Ralph Towner, Guitarist and Composer with Oregon, Dies at 85 in Rome

Ralph Towner, a guitarist, pianist and composer who was a founding member of the ensemble Oregon, died on Sunday in Rome. He was 85, his daughter, Celeste Towner, confirmed; she did not specify a cause. Over six decades Mr. Towner integrated jazz, classical and world music into a personal style, emerging in the early 1970s with a virtuosic yet intimate approach on the ECM label.

He recorded more than two dozen albums for ECM, many featuring him on solo acoustic guitar, both classical and 12-string. In a 2017 interview with JazzTimes he said, "Guitar is such a good solo instrument; there’s a sense of playing an ensemble kind of music, but on your own." Oregon coalesced in 1971 while members were working with the Paul Winter Consort; Mr.

Towner played piano as well as guitar and was the group’s primary composer, with Glen Moore and Paul McCandless as other longtime members. Early Oregon albums such as Music of Another Present Era (1972) mixed chamber-music precision with jazz improvisation; Mr. Towner’s ECM debut was Trios/Solos (1973), and his 1980 Solo Concert highlighted his unaccompanied technique.

Born March 1, 1940, in Chehalis, Wash., Mr. Towner had lived in Italy since the early 1990s and married the actress Mariella Lo Sardo in 1994. He is survived by his daughter, Celeste, and his wife; his former wife, Janet Towner, and Phoenix Siewert, the son of his daughter’s longtime partner, also survive him.

Key Topics

Culture, Ralph Towner, Oregon, Ecm Records, Rome, Paul Winter Consort