

'' (C.A.M. Jazz, 2012) * ''Live in New Orleans'' (Hi Hat, 2016) * ''

Lantern A lantern is a source of lighting, often portable. It typically features a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle, a oil lamp, wick in oil, or a thermoluminescence, thermoluminescent Gas mantle, mesh, and often a ...

'' (C.A.M. Jazz, 2017)

Paul Winter Consort The Paul Winter Consort is an American musical group. Bassist Eliot Wadopian has been a member. Discography Films *''Canyon Consort'' (1985) References External linksLiving Music- Paul Winter's record label {{Authority control American ...

* ''Road'' (A&M, 1970) * ''

Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; , ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of King Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, Minos suspected that Icarus and Daedalu ...

'' (Epic, 1972) * ''Earthdance'' (A&M, 1977)

As sideman or guest

With

Horacee Arnold Horace Emmanuel Arnold, or Horacee Arnold (born September 25, 1937) is an American jazz drummer. He was born in Wayland, Kentucky. Career Arnold first began playing drums in 1957 in Los Angeles while he was in the United States Coast Guard. In 1 ...

* ''Tribe'' (Columbia, 1973) * ''Tales of the Exonerated Flea'' (Columbia, 1974) With

Jerry Granelli Gerald John Granelli (December 30, 1940July 20, 2021) was an American-Canadian jazz drummer. He was best known for playing drums on the soundtrack ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' with the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Early life Granelli was born to Jack ...

* ''Koputai'' (ITM Pacific, 1990) * ''One Day at a Time'' (ITM Pacific, 1990) With

Vince Mendoza Vince Mendoza (born November 17, 1961) is an American composer, music arranger and conductor. He debuted as a solo artist in 1989, and is known for his work conducting the Metropole Orkest and WDR Big Band Köln, as well as arranging music f ...

* ''Start Here'' (World Pacific, 1990) * ''Instructions Inside'' (Manhattan, 1991) With

* ''Nel Respiro'' (Provocateur, 2002) * ''Moresche e Altre Invenzioni'' (Parco Della Musica, 2018) With others *

Azimuth An azimuth (; from ) is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north, in a local or observer-centric spherical coordinate system. Mathematically, the relative position vector from an observer ( origin) to a point ...

, '' Départ'' (ECM, 1980) – recorded in 1979 *

Bill Bruford William Scott Bruford (born 17 May 1949) is an English drummer and percussionist who first gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. After leaving Yes in 1972, Bruford spent the rest of the 1970s recording and tou ...

, ''

If Summer Had Its Ghosts ''If Summer Had Its Ghosts'' is an album by drummer Bill Bruford on which he is joined by guitarist Ralph Towner and bassist Eddie Gómez. It was recorded in West Shokan, New York, in February 1997, and was released later that year by Discipline Gl ...

'' (Discipline Global, 1997) *

, '' Six Pack'' (GRP, 1992) *

Larry Coryell Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist, widely considered the "godfather of fusion". Alongside Gábor Szabó, he was a pioneer in melding jazz, country and rock ...

, '' The Restful Mind'' (Vanguard, 1975) *

Pino Daniele Giuseppe "Pino" Daniele (19 March 1955 – 4 January 2015) was an Italian singer-songwriter and musician. His influences covered a wide number of genres, including pop, blues, jazz, and Italian and Middle Eastern music. Biography Daniele wa ...

, ''Che Dio Ti Benedica'' (CGD, 1993) *

Cyrus Faryar Cyrus Faryar (; born February 26, 1936) is an Iranian-American folk musician, songwriter and record producer. Early life and education Cyrus Faryar was born in Tehran, Iran to a family of Persian descent. He and his family lived in England ...

, ''Cyrus'' (Collectors' Choice Music, 2006) *

Robben Ford Robben Lee Ford (born December 16, 1951) is an American blues, jazz, and rock music, rock guitarist. He was a member of the L.A. Express and Yellowjackets (band), Yellowjackets and has collaborated with Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, George Harriso ...

, ''

Blues Connotation ''Blues Connotation'' is an album by American blues guitarist Robben Ford. The album ''A Song I thought I heard Buddy Sing'' contains material from the same sessions and was released in 1993 under Jerry Granelli's name. Track listing #"City Li ...

