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Ralph Towner

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ralph Towner was born in 1940 in Chehalis, in the American state of Washington, into a musical family. His mother gave piano lessons and his father played the trumpet. At three he could already improvise on the piano. He began as a classically trained pianist, studied in Oregon from 1958 to 1963 and took classical guitar lessons at the music academy in Vienna. In the late 1960s he joined the Consort of Paul Winter, a pioneer of world music, and played jazz in New York, strongly influenced by the pianist Bill Evans.

Music and breakthrough

In 1970, together with Paul McCandless, Glen Moore and Collin Walcott, he left the Winter Consort and founded the group Oregon. In the 1970s it made influential records in which folk, Indian classical forms and free improvisation from avant-garde jazz came together. At the same time began a long relationship with the label ECM, which released almost all of his solo records, beginning with Trios / Solos in 1973. He also played on Weather Report's album I Sing the Body Electric from 1972. His album Solstice (1975), with the piece Nimbus, showed his versatility on the twelve-string guitar.

Influence

Towner played nylon-string classical guitar, twelve-string guitar and piano, and used overdubs to play several parts on one record. He did not like loud music and chose small, mostly acoustic groups in which dynamics and interplay counted. For a percussive effect he slid a matchbox between the strings. He lived in Italy from the 1990s and died in January 2026 in Rome. In School of Rock he appears with Icarus from 1972.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Icarus. Notice the acoustic sound and how the music breathes and floats more than an ordinary pop song.

Discography

Studio albums

Other work

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: ArtistsECM sound