Jazz virtuoso and fusion pioneer Ralph Towner – composer of jazz standard Icarus – dies at 85

Jazz and acoustic guitar virtuoso Ralph Towner has died at the age of 85. News of the musician's passing was shared on January 18 by his long-term label ECM. His daughter, Celeste Towner, confirmed the news.

Best associated with the six- and twelve-string acoustic, Towner expanded the jazz lexicon with his avant-garde approach to the instrument. While initially gaining fame as a pianist, he quickly stepped to the forefront of the late ’60s New York jazz scene as a guitarist.

Fast forward to the ’70s – the height of jazz fusion – and Towner would make the most of that decade to establish himself as a jazz guitar tour de force.

Ralph Towner - At First Light (Album EPK) | ECM Records - YouTube

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Not only did he appear on Paul Winter Consort’s album Road, which included the Towner-penned Icarus – now a jazz standard – but he also formed the modern jazz/world music quartet Oregon, lent his chops as a sideman on Weather Report's 1972 album I Sing the Body Electric, and went on to form a longstanding relationship with ECM, the label that released virtually all his non-Oregon recordings after his 1973 debut as a leader, Trios / Solos.

“There’s something about having the freedom to basically direct the music yourself,” Towner told Jazz Times in 2017.

“Guitar is such a good solo instrument; there’s a sense of playing an ensemble kind of music, but on your own. You certainly have a different role. With others, it’s several people playing a single piece of music.

“In jazz, they’re all composing as they’re playing, even if there’s a pre-organized tune that you’re playing on or a completely freeform piece; it’s still composition. When you’re on your own, basically you’re the only composer.”

Both with Oregon and as a solo artist, Towner stood out for his inventive use of overdubbing – allowing him to play the guitar and the piano at the same time – best exemplified in his 1974 record, Diary, in which he essentially duets with himself.

Oregon - Live at Molde Jazz Festival 1975 (Remastered) - YouTube

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Towner moved to Italy in the early ’90s, settling in Palermo before making Rome his home. Oregon continued to record and perform on a prolific level, with Towner – alongside multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless and bassist Glen Moore – touring with different band members following the death of sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott in 1984.

Summing up his work with Oregon – and his ethos toward his musical projects – Towner asserted in an interview with Innerviews, “The reason we continue is strictly because the music keeps improving. If the music wasn’t good, we would have stopped quite a while ago.”