Review of Open Letter by Ralph Towner, ECM 1992

Dear Mr. Towner


I write this one to you after having listened, with 20 year-old guilty delay, your cd "Open Letter" produced by ECM in the 1992. I thought it was rightful to respond to your open letter wrote in a musical form. The fact that has been written not on paper but recorded on a cd is only a detail of secondary importance, you have aimed your guitars, placed your fingers on your synthesizers and played, accompanied in some cases, in very discreet and essential way by of Peter Erskine’ drums, these 11 passages, that can be can be listened as 11 paragraphs of an open letter.
I admit I had thought about writing to you several times in these last …. 24 years. In October of 1989 I have had the pleasure to listen to you to playing with Oregon esemble in concert, I remember every single note, it was indeed an exciting concert, there was not Colin Walcott replaced by a valid (and clver) Trilok Gurtu, but your music was warm, exciting and marvelous. Even more marvelous to succeed in meeting you and to shake your hand and even more your courtesy and gentleness with which you responded to my harassing questions about how to play your passages. In the following years I have kept on following your music and to listen to your records and to surprise me every time as you can conjugate together jazz, classical music and contemporary music always maintaining your and melodic style.
Shall we say that You are the most BillEvans-ier guitarist? Like John McLaughlin for John Coltrane?
You always know how to find a beautiful melody and to unite it with a splendid harmonic lay-out there is never a “poor” passage in your repertoire, an insuperable quality that lacks to many of your colleagues that they often lay themselves in the repetition of empty phrases and sterile licks. Also in this record you always succeed in being never banal, never a dribble. It’s not a surprise that you have recorded your own version of "Waltz for Debby", isn’t it? Or a standard as “I falls in love too easily." Two gems that not only testify your passion for jazz, but above all the intelligent way with which you know how to manage and to harmonize a standard.
Thanks again for this "Open Letter" and.. please write more letters like this one.. the world needs  beautiful melodies and beautiful emotions … good emotions.

You might be interested also:

- Review of Solstice by Ralph Towner. ECM 1975

- Video: Ralph Towner - Oceanus

Review of Animato by John Abercrombie, Ecm 1990

Although I have bought only recently in the bench of the used cd in my good old record store, I had memory to have listened to this Animato when it was released in 1990. Ath those times Abercrombie was one of the most interesting guitarists for ECM and the European jazz scene. The year before he had produced “Timeless” that had thrilled me a lot and I still remembers the sense of suspence for his new job, that however to those time not thrilled me so much. Listening to it 23 years later has made me another effect.
Abercrombie plays in trio in the classical team in that jazz has accustomed us from Wes Montgomery to the Tony Williams Lifetime: guitar, drums and keyboards.
To assist Abercrombie we find Jon Christensen, alla round drummer for the Ecm that shows as always his flexibility and reliability and Vince Mendoza to the keyboards that signs six of the eight  passages in the cd.
Abercrombie is an unusual guitarist that seems to have made sense of suspension and indeterminateness the trademarks of the sound of his instrument, bashful and introverted so fanciful musician he has always loved reflexive atmospheres whether to make to slightly flutter the saturated sound of his electric guitar. In the years he has almost become a cult musician, away from the notoriety of the guitar hero that at those times had reached others his colleagues, always in jazz rock circles. In this cd using the sonorous and chromatic carpets of Mendoza he surrenders to improvisations and ampler breath musical discourses that show well the quality and the colors of his musical inventions.
In the arc of his career he has known how to earn the estimation of musicians and fans and to make himself recognize for his sound and his cleverness. This record, too hastily set aside by me years ago, it is a good testimony of his passion and his artistic intelligence.

