Solstice (album)

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Solstice
Studio album by Ralph Towner

Publication
(s)

1975

Label (s) ECM records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

running time

41:00

occupation

production

Manfred Eicher

Studio (s)

Arne Bendiksen Studio, Oslo

chronology
Matchbook
1975 		Solstice Sargasso Sea
1976

Solstice is a jazz album by Ralph Towner that was recorded in December 1974 at Arne Bendisken Studio Oslo and released in 1975 by ECM Records .

The album

Background of the album

When the American guitarist Ralph Towner appeared in Europe with his solo projects in the mid-1970s, he was already known through his membership in the Paul Winter Consort and in the band Oregon . During this time, ECM producer Manfred Eicher had Towner recorded in different constellations, first as a soloist ( Diary , 1973), then with Glen Moore ( solos / trios ), Keith Jarrett ( In the Light ), Gary Burton ( Matchbook ) and John Abercrombie ( Sargasso Sea ). Solstice was the debut album of Towner's quartet formation of the same name with the musicians Jan Garbarek , Eberhard Weber and Jon Christensen , with which another album, Solstice: Sound and Shadows , was created in early 1977 . The album contains almost exclusively Towner's original compositions, only the last piece of sand is by Eberhard Weber.

The music of the album

The album begins with Oceanus ; Towner plays the guitar “cascading”, followed by Eberhard Weber's swelling and symphonic bass, while Jon Christensen's swinging drums contrasts Jan Garbarek's atmospheric and dramatic turning soprano saxophone playing . Nimbus begins with Towner's acoustic guitar; Under the all-round theme in 3/4 time lies a flute playing by Garbarek in 4/4 with the bowed bass Weber, then the soprano in 6/8 time.

Piscean Dance is above all a dialogue between Towner and Christensen; the other pieces are the freely laid-out, sound-space-generating short sequences Red & Black and Visitation , characterized by multiple percussion sounds, the curved sounds from Weber's bowed bass and Garbarek's strange, dragonfly-like flute playing. Weber's composition Sand allows the musicians to act in a cosmic crab nebula , according to Nastos , while in the later course of the piece they find their connection to the structures of the piece. Towner's piano playing introduces the catchy Drifting Petals , a “pretty and profound waltz” with unison lines from Garbarek's flute; then Towner switches to guitar for a "deeper discourse with the quartet."

reception

The album was one of the records released in the mid-1970s such as those by Chick Corea , Keith Jarrett, John Abercrombie and Jan Garbarek, which created the image of the Munich label for the "ECM sound". Immediately after its release, the album received enthusiastic reviews; Melody Maker praised : " listening quite takes the breath away ", and the New York Times wrote: "[...]  an almost Oriental sense of balance and dignity ". Solstice was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize in 1976. The jazz magazine Downbeat awarded the album five stars and wrote:

" Solstice inspires through its expressive openness, yet remains to intrigue with constantly revveating depth of texture, nuance, and meaning. "

Ian Carr highlighted in the Rough Guide: Jazz , Garbarek, Christensen and Weber are the ideal partners for Ralph Towner's music in terms of their sonority, active rhythms and creative phrasing . The romantic drifting petals show Towner from a soulful side

Richard Cook and Brian Morton , who gave the album the highest rating, compare Solstice with the Oregon sound aesthetic, the hydride of which Solstice should be understood as: "unmistakably American, [connected] to the European jazz preferred by ECM." Every component of Oregon would be subtly transformed; Paul McCandless ' passionate oboe opposite Jan Garbarek's taut, accentuated soprano sound, Glen Moore's huge bass opposite Weber's multiphonic soundscapes and Collin Walcott's unusual rhythm stand opposite Jon Christensen's uninterrupted floating. With pieces like Piscean Dance , the development of the usual “theme and solo jazz” continues

Michael G. Nastos pointed out in his review of the album on Allmusic that the release of Solstice by the ECM label raised the guitarist to a higher rank, especially as far as the composer Towner was concerned. The reviewer also found Jan Garbarek's agile soprano saxophone and flute playing, Christensen's precise drumming and Weber's unique bass sounds to be emphasized.

the music on this album lifted the ECM / Euro-styled jazz and improvised music to a new realm of pure expressionism. Simply put - this music is stunningly beautiful .

Among the many excellent recordings by Ralph Towner, Solstice was his crowning achievement as the leader of this definitive formation of artists from the ECM stable, which completely defined the sound aesthetics of the label of this period.

The titles

Solstice - ECM 1060 ST (LP) or 825458-2 (CD edition)

  1. Oceanus (11:04)
  2. Visitation (2:36)
  3. Drifting Petals (7:01)
  4. Nimbus (6:31)
  5. Winter Solstice (4:02)
  6. Piscean Dance (4:15)
  7. Red and Black (1:19)
  8. Sand (Weber) (4:10)

Unless otherwise stated, all compositions are by Ralph Towner.

Literature / sources

Web links / sources

Remarks

  1. ↑ The sound engineer for this session was Jan Erik Kongshaug .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b cit. Cook & Morton, Penguin Guide to Jazz, p. 1459.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Review of Michael G. Nastos' album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved February 2, 2011.
  3. ↑ a b c quotation from the ECM catalog: ECM '82
  4. ^ Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley: Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .