Ralph Towner: At First Light (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

Towner: Flow; Strait; Jule Styne, Betty Comden, Adolph Green: Make Someone Happy; Towner: Ubi Sunt; Guitarra Picante; At First Light; (Traditional): Danny Boy; Towner: Fat Foot; Argentinian Nights; Stanley Adams, Hoagy Carmichael: Little Old Lady; Towner: Empty Stage. Ralph Towner, classical guitar. ECM 2758 486 1035 

 

Long-time music fans may remember American guitarist Ralph Towner (b. 1940) from his long association with the band Oregon, a group that Towner co-founded back in 1970. Oregon went on to release a number of albums on the Vanguard, Elektra, ECM, and Intuition labels over the years. (The Oregon album Out of the Woods from 1978 is especially well worth seeking out; it is an acoustic and musical wonder.) In his liner notes for At First Light, a solo guitar outing, Towner writes about how unique it is to have most of his own life’s work represented on one record label. He’s been an ECM artist for more than fifty years, appearing in many different contexts, one of the most important being a run of solo recordings that began with Diary in 1973, and now, half a century later, At First Light is the newest addition to his series of solo guitar releases. “My solo recordings,” writes Towner, “have always included my own compositions, in which there are trace elements of the composers and musicians that have attracted me over the years. Musicians such as George Gershwin, John Coltrane, John Dowland, Bill Evans, to name a few. The blend of keyboard and guitar techniques is an important aspect of my playing and composition, and I feel that this album is a good example of shaping this expanse of influences into my personal music.”

Towner recounts that he studied classical music composition in college while also becoming interested in learning jazz piano, having been inspired by hearing the interplay of the Bill Evans Trio. Before graduating from the University of Oregon in 1963, he discovered the classical guitar. “I found that it a very pianistic instrument,” he writes, “capable of sophisticated polyphony and myriad tone colors. I was fascinated by it. I made a major decision to travel to Vienna to strictly study the classical guitar at the Academy of Music in Vienna. My studies there involved much renaissance and baroque music which was to play a great part in shaping my writing and performance techniques.”  A fellow guitarist, Scott Nygaard, has observed of Towner that “No one else plays guitar like Ralph Towner. And while his compositions often sound ‘classical’ (combining a fondness for baroque voice leading, Stravinskian harmonies, and odd time signatures with his own strong sense of melody) that’s primarily because each piece grows organically and gracefully from an initial idea.” Listeners can get additional insight into the both the guitarist and the music on the album from this video, in which Towner recounts some of the details of his musical education and how he approaches composition and recording, focusing briefly on the album’s title composition, At First Light.

From the opening track, his composition Flow, the majority of the music has the feeling of classical guitar music – not jazz (although jazz fans will hear a faint echo of John Coltrane's Naima in the opening measures of Strait), not blues, not folk, but music very much in the classical guitar vein. Yes, they're a couple popular tunes and a traditional favorite included in the set list, but Towner does not play these in an overtly popular style. Instead, he plays them in more of a restrained way so that although the familiar notes are there, they blend right in with his more thoughtful, classical approach. Guitarra Piccante and Fat Foot are the most energetic cuts on the album; they might even tempt some listeners to tap their toes or even dance around a little, but should not cause anyone to get arrested. The shortest cut on the CD (1:42), Argentinian Nights, is like a miniature sketch of an imagined memory somehow captured on guitar, brief but memorable. The album ends with the reflective sounds of Empty Stage, a piece that ends enigmatically, leaving the listener longing for more. Ralph Towner was 82 at the time he made this recording, bringing a lifetime of lived experience into the studio with him to record alongside his trusted producer of more than 50 years, Manfred Eicher. The two old friends have produced a gem. 

 

The Suite (CD review)

Music of Telemann, Bach, Elizondo, and Green. Orlando Cela, The Lowell Chamber Orchestra. Navona NV6324.

By John J. Puccio

“Suite: Music
a. An instrumental composition, especially of the 1600s or 1700s, consisting of a succession of dances in the same or related keys.
b. An instrumental composition consisting of a series of varying movements or pieces.” --American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

Apparently, the folks at Navona Records want to let you know that the dance suite of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is still alive and well today, and on the current disc they include four composers of dance suites from the past and present. Maestro Orlando Cela conducts The Lowell Chamber Orchestra in suites by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Jose Elizondo (b. 1972), and Anthony R. Green (b. 1984).

In the event you are unfamiliar with Mr. Cela, he is both a flutist and conductor, premiering over 200 new works. He currently serves as the Music Director of the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of the North Carolina Governor’s School. He has also guest conducted the Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, the London Classical Soloists, the Marquette Symphony Orchestra, and others. He created the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra during his year as visiting professor at Ningbo University in China.

As for The Lowell Chamber Orchestra, they are the first and only professional orchestra in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Their Web site explains that they “provide the area with an ensemble that presents music at a very high level, of all styles and time periods, entirely free to the general population.”

Anyway, the selections on the disc are ordered chronologically, so things begin with the six-movement Overture Suite in E minor by Telemann. A booklet note tells us that Telemann composed some 138 known overture suites, and they are probably only a fraction of the number he actually wrote. So now you know why the album begins with Telemann. The Lowell Chamber Orchestra play all the pieces with a graceful affection, and Maestro Cela leads them with a deft and lively touch.

Next is probably the most-famous item on the program, the seven-movement Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor by Bach. As the Second Suite has the least orchestration of the four that Bach wrote, it suits the Lowell players well. They present a lean, trim account of the music, stylish without being stuffy. I was particularly struck by the Polonaise and Minuett, which sound splendidly regal, yet not overly sedate. They offer excellent poise and symmetry.

Then we come to the modern pieces, starting with Recuerdos Estivos (“Summer Memories”), a three-movement work by Elizondo. The nice thing here is that the pieces don’t sound entirely out of place with the rest of the program of early music. In fact, Elizondo’s suite is light, relaxed, and tuneful, a kind of throwback to more Romantic times. Well, I suppose the title should have told us that; we get suggestions of Frederick Delius here, maybe “Summer Night on the River,” although not quite so meandering. Then the work ends with a movement that sounds as if we were back with Telemann. While the whole thing may appear insubstantial, it’s altogether delightful, and the orchestra appears to be enjoying the playfulness of the music as much as the listener.

The disc ends with a three-movement work called The Green Double: a historical dance suite by Anthony R. Green. Here, the composer draws on black history and classical music to create his dances. Like Elizondo, Green makes no attempt to be “modern” in the sense of being experimental, atonal, or eccentric. There are no sounds involved for the sake of sound alone. Every note is calculated to create a mood, a feeling, a longing, a fear, or a consoling, Probably the best way to describe the piece is hopeful and comforting. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we came to the disc’s contemporary music, and I was happy with the creative, listenable diversity I found.

Executive Producer Bob Lord and Session Engineer John Weston recorded the album at Futura Productions in Roslindale, MA in 2019-2020. The sound is quite good, neither too bright nor too dull. The frequency spectrum is clear and well balanced, with good transparency, extended highs, and convincing lows. Moreover, dynamics are more than adequate for the type of music it is, and because of the relatively small size of the ensemble and the success of the engineering, we get a fine sense of depth and space among the players. All is well.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below: