Ralph Towner -- Witchitaito

[namtil]

Ralph Towner + Guild 12-string + great song = Amazing

[KcinRosa]

All your cynicism smacks of self righteous arrogance that really is quite hypocrytical in its own right. Really, who are we to judge. Be peaceful with your self and that will transcend. Notice how I did the same thing?-!

Music is the esential rythm of life. Let it be.

[kontrapunkti]

I was sold after 10 seconds!

[RobZiak]

I just stumbled upon this motherfucker and wow he can rock a 12 string quite nicely

[loyeti71]

Great Ralph!

The magic music of Ralph and Jim chase away every sadness and negative energy

[napischu]

Saw him live last year. Mr. Towner is a very brilliant and modest man.

[durgaaa]

Ralph is the Jaco Pastorius of 12 string guitar !

[tonet5761]

First heard this tune from Oregon's Out of the Woods album..and thereafter was hooked on Oregon and Ralph Towner..

[talkingwall]

@tonet5761 Actually this tune goes much farther back in the Oregon catalog than Out of the Woods. I first heard it on an old Vanguard release "Oregon Live" which was a live performance with invited friends in a studio setting. Not sure it is still in print. It might even be on their very first release on Vanguard - I forget the name of that album... Music for future generations present or something like that.

[metamorphosis67]

@talkingwall Well, it's possible but searching the Oregon Vanguard titles online even on LP I couldn't find it. Pepper was from Portland, Oregon & his original version came out in 1970 on the Peppers Pow Wow album with Larry Coryell & Billy Cobham. They must have played on the same gigs together or seen each other perform many times. The "Out of the Woods" version is the best version in both performance & sound engineering. It sounds incredible on a good stereo, demonstration quality.

[BibiAudiofil]

@talkingwall

Music Of Another Present Era :)

[talkingwall]

@BibiAudiofil Word!

[elbowout]

In 1978 I was fortunate to hear/see larry coryell top most of the posted versions.

[metamorphosis67]

@elbowout Coryell is a great guitarist but there is no way, even if he was on Peruvian flake cocaine that night that he would ever top this version here. Impossible to play better than Towner here. My favorite Coryell album of his acoustic period is "Scheherazade-Bolero."

[chaosIsTheOnlyPower]

Towner's playing reminds me of a good-natured joke from Merl Travis (I think) commenting on Chet Takins.

"Weil you can see that cheats! He uses all ten fingers..."

Towner seems to have 20 fingers. His classical technique is glorious to watch. He has to be in the category of a world musical treasure!

[elAficionado66]

For me the music of Ralph Towner belongs to the most beautiful music wich were ever played on the guitar!

Really thanks for posting this vid!

[pb4ueat1]

BRAVO.....BRAVO...nice to hear and see real guitar talent...and this man has it.

Thank you.... Joe...

[Vektorer]

Yo bum: Thanks for putting this one up. Towner and 12-strings is nothing short of beautiful.

[SuNutella]

Mòòòòòòòò!!! Troppo bello, va'! Questa è poesia!  Who listen to this music must have a great heart and polite. Congrats, really !

[dobol52]

BRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO!

Wish there was an encore.

[rm3cpp]

Holy FUCK.

[JanDaHori]

How is it possible that one man can sound like an symphony orchestra? In the 70's I listened to The Oregon and WTT was my favourite. Now after years I found this piece and I'm shocked tenderly...

[Rikk303]

12-strng gutar is all well and good ,imagine the loops on a htp

[Rikk303]

I m so off my bonce

[JXB54321]

One of the joys of life is the music of Ralph Towner and associated musicians, in particular the group Oregon. A superb performance! I wish his whole Solo Concert CD were on film. I compare "Solo Concert" to Jarrett's "Koln Concert" both will live for ever.

[delaxo]

I'm looking for a video with Witchi Tai To performed by Oregon, including Collin Walcott.

Any clue?

[ehswan]

Nearly unbearable lightness of being, bring tears to my eyes. Such beauty!

[spiritpark]

Towner is an awesome guitarist and composer, fantastic!!

[geargod198]

what an awesome display !!!!!!!!

[Rikk303]

Is this in regular tuning?

[vinnothelizard]

THIS GUY IS NOT A REAL GUITARIST!!

[bluesborn]

And you are not a "real" critic.

Simply another clown hiding behind the anonymity of the internet.

