Track Listings (7) - Disc #1| All Artists: Ralph Towner Title: Blue Sun Members Wishing: 6 Total Copies: 0 Label: ECM Records Release Date: 2/27/2001 Album Type: Original recording reissued Genres: Folk, Jazz, Pop Styles: Modern Postbebop, Bebop Number of Discs: 1 SwapaCD Credits: 1 UPC: 042282916228 |
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Search - Ralph Towner :: Blue Sun
 | Ralph Towner Blue Sun Genres: Folk, Jazz, Pop
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CD ReviewsRalph's "other" masterwork, wonderful music Colin R. Glassey | Bay Area, CA USA | 08/09/2000 (5 out of 5 stars) "This record (along with "Solo Concert") is Ralph's musical highpoint, in an impressive career as a jazz guitarist. Blue Sun is not really jazz, at least not as I understand the term. It is more like the composed works of Pat Metheny (Secret Story) or Steve Tibbetts (Safe Journey) without the percussion. This record sounds like a series of duets between guitar and synthesizer/horn. Playful and melodic on most tracks, it also moves into a quiet, reflective place where single notes seem to fall into a pool of deep silence. Ralph's skill with the guitar is well known, his only weakness is in his ability to compose engaging melodies. Here, there are no weak tracks, all the songs are lovelly and well worth repeated listening." Deeply beautiful liberty janus | Seattle, WA USA | 10/19/2003 (5 out of 5 stars) "For more than 30 years, Ralph Towner has graced listeners with his absolutely unique musical personality. Towner always plays and composes Towneresquely, which to many of us is a consummate gift, and places him in the pantheon of great American artists pursuing their art outside the mainline of American popular music culture. Naturally, but still curiously, to others espousing the pure jazz party line, a magnificent recording like Blue Sun, with it's deep aching crystalline beauty, appears to be a superficial effort. The further from pure jazz an artist like Towner gets, and the more incisively he probes the emotional depths, the more the purist disregards his effort. All the more reason to embrace Towner's rich musical and emotional vocabulary and lift him up as a really vital representative of the individual soul at work. It's all here: the amazing guitar voice with the tunings, the fingerings, and the phrasings, (American non-mainstream music has been gifted with guitarists, like Towner, of unique personality and skill); the economy and the rich spare depth (plus some fun) of Towner's electronic keyboards; the economical percussion; the occasional brass; and the Towner piano. Most artists long for a voice this unique. Embrace this recording as a seminal example of this man's work and as a rich emotional experience courtesy of a true American original." Sounds somewhat ethereal , like a soundtrack for the Norther loce_the_wizard | Lilburn, GA USA | 12/14/2005 (4 out of 5 stars) "Ralph Towner crafted his "Blue Sun" back in the early 1980s-a point that cannot be missed when listening to it now. Mr. Towner wrote all the songs and played not only his trademark guitar, but also piano, synthesizers, horns, and percussion. The result is a celebration of nuance and clarity that carries the listener to some place, perhaps real, where the sky is deeply blue and ice and frozen breathes sooth the soul.
The music sounds somewhat ethereal at times, like a soundtrack for the Northern Lights, as it swirls and meanders on the longest tacks Rumours of Rain but also conveys a sense of underlying urgency on the title track. I have a few issues that keep me from crowning this recording with 5 stars, however. First, I simply dislike the track C.T. Kangaroo and almost always bypass it unless I'm listening to my vinyl copy of "Blue Sun." Second, the session does not hold up well to repeated listening for it sounds at times a bit too flat-as many solo recording sessions do-but whenever I do play this recording, I certainly appreciate Mr. Towner's great talents. " |