Rambles on the inestimable loss of two musical giants

In the past month we lost two great artists and composers, Ralph Towner and shortly after, Richie Beirach. Both of these great artists were players with an original voice. One could immediately identify them by their sound within just  a few notes.

However, It’s not just a signature sound as a player which defines a great jazz artist – a great artist’s unique musical vocabulary is also reflected in their compositions. Not every great player can write a memorable tune, especially one that other artists want to continue to play. Both of these artists wrote tunes that were as easily identifiable as the way they played; in fact they are really two sides of the same musical coin. Richie Beirach once said that most composers only have one song they’re continually rewriting. If they’re lucky they might have two or three. While there is truth to this statement, I think both broke that rule, especially Towner. 

During the lockdowns, Richie and I became email pals. At first he would send me a YouTube video of one of his albums with the challenge , “Got this?” Even though I have an extensive collection of his music, all too often I didn’t have the album in question, and in many cases didn’t even know it existed. It became a game, and over time he revealed to me the full extent of his discography, which included some 100 albums as a leader or co-leader, not to mention a huge discography as sideman. While not known for being super prolific, in fact he wrote over 300 tunes, of which at least 200 are recorded.

Ralph Towner has been equally busy, both as a member of the ground breaking world jazz group Oregon, as well as leader on a number of group projects, as a solo artist and sideman on countless projects. He too penned over 300 tunes. I was visiting Paul McCandless a couple years ago and when Towner was mentioned, he said that pretty much any time of the day or night, he knew Ralph was writing yet another tune. He never stopped. This is reflected by the fact that throughout Oregon’s nearly 50 year life span, the vast majority of their repertoire was written by Towner.

It is not my intention to compare these two. Yet despite the fact that both were mavericks and in most ways as different in their approach as could possibly be, there are some similarities. 

The overlap begins with the fact that both were strongly influenced by classical music, Richie mostly by the Romantics and modernists like Bartok. Besides Round about Bartok, Richie also made an album called Round about Mompou and Round about Monteverdi. His jazz influences were extensive, but Bill Evans stands out. Richie had a personal relationship with Bill Evans and it left an indelible mark on his aesthetic sensibilities. In fact, both Ralph Towner and Richie Beirach have always mentioned Bill Evans as a primary influence. And it is interesting to know that Bill Evans himself was influenced by classical music, especially the so called impressionists Debussy and Ravel. And anyone who’s played the piano music of Frederico Mompou will immediately recognize the kinds of voicings used by Evan’s. So, there’s a definite common lineage there.

Towner, a musical sponge, was influenced by just about everything: Elizabethan composers like John Dowland, but also Bach, Poncé and Villa Lobos to name just a few.. One of the founding members of the world jazz group Oregon, Ralph’s influences were far ranging. He incorporated African, Brazilian, Caribbean, Greek and other world music influences into his compositions. Whereas with Richie Beirach, I have always heard more of an Eastern European classical vibe in his music. Besides Bartók’s influence, I also hear Chopin, Stravinsky, and even a bit of Schoenberg. In the jazz arena, while Evans stands out, I also hear Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner.

And it is at this point the similarities end, and the differences become apparent. The main and most obvious difference between these two artists is the fact that Ralph Towner switched from piano to guitar in his early 20s. While Ralph always chose to play standards which he peppered with his compositions, he was in general a less mainstream jazz figure than Beirach, whereas throughout his career Beirach kept his attention on re-harmonizing and reworking standards as a large part of his repertoire, and tended to work in the trio format. While Oregon focused entirely on original compositions, Towner included standards regularly in his solo concerts and recordings and continued to do so all the way through to his last album.

Throughout history, composers are remembered for their compositions and tend not to be remembered for their improvisations, although many of them were excellent improvisers. Chopin was a regular at private salons and would play for hours into the night, improvising for small groups of friends. JS Bach would often improvise during church services, which would draw crowds from many miles around. In fact, through history, classical pianist were expected to improvise on a theme at the end of the concert. That art was all but lost in the classical world. But of course, it has always been the fundamental, essential ingredient in the jazz universe.

When a jazz musician passes, while their compositions live on as do their recordings, something dies with them; the unique lens through from which these compositions sprang and were constantly reinvented is silenced forever. That is why the death of these two artists hits me so hard. I know I will never hear them play one of their own compositions live as only they can. While there are already a number of classical guitarists who are playing Ralph Towner’s compositions, the majority of them don’t improvise and simply play a written arrangement. These compositions hold up well enough to be given the formal treatment, but so much is lost. Ralph Towner never played one of his compositions the same way twice, which is why it was always such a kick to see him perform solo. Solo guitar is a difficult thing to pull off, but solo guitar which includes a great deal of improvisation is like walking a tight rope without a net. Yet Ralph Towner did it with aplomb and was willing to take risks. Sometimes that resulted in a flubbed note, but it never bothered me in the least, because I always knew he was fearlessly going for it, and trying to be truthful to where his ear was leading him.

Beirach had that same lightning fast intuition and risk taking mentality, and was always intent on finding a new way to interpret an old standard or one of his own tunes. In fact, Richie had such an original harmonic concept that Dave Liebman gave him the nickname, The Code. His was a unique musical DNA the permeated everything he played. Like Towner, he had an innate ability to reinvent and re-interpret on the fly. Neither of these artists ever played it safe.

The loss of these two artists hits me particularly hard. Even though we all know how fragile life is, we’re always secretly hoping that those we love will somehow escape the inevitable. This is how I’ve felt about these two artists. Yeah they were getting older, but I wanted them to live on, because they were still on fire and creating beautiful work. Surely that would send a message to the powers that be that they should be able to live on.

These days, I find myself saying that all my heroes are either really old or dead. And the dead list is getting ever longer. It’s easy to wax Buddhistic and ask, how could it be otherwise? The perennial truth is impossible to ignore. And yet, I still find it difficult to accept the loss of these two great artists who have influenced my personal musical life and given me so much joy for so many decades. I console myself with the fact that they were both so well recorded. One thing I know for sure, the legacy of these two great artists will live on.