OREGON

Ralph Towner must be the only North American guitarist who records for one of the world's leading jazz labels (ECM) using only acoustic guitars - no electric ones. His solo albums for the label, especially DIARY and BLUE SUN, have been exceedingly lovely. (Towner lends his compositions extra colour by also employing piano and synthesizers.) As soon as these albums arrived on Prog Archives, I would give most of them 4 or 5 stars.

Oregon is the band with which Towner originally climbed to fame, at least in jazz circles. What kind of music can you expect from them? When you look at the wide variety of instruments the band's members employ, and you bear in mind that they play a mixture of jazz (modern, but never harsh), European chamber music, psychedelic music, "world music" and folk, you can more or less imagine their style. These guys are adventurous, melodious and predominantly gentle, but never sentimental or bland - at least not on this album. The only thing I regret is that wehear comparatively little of Towner's guitar. Paul Mc Candless (on oboe, soprano sax, English horn and musette) is by far the most dominant player.

Wholeheartedly recommended to all listeners who long for subtle "acoustic prog".