American classical/12-string guitar legend, Ralph Towner, joins forces with Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu for the most intimate of shows at PizzaExpress Jazz Club in Soho. Towner and Fresu recorded the critically acclaimed album 'Chiaroscuro' together in 2009 for the celebrated ECM Records, a label for which Towner has been a mainstay since 1972. This will be the duo's only UK show together in 2016.
RALPH TOWNER
Musical innovation is no easy feat. It not only requires an innate talent, but also a devotion to the art that is not blinded by the commercial glare of the popular culture. Ralph Towner is such an innovator on the modern musical landscape, his ideas ever fresh, though they span a career of more than thirty years....
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American classical/12-string guitar legend, Ralph Towner, joins forces with Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu for the most intimate of shows at PizzaExpress Jazz Club in Soho. Towner and Fresu recorded the critically acclaimed album 'Chiaroscuro' together in 2009 for the celebrated ECM Records, a label for which Towner has been a mainstay since 1972. This will be the duo's only UK show together in 2016.
RALPH TOWNER
Musical innovation is no easy feat. It not only requires an innate talent, but also a devotion to the art that is not blinded by the commercial glare of the popular culture. Ralph Towner is such an innovator on the modern musical landscape, his ideas ever fresh, though they span a career of more than thirty years.
Best known as the lead composer, guitarist, and keyboardist for the acoustic jazz ensemble 'Oregon', Towner has also had a rich and varied solo career that has seen fruitful and memorable musical collaboration with such great modern musicians as Gary Burton, John Abercrombie, Egberto Gismonti, Larry Coryell, Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, and Gary Peacock.
Towner’s working relationship with producer Manfred Eicher of ECM Records began in 1972 and would provide a forum for his growth as a leader and collaborator with other jazz giants, all while concomitantly breaking open musical frontiers with Oregon throughout the intervening years. ECM’s roster of low-volume acts was decidedly contrary to the amplified popular zeitgeist of the era, and provided Towner an opportunity to connect and create with some of the more iconoclastic and innovative artists of the musical culture in the 1970s. Towner’s ECM years also saw his most minimalist, yet most bold, endeavor. 'Solo Concert', released in 1980 on ECM, was conceptually elemental, a solo live guitar recital. Yet, no one to date had ever synthesized classical contrapuntal composition with improvisational and oddly metered jazz like this before, especially in such a risky arena as a live performance. Such solo work would later become Towner’s signature on recordings such as 'Ana' and 'Anthem', or augmented only by Gary Peacock’s bass on 'Oracle' and 'A Closer View'.
PAOLO FRESU
"Paolo Fresu is one of those musicians who come from time to time to remind us why jazz is so special and unique" (Buenos Aires Herald)
Award winning, internationally acclaimed Sardinian trumpet player Paolo Fresu has performed around the world over the past 30 years. With a track record of 300 recordings so far, Fresu has worked with musicians such as John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler, Palle Danielsson, Jon Christensen, Gerry Mulligan, Dave Liebman, Dave Holland, Richard Beirach, John Zorn, John Abercrombie, Helen Merrill, Richard Galliano, Gil Evans Orchestra, Toots Thielemans, Omar Sosa, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, and Andy Sheppard.
Fresu is also professor and artistic director of internationally renowned jazz festivals such as Time in Jazz and Nuoro Jazz. He is involved in the production of numerous multimedia projects, cooperating with actors, dancers, painters, sculptors, and poets, as well as writing music for film, documentary, video, ballet, and theater pieces. His ‘A Solo’ concert at the Auditorium in Rome enchanted an audience of 3000 people.
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