Ralph Towner, March 1, 1940 – January 18, 2026, died in Rome.
I first came across Ralph Towner’s name in an interview with Larry Corryell in NME, who described him —wait for it— as the world’s greatest guitarist! The interviewing journalist had never heard of him, so Coryell directed him to Weather Report’s 1972 album I Sing the Body Electric where Towner delivered an acoustic guitar solo on the track The Moors.
The first Towner album I bought was Diary, in around 1974. A track, called Icarus, featuring Towner playing both piano and guitar, got me hooked. Throughout his career he mainly played nylon-strung classical guitars and steel strung acoustics, but he was something very special with a 12-string— and he played it with the fingers. His ability to play against louder instruments has always shocked me.
Then there was the album Solstice (on ECM) in 1975. Jan Garbarak on saxophone, made other ’jazz’ seem dull and parochial, Jon Christensen on drums with a minimalist kit, and Eberhard Weber on double and electric bass (I once saw Eberhard play in a primary school one evening in Vienna). Two tracks, Oceanus and Nimbus demonstrate what I think were Towner’s unique set of musical and technical skills. Different style and genre, but it was like listening to Hendrix for the very first time.