Recensione di Open Letter di Ralph Towner, ECM 1992

Dear Mr. Towner

Le scrivo la presente dopo aver ascoltato, con colpevole ritardo di 20 anni, il suo cd “Open Letter” uscito per la ECM nel 1992. Credo sia doveroso risponde una lettera aperta sotto forma di musica. Il fatto che sia stata non scritta su carta ma incisa su un cd è solo un dettaglio di secondaria importanza, nel farlo Lei ha imbracciato le sue chitarre, posato le dita sui suoi sintetizzatori e ha suonato, accompagnato in alcuni casi, in modo molto discreto e essenziale dalla batteria di Peter Erskine, questi 11 brani, che possono essere ascoltati come 11 paragrafi di una lettera, per l’appunto, aperta.
In realtà avevo pensato di scriverLe più volte in questi ultimi … 24 anni. Nell’ottobre del 1989 ho avuto il piacere di sentirLa suonare con gli Oregon in concerto, ricordo ancora ogni singola nota, fu un concerto davvero emozionante, non c’era il compianto Colin Walcott sostituito da un validissimo (e simpaticissimo) Trilok Gurtu, ma la vostra musica fu calda, emozionante e meravigliosa. Ancora più meraviglioso riuscire a conoscerLa e stringerLe la mano e ancora di più la sua cortesia e gentilezza con cui lei rispose alle mie assillanti domande su come provare a suonare i suoi brani. Negli anni ho continuato a seguire la sua musica e a ascoltare i suoi dischi e a stupirmi ogni volta di come Lei faccia a coniugare assieme jazz, musica classica e musica contemporanea, mantenendo sempre il suo stile fluido e melodico.
Si potrebbe dire che Lei è il più BillEvansiano dei chitarristi? Come John McLaughlin è il più coltreniano?
Lei sa sempre trovare una bella melodia e a unirla con una struttura armonica splendida, non c’è mai un brano “povero” nel suo repertorio, una qualità insuperabile che difetta a molti suoi colleghi che spesso si adagiano nella ripetizione di frasi e lick sterili. Anche in questo disco Lei riesce sempre a non essere mai banale, mai una sbavatura. Non a caso Lei ha messo in questo disco la sua versione di “Waltz for Debby”, vero? O uno standard come “I fall in love too easily”. Due gemme che testimoniano non solo la sua passione per il jazz, ma soprattutto il modo intelligente con cui Lei sa  gestire e armonizzare uno standard.
Grazie ancora per questa “Lettera Aperta” e .. ne scriva ancora .. il mondo ha bisogno di belle melodie e belle emozioni, buone emozioni.

You might also like:

- Ralph Towner: una chitarra oltre il tempo parte prima
- Ralph Towner: una chitarra oltre il tempo parte seconda
- Recensione di Solstice di Ralph Towner. ECM 1975

Recensione di Animato di John Abercrombie, Ecm 1990

Sebbene acquistato di recente nel mio classico negozio di dischi nel banco dei cd usati, avevo memoria di aver ascoltato questo Animato quando era uscito nel 1990. All'epoca Abercrombie era uno dei chitarristi di punta della ECM e della scena jazz europea. L'anno prima era uscito il suo Timeless che mi aveva entusiasmato non poco e ricordo ancora il senso di attesa per questo suo nuovo lavoro, che però all'epoca non mi aveva entusiasmato più di tanto. Riascoltarlo 23 anni più tardi mi ha fatto un altro effetto.

Abercrombie suona in trio nella formazione classica che il jazz ci ha abituato da Wes Montgomery e dal Tony Williams Lifetime in poi: chitarra, batteria e tastiere.

A coadiuvare Abercrombie troviamo Jon Christensen, tuttofare poliritmico della Ecm in quegli anni che dimostra come sempre la sua flessibilità e affidabilità e Vince Mendoza alle tastiere che firma 6 degli otto brani presenti nel cd.

Abercrombie è un chitarrista singolare che sembra aver fatto del senso di sospensione e di indeterminatezza il marchio di fabbrica del suono del suo strumento, musicista tanto fantasioso quanto schivo e introverso ha sempre amato atmosfere riflessive dove far aleggiare il suono leggermente saturo della sua chitarra elettrica. Negli anni è diventato un musicista quasi di culto, lontano dalla notorietà del guitar hero che all'epoca aveva raggiunto altri suoi colleghi, sempre in ambito jazz rock. In questo cd forse complici i tappeti sonori e cromatici di Mendoza si abbandona a improvvisazioni e a discorsi musicali di più ampio respiro che mettono bene in luce la qualità del suo fraseggio e i colori delle sue invenzioni musicali.

Nell'arco della sua carriera ha saputo guadagnarsi la stima di musicisti e appassionati e ha saputo farsi riconoscere per il suo suono e la sua bravura. Questo disco, troppo frettolosamente accantonato da me anni fa, è un'ottima testimonianza della sua passione e della sua intelligenza artistica.

