Search - Ralph Towner :: Lost & Found

Marc Johnson and Ralph Towner make a marvelous pair

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 09/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Towner, with his delicate nylon-string picking style, desperately needs bandmates who entirely come on board with his idiosyncratic guitar stylings.



And bassist Marc Johnson strikes me as the perfect partner. One need only listen to their duo "Trill Ride" to see this entirely made manifest: Johnson matches the leader's supple guitar-string manipulations with his own plucked-bass configurations.



But the band comes fully to the fore with the third track, "Élan Vital." Here we have the lilting drumming of Jon Christensen matched with the authoritative voicings of unsung sax great Denney Goodhew. Johnson's bass solo, among the finest I've ever heard from him, almost redefines the parameters of the instrument. And when the full band re-enters, a dancing gloriousness reigns. Also, check out his arco playing on the hugely evocative "Col Legno": we're in precincts of strange longings and dark brilliance.



On the slower numbers such as "Summer's End" and "Soft Landing," Goodhew plays with even more authority. It's not that easy, especially on sopranino and soprano saxes, to nail ballad material, what with the intonation difficulties and the necessity of imbuing the material with a proper weight of glory. But Goodhew is fully up to the task. What you get with these numbers is the full evocation of fading light, turning leaves, Indian summer still shot through with crepuscular coolness.



This is music to linger over, to savor, like fine, bottle-conditioned Belgian beer.



Few things in life are finer."

"Summer's End"

Nobuyoshi Suto | Chicago, IL USA | 09/12/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album was made with very versatile ex-Bill Evans Marc Jonson (Bass), the one and only Jon Christensen (Drs) and little known but sperior Denney Goodhew (Sax). There are a lot of colors both in compositions and performance. The interplays between players, particularly those between Towener and Jonson are at very high levels. I belive the theme of "Summer's End" is the most haunting and beautiful Towener melody."