[mcj3691]

@vinnothelizard please don't leave stupid comments like that.

[buddesatva]

Wow. I know that's not very intelligent or descriptive by this is an amazing performance.

[Alastair6]

Virtuoso guitar playing! Jim Pepper is a musician you should become familiar with.

[rooster102359]

Great post. I thought Mr. Towner did an excellent job on his guitar. Thanks again for the video.

[GerardusYT]

There is always a difference between culture mindedness and consumerism. I think both can be coexistence also in music all over the world. I have been living in Europe for almost 20 years and now in Indonesia, there is same situation in this matter.

[valdae]

Thank you so much for posting this. It is one of the few vids on the Tube with Towner on 12er...a major influence for this pilgrim!

[talkingwall]

yes, they should just start spiking the water supply with ritalin. Most have the attention span of a gnat and the cultural enlightenment of perhaps a John Deer tractor. God, sometimes I really hate this place and it only gets worse year after year. I lived in England for a few years but the weather was just too unbearable. There are pockets of culture but... why does the weather always have to suck in those places? I have seasonal affective disorder. I can't live in those places. Dammit!

[skibum1981]

i hear you on SADD. winter is esp horrible in parts of the states where it gets dark at 4 pm.

how about rome? pretty nice climate...

[talkingwall]

Actually, interesting you say that. I've reading a lot about Roman history lately and have a real desire to visit. Fortunately, I work for an airline (if the price of oil doesn't run us out of business). It would no longer be practical though, I have a grand-daughter (18 months) that I can't live without out. Damn kids! ha ha! There is no hope for me. I also play in my own jazz band and I'm getting work here in Phoenix so... I'll just have to grumble about it and do nothing. D'oh!

[talkingwall]

such a pity that most Americans have so goddam dumbed down not to realize what fantastic musicians we have spawned here at home and they all have to go to Europe to get heard. I did see Ralph in 1975 with John Abercrombie at an ECM festival in Seattle. After the first piece completed you could have heard a pin drop, the audience was so captivated. A rare thing in this country. Most beautiful concert moment in my entire life.

[skibum1981]

i agree. americans often are musically retarded. yet, there's a niche that creates some amazing stuff. blues, rock, jazz, hip hop, all american art forms!

oh btw, did you hear that new b. spears album? fantastic! ha ha ha ha........

[metamorphosis67]

@skibum1981 There's no longer a niche. The American musicians still doing great stuff (ocassionally) are ones that came up in 60s & 70s, Metheny, Towner, Coryell, McLaughlin, Corea, Jarrett, Steve Smith with his Raga Bop Trio & the ones directly. Their tree was rooted in that culture & is grown and bears fruit over & over again. Trying to grow something lasting in today's Orwellian Zeitgeist is like growing a flower on the North Pole. Basically you've got insulate yourself from it or you die.

[talkingwall]

@metamorphosis67 Well there are still musicians out there bringing new things to the table. I resisted buying Miles Davis "Doo Bop" for a couple of decades. I thumbed past it in disgust every time I visited the Miles Davis CD selection at Borders. I finally got curious and you know what? It's really good stuff! Then again, Miles is long dead and this music is 2 decades old.

[metamorphosis67]

@talkingwall Considering the purely technical ability of players of today, it's laughable how little artistic ability they have to use technique to express something worth expressing. The best music is from the 60s & 70s because then there was a deep trend towards self-discovery & the philosophical outlooks gained from these honest soul-searches were reflected in all the arts. In fact, the world of ideas & the arts cross-polinated each other, something that is not allowed to happen again.

[Tarabos1]

@metamorphosis67 You are right and I agree to your comment. I wonder, what happened to the public´s perception of music at the late 70s and early 80s and since..I always said, that the political and cultural world began to change than (Reagan/Thatcher/Kohl era) and the rise of people like Rupert Murdock and Leo Kirch (in Germany) who spoiled the music world with their policy of mass media stupidity (radio, TV, movies). We can´t blame the youngsters for their taste, they can´t know better !

[Galantski]

@metamorphosis67 - Correction: Although amazing John McLaughlin has often performed in the US with many great American musicians such as Miles Davis, Stanley Clarke, Wayne Shorter, Larry Coryell, Chick Corea and Al Di Miola, he is himself a native of Doncaster, Yorkshire, England.