Reviews of Odyssey in Studio & in Concert by Terje Rypdal, ECM 2012

I quote from the beautiful essay by Alessandro "Unfolk" Monti published a long time ago here on this blog: " "Odyssey" (ECM 1975) is his masterpiece that ideally closes the first phase of his record career. It’s a Double album (winning that year of the premium of the German criticism) in which the ghost of his music adding new possibilities, but that in the scandalous and inexplicable digital version (both on single cd that in download) omits the most interesting passage "Rolling Stone", a marathon of a side in which the open style of the guitarist  resplendent in all of his beauty and creativeness. Because the reprint in cd has excluded that stupendous passage we will never know (a double cd was the most obvious thing), but purchase the original (still available second-hand) album is the only possibility to have the complete image of that job."
The ECM finally repeair this errors of the past producing a beautiful box with three cd of Odyssey, the first two are the integral edition of the double vinyl and the third one is the 1976 concert unpublished recording entitled Unfinished Hightballs played together with the Swedish Radio Jazz Group.
There is no better thing to listen to the beautiful and dilated atmospheres of the fresh Norwegian sonorous seas in this cold winter! Rypdal is a great guitarist that knows how to express very well himself in long fantastic electric ballads as "Darkness Falls", "Over Birkerot", "Slowly", "Better Off Without You", "Ballade" and of course the mythical one "Rolling Stone" that we can finally listen in digital. Rypdal shows his hendrix psychedelic influences as the love for Coltrane and Albert Ayler using both distortion and volume pedales, his guitar produces long dilated notes or nervous sounds decidedly distant from the jazz and rock guitar models of these times (perhaps made exception for John Mc Laughling and Allan Holdsworth) proposing some innovative solutions that however won't have a lot of succession in the jazz but that  will be adapted later instead by "cosmic guitarists" as Michael Brook.
Very beautiful also the cd live, effective testimony of the intense concert activity developed from the Odyssey Band and of the compositive ambitions by Rypdal that here can also lean on on the Swedish Radio Jazz Group.
At the end we did it, we had to wait  37 years but Odyssey it is finally listening in all of its beauty, excellent the job of remastering as the beautiful minimalist design of the box and the book that it accompanies it with the photos in black and white by Giuseppe Pino and Roberto Masotti. Thanks ECM!

Review of Solstice by Ralph Towner. ECM 1975

Italian Translation

Ralph Towner is great man. Great in everything: composer, improviser, multi-instrumentalist, pianist, guitarist, band leader. Just think about that legendary group called Orengon which anticipated that at least twenty years, the fashion of the music crossover, a versatile group, with a sound immediately recognizable, ranged between genders, targeted mainly on a melodic, enjoyable and maturefolk-jazz, unhappily and briefly described by some as "world music" and "new age", free improvisation and a great deal of melodic and percussive textures. The classical guitar Towner was always one of leading voice of the group, leaving an indelible imprint on the collective sound, and giving to music lovers a new context in which to take advantage of the sounds of a classical guitar.
The activity of Towner, however, not remained confined within Oregon, from 1972 he began to affect a series of records for the ECM label in Monaco, who gave refuge to a great grout of indipendent musical talents.
"Solstice" '74 is an early example of this collaboration (and one of the best albums ever of his vast discography), and is a perfect representation of the now often-nominated ECM style, a sound in wich space, dynamics and reverb become protagonists.
In this chapter of his musical career Towner is accompanied by other ECM people: Jan Garbarek, one of the few (along with Lee Konitz and Wahyne Shorte) to propose a sound of tenor sax away from John Coltrane, Eberhard Weber on cello and bass characterized by the mellow sound and reverb (one of the few alternatives to Jaco Pastorius' brand) and polyrhythmic drummer Jon Christensen already a permanent member of the European quartet of Keith Jarrett.
The compositions are all of excellent quality with great mood and atmosphere. From the first track "Oceanus", fascinating and far-reaching, the surreal "Visitation?", And the fantastic funky groove on "Piscean Dreams". The music does not differ radically from the one proposed by Oregon, a sign for style of Towner, maintaining that delicate balance between exotic and apparent deviations from the traditional lines and harmonies.
An excellent start to want to begin exploring the career of this great multi-instrumentalist.