Ralph Towner & Gary Burton - Matchbook (ECM 2019)

An album-of-the-year in US magazine High Fidelity and recipient of a 5-star review in Down Beat, Towner and Burton’s Matchbook stands up today as a timeless instance of the art of the duo, its vibrant spontaneity still alluring. The wide-ranging repertoire includes Ralph Towner’s classic tune ”Icarus”, Charles Mingus’s farewell to Lester Young, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”, and Leonard Bernstein’s “Some Other Time” (“a meticulously plotted melody that spurs some of the record’s loveliest interaction.

– Down Beat

Ralph Towner   12-String Guitar, Classical Guitar

Gary Burton   Vibraharp

1 DRIFTING PETALS (Ralph Towner) 05:14

2 SOME OTHER TIME (Leonard Bernstein) 06:12

3 BROTHERHOOD (Gary Burton) 01:08

4 ICARUS (Ralph Towner) 05:48

5 SONG FOR A FRIEND (Ralph Towner) 05:05

6 MATCHBOOK (Ralph Towner) 04:29

7 1 X 6 (Ralph Towner) 00:52

8 AURORA (Ralph Towner) 05:07

9 GOODBYE PORK PIE HAT (Charles Mingus) 04:22

Ralph Towner - My Foolish Heart (ECM RECORDS 2017)

After critically-lauded projects with trumpeter Paolo Fresu (Chiaroscuro) and with fellow guitarists Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan (Travel Guide), Ralph Towner returns to solo guitar for My Foolish Heart. Whether on classical guitar or 12-string guitar Towner’s touch is immediately identifiable. Solo music is an important thread through his rich discography and this new album – recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in February 2016 and produced by Manfred Eicher – follows in the great tradition of Diary, Solo Concert, Ana, Anthem, and Time Line. It features finely-honed new compositions as well as a pair of tunes (“Shard” and “Rewind”) from the songbook of Oregon, a dedication to the late Paul Bley (“Blue As In Bley”) and a single standard – Victor Young’s “My Foolish Heart” which Towner first came to love in Bill Evans’s interpretation.

Ralph Towner, classical and 12-string guitars