[metamorphosis67]

@Galantski Yes, England but 80% of his post-Extrapolation work happend in the USA. He was the opposite of Hendrix in that sense. He moved back to Europe later. I do not mean a specifically American culture but a 60s & early 70s culture. That's what the Irish-by-blood / North English-by-birth McLaughlin is rooted in along with the rest of those Americans. That same old 1966-1975 counterculture tree is bearing whatever leftover fruits we see today. That tree will not grow in today's Zeitgeist.

[nmclay]

Rash generalization, anyone? I hope you feel stupid saying such an outright ignorant statement.

[talkingwall]

check into how the entertainment and media industries work in this country sometime. We are most definitely "dumbed down" Many of our greatest jazz musicians had to move to Europe in order to play their music. Pathetic. I am unrepentant for that posting. Just speakin' the truth. We're not all stupid by the vast majority? certainly when it comes to art and culture.

[nmclay]

I am a musician. What I take exception to is your use of "Americans are the only ones who behave this way". Your post seems to indicate that the Europeans are "enlightened"? I grew up and have a great deal of experience with European culture and can tell you with surety that they may like your personal likes in Jazz but they are extremelu snobbish and restricted and "unenlightened" about many things too. It is the personal taste of totally different cultures. Nothing wrong or right about it

[talkingwall]

I wrote "MOST, not "ALL".You've added to the meaning of my post,your words "seem" and implies" are strong hints. You quoted a sentence that isn't even in my post as well! America has a wonderfully unique contribution to world culture called jazz. Americans HAVE been dumbed down. Fact - Many good jazz musicians must go to Europe in order to earn a living playing their music. Where was THIS video recorded?You're getting upset over something that isn't even in my post by adding your own meaning.

[nmclay]

I guess I get "upset" and "add my own meaning when you start off any stupid comment by applying to a race, a nationality, a gender, etc. I have found America to have a greatest profusion and selection of music in the world due to our diverse culture. Politics has no place in music and neither do assinine, ignorant generalities of any sort.

[talkingwall]

You've essentially posted that you put words in other's sentences, add meaning that isn't there, and then get angry at the way you interpret it.Life must be very hard for you.For the record,I never called anyone or group stupid. With respect to music, I wrote that Americans have been dumbed down;I stand by that. Now, I have been very civil while you've called my words stupid, assinine (sic) and ignorant. By the way, I'm a veteran. You? Go wave your little flag and crap on someone else's posts.

[talkingwall]

Didn't think so. Ever notice how the most ardent and vigorous flag wavers in America are people who found some reason not to serve in our armed forces?

[skibum1981]

you missed the key word "often." not always.

and yes, the majority is fairly musically narrow-minded, to put it politely. this is a phenomenon in america that isn't isolated to just music...

... we like our prepackaged, mass produced stuff. just the way it is. it's sad that in the case of music, this happens to be coupled with an incredible lack of quality.

[talkingwall]

Yeah, my posting was about music but, as you write, it sadly extends into other areas of American life. It's an attention span thing (we've been groomed to a very fast paced life) as well as economic opportunities. It also very much extends to politics - I think we have more than ample proof of THAT at this time.

[talkingwall]

Holy cow. Where DO these people come from? I'm guessing somewhere in the area of Crawford Texas. Now I'm not implying that ALL Texans or citizens of Crawford Texas are confused and lack reading comprehension.

[Mad8ter]

I agree. The best concert experience of my life was Ron Carter quartet. They played two long sets, no breaks between songs, and I was in heaven. What about the majority of the crowd? Lost, clapped after every solo, and half walked out by the end. I wish they would have not shown up at all, not ruined every song by clapping between solos (Like every jazz concert!), and allowed me to sit in the front row when I went down there.

[icaredamnit]

Take heart, my friend, I'm American and I'm here because I love Towner, Oregon and most of the entire ECM label. And there are lots more like me. I'd have killed to see the concert you saw in '75, congrats for getting there.

[metamorphosis67]

@talkingwall Heavy Metal, Hard-Rock, Jazz and Jazz-fusion is very popular in Eastern-Europe. A guy like Larry Coryell or Ralph Towner or Scott Henderson that might play to 50 to a 100 people a night in the USA can go there and suddenly play to 1000 people a night. Scott Henderson told me that if it wasn't for Europe and Japan there's no way he could survive by just touring the USA.

[Biagagli]

\

Trés bien merci!!!! Salut.

.

[skibum1981]

De rien.