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March 27, 2010

MUSIC REVIEW | RALPH TOWNER AND PAOLO FRESU

Aplomb in a Showcase for Technique

By NATE CHINEN

The guitarist Ralph Towner has always, it seems, made music of glowing introspection. Since at
least the early 1970s, when he began recording for the German label ECM, he has practiced a
pristine, self-sufficient style, endlessly awake to his instrument’s acoustical properties. This makes
him an ideally transfixing solo performer, though he works no less as an ensemble player, notably
in Oregon, his long-running band.

His new ECM album, “Chiaroscuro,” pairs him with the trumpeter Paolo Fresu, whom he met at a
festival in Sardinia, Mr. Fresu’s native turf, some 15 years ago. As with most of the other albums
that Mr. Towner has made with a lone partner, it’s as much a showcase for his technique as it is a
platform for interplay. Much the same was true of a concert at the Italian Academy at Columbia
University on Wednesday night, part of a brief cross-country tour to celebrate the album’s
release.

Mr. Towner and Mr. Fresu revisited most of the songs from “Chiaroscuro,” including the title
track, with its delicate intimation of Brazilian choro rhythm. Both musicians were seated, and
they took advantage of the resonant warmth of the room, though that didn’t prevent their use of
echoing reverb enhancements. (It was as if they were determined to produce a sound
indistinguishable from that of an ECM recording.) On the whole, the music was placid on the
surface with a network of intricacies beneath.

The placidity was largely the province of Mr. Fresu, who plays with the lyrical concision and softly
plangent tone of Miles Davis. That evocation was occasionally distracting — though not,
paradoxically, on “Blue in Green,” a ballad from Davis’s album “Kind of Blue.” Mr. Fresu began
that song true to form, carefully stating its melody through a mute, but then he gradually pulled
toward sprightlier cadences, soloing with an open horn. (In some respects, sartorial as well as
musical, he suggests an Italian rejoinder to Chris Botti.)

Mr. Towner, who turned 70 this month, furnished the harmonic scaffolding and undercurrent of
each tune, beginning with the polyrhythmic drift of “Punta Giara” and moving on to the fragile
rubato of “Wistful Thinking.” His sound on a six-stringed classical guitar was crisp but full-
spectrum, almost prismatic; on baritone guitar he savored the lower bray of his notes and the
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Music Review - Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu - Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu Play at Columbia - NYTimes.com 3/26/10 2:05 PM

spectrum, almost prismatic; on baritone guitar he savored the lower bray of his notes and the
deeper chime of his chords. On “Doubled Up” he improvised an almost funklike counterpoint to
Mr. Fresu, who again was using a mute.

The baritone also played a role in the hymnlike closer, “The Sacred Place,” which appears in solo
and duo form on “Chiaroscuro.” Both musicians took part here, but Mr. Fresu was too liberal with
his echo, leaning toward ponderous. Mr. Towner, for his part, kept things sparse, almost austere,
making each chord feel solemn and illuminated.

Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu perform on Saturday at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum
in San Francisco and on Sunday at the Triple Door in Seattle; ralphtowner.com.

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