'' (ITM Pacific, 1997) *

David Friesen David Friesen (born May 6, 1942) is an American jazz bassist. He plays double bass and electric upright bass. Career Friesen began playing bass while serving in the United States Army in Germany. He played with John Handy and Marian McPartl ...

, ''Waterfall Rainbow'' (Inner City, 1977) *

Jan Garbarek Jan Garbarek () (born 4 March 1947) is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist, who is also active in classical music and world music. Garbarek was born in Mysen, Østfold, southeastern Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war, Czesław Gar ...

, ''

Dis Dis, DIS or variants may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Dis (album), ''Dis'' (album), by Jan Garbarek, 1976 * ''Dís'', a soundtrack album by Jóhann Jóhannsson, 2004 * "Dis", a song by The Gazette from the 2003 album ''Hankou Seimeib ...

'' (ECM, 1977) – recorded in 1976 *

Egberto Gismonti Egberto Amin Gismonti (born 5 December 1947) is a Brazilian composer, guitarist and pianist. Biography Gismonti was born in the small city of Carmo, Rio de Janeiro, Carmo, state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, into a music ...

, '' Sol Do Meio Dia'' (ECM, 1978) – recorded in 1977 * Gerri Granger, ''Add a Little Love'' (United Artists, 1972) *

Trilok Gurtu Trilok Gurtu (born 30 October 1951) is an Indian percussionist and composer whose work has blended the music of India with jazz fusion and world music. He has worked with Terje Rypdal, Gary Moore, John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Joe Zawinu ...

, ''Usfret'' (CMP, 1988) *

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...

, ''Helium Tears'' (NewEdition, 2005) *

Tim Hardin James Timothy Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) was an American folk music and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his own success, his songs " If I Were a Carpenter", " Reason to Believe", " Misty Roses" and " ...

, '' Bird on a Wire'' (Columbia, 1971) *

Keith Jarrett Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also be ...

, ''

In the Light "In the Light" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin from their 1975 album '' Physical Graffiti''. The song was composed primarily by bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones on synthesiser, though singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page a ...

'' (ECM, 1974) – recorded in 1973 * Maria Joao, ''Fabula'' (Verve, 1996) *

Joseph LoDuca Joseph LoDuca (born 1958) is an American television and film score composer best known for his work writing television scores for the series ''Spartacus'', '' Leverage'', '' Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'', '' Xena: Warrior Princess'', '' You ...

, ''Glisten'' (Cornucopia, 1982) * Andy Middleton, ''Nomad's Notebook'' (Intuition, 1999) *

Duke Pearson Columbus Calvin "Duke" Pearson Jr. (August 17, 1932 – August 4, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer. ''Allmusic'' describes him as having a "big part in shaping the Blue Note label's hard bop direction in the 1960s as a record pro ...

, '' I Don't Care Who Knows It'' (Blue Note, 1996) – recorded in 1968–70 *

Terry Plumeri John Terryl "Terry" Plumeri (November 28, 1944 – March 31, 2016) was an American musician, classical composer, orchestra conductor, double bassist, lecturer, teacher, producer, and film score composer. Early life Plumeri was born in Greensbor ...

, ''Ongoing'' (Airborne, 1978) *

Michel Portal Michel Portal (born 27 November 1935) is a French composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He plays both jazz and classical music and is considered to be "one of the architects of modern European jazz". Early life Portal was born in Bayonne on 27 ...

, ''Musiques De Cinemas'' (Label Bleu, 1995) *

, ''

'' (Columbia, 1972) *

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, Order of Canada, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he w ...

, ''

Deer Wan ''Deer Wan'' is an album by Kenny Wheeler recorded in July 1977 and released on ECM Records, ECM the following year. The lineup features saxophonist Jan Garbarek, guitarist John Abercrombie (guitarist), John Abercrombie, bassist Dave Holland (ba ...

'' (ECM, 1978) – recorded in 1977

References

External links

Ralph Towner's Official WebsiteHome Page Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Towner, Ralph 1940 births Living people 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American jazz guitarists ECM Records artists People from Chehalis, Washington University of Oregon alumni Oregon (band) members Paul Winter Consort members Jazz musicians from Washington (state)