Ralph Towner (1940-)
Always by your Side
Anniversary Song
Turning of the Leaves
The Reluctant Bride
Green and golden
another Life
The Pendant
Point of view
Hermia's Galliard
When the fire Burns Low
Maddalena Variations

Adriano Sebastiani, guitare

Le nom de Ralph Towner est bien connu des amateurs de jazz mais la musique de cet américain né en 1940, pilier de l'écurie du label allemand ECM ne se cantonne pas à un seul genre mais relève de multiples sources. Après avoir pratiqué le piano et la trompette à l'adolescence dans un orchestre de Dixieland, Ralph Towner opte finalement pour la guitare. Installé à New York il joue auprès de Stan Getz et de Sonny Rollins puis, flirtant avec les musiques indiennes, brésilienne et le jazz d'avant-garde, il participe à la création du groupe Oregon avant d'entamer une carrière de soliste. Sa formation de pianiste, notamment l'influence de Bill Evans, joue un rôle déterminant dans sa manière de composer. Towner a banni toute amplification et ne joue que sur guitare acoustique, utilisant des cordes nylon ou métalliques, préférant les textures et le contrepoint à la puissance du son. Si l'on retrouve parfois dans ses compositions la veine latino, des réminiscences élisabéthaines (Herma's Galliard), la finesse de ses mélodies (Always by your side), la subtilité de ses développements (Maddalena Variations), le raffinement de ses improvisations témoignent d'une maîtrise confondante de l'écriture pour l'instrument. Le programme de ce disque enregistré par Adriano Sebastiani offre une admirable introduction à l'univers du compositeur. (Jérôme Angouillant)

A musical name perhaps most closely associated in many minds with the band Oregon which he co-founded, Ralph Towner (b.1940) the classical composer is particularly beloved of guitarists and is a prolific writer for the instrument. Having studied composition at Oregon University, Towner spent four years in Vienna studying classical guitar with the Czech teacher Karl Scheit. Having previously favoured the piano as a medium for his improvisational talent, Towner swung towards the classical and 12-string guitars. His very individual approach to the guitar and its tone-colour potential has been described as pianistic or even orchestral, with his renown as a performer on the guitar as high among classical musicians as in any other musical sphere. His solo recitals on the instrument have been primarily focused on his own numerous compositions, of which he has recorded over two hundred. This record follows the short guitar solos – many of them linked to the group Oregon such as Hermia’s Galliard from the band’s 1998 incidental music for a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and When The Fire Burns Low originally for piano and recorded with Oregon in 1991 – with the Maddalena Variations (2011) a prelude and four variations. This larger-scale work exemplifies Towner’s return to the more traditional classical forms in which he was originally trained in the 60s.