One of the founders of Oregon, Ralph Towner is one of the few modern jazz musicians to specialise on acoustic guitar and has also had a rich and varied solo career that has included memorable musical collaborations with such great modern musicians as Gary Burton, John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek and Gary Peacock. His playing often stretches beyond the boundaries of conventional jazz into world music and is quite distinctive.

Born in Chehalis, Washington into a musical family, he started playing piano when he was 3 and trumpet at 5, performing in a dance band when he was 13. In 1958, Towner enrolled in the University of Oregon as an art major, later changing his major to composition. He soon met bassist Glen Moore who would become a lifelong musical partner in the band Oregon. It was about this time that Towner discovered the early albums of Bill Evans, whom Towner emulated and whose influence he began to incorporate into his own piano style and composition. He also bought a classical guitar and became entranced enough with the instrument to move to Vienna in the early 1960s to study guitar with Karl Scheit and play with various classical chamber groups.

After moving to New York in 1968, he immersed himself in the local jazz scene, eventually landing a position with the Paul Winter Consort where the friendships and musical partnering with Glen Moore, Paul McCandless and Collin Walcott were forged.

In 1971, the three broke away to form Oregon, a highly versatile group that ranges from jazz and free improvisations to folk music.
Towner’s working relationship with producer Manfred Eicher of ECM began in 1972 and provided a forum for his growth as a leader and collaborator with other innovative artists of the period, while at the same time breaking open musical frontiers with Oregon. Towner’s ECM years also saw his most minimalist, yet most bold, endeavour. Solo Concert, released in 1980 on ECM, was a bold synthesis of classical contrapuntal composition with improvisational and oddly-metred jazz.