On January 18, 2026, Ralph Towner died aged 85. He was musician (guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion, trumpet, and French horn), composer, arranger and bandleader. He was member of the bands Paul Winter Consort, Atmosphere, but was best known as founding member of Oregon. Towner has performed and recorded with Azimuth, Bill Bruford, Salvatore Bonafede, Horace Arnold, Jerry Granelli, Vince Mendoza, Maria Pia De Vito, Gary Burton, Larry Coryell, Pino Daniele, Cyrus Faryar, Robben Ford, David Friesen, Jan Garbarek, Charlie Haden, Egberto Gismonti, Gerri Granger, Trilok Gurtu, Tim Hardin, Keith Jarrett, Maria Joao, Joseph LoDuca, Andy Middleton, Duke Pearson, Terry Plumeri, Michael Portal, Kenny Wheeler and Weather Report. As leader he released 27 albums.
Tag Archives: Trilok Gurtu
John McLaughlin: Qué Alegría
On April 7, 1992, “Verve” label released “Qué Alegría”, the seventh John McLaughlin album. It was recorded November 29 – December 3 1991, at “Studio Bauer” in Ludwigsburg, Germany, and was produced by John McLaughlin.
Personnel:
- John McLaughlin– acoustic guitar, Photon Midi interface
- Dominique Di Piazza– 4 string and 5 string bass guitars
- Kai Eckhardt– bass guitar
- Trilok Gurtu– percussion
Track listing:
All tracks by John McLaughlin except where noted.
- Belo Horizonte
- Baba – Trilok Gurtu
- Reincarnation
- 1 Nite Stand
- Marie – Dominique Di Piazza
- Hijacked
- Mila Repa
- Qué Alegría
- 3 Willows
Jack Bruce: Somethin Else
On February 23, 1993, “CMP” label released “Somethin Els”, the tenth Jack Bruce studio album. It was recorded 1986 – 1992, and was produced by Jack Bruce, Kurt Renker and Walter Quintus.
Personnel:
- Jack Bruce – vocals, bass, piano, keyboards, cello, drums, percussion
- Eric Clapton, Clem Clempson, Peter Weihe, Ray Gomez – guitar
- Stuart Elliott, Anton Fier- drums
- Trilok Gurtu, Mark Nauseef- percussion
- Dave Liebman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Uli Lask, Gerd Dudek – saxophone
- Bruce Fowler- trombone
- Walt Fowler – trumpet
- Maggie Reilly- backing vocals
Track listing:
- Waiting on a Word
- Willpower
- Ships in the Night
- Peaces of the East
- Close Enough for Love
- B. Dawn Blues
- Criminality
- Child song
- FM
John McLaughlin: Promise
On December 21, 1995, “Verve” label released “The Promise”, the eleventh John McLaughlin album. It was recorded in 1995, and was produced by John McLaughlin and Eddie Kramer.
Personnel:
- John McLaughlin – acoustic, electric and MIDI guitar, keyboards, engineer, mixing
- Al Di Meola– acoustic guitar
- Paco de Lucía– acoustic guitar
- Jeff Beck– electric guitar
- Nishat Khan– vocals, sitar
- Jim Beard– keyboards
- Joey DeFrancesco– Hammond organ, trumpet
- Tony Hymas– keyboards
- Yan Maresz – acoustic bass, bass guitar, arrangements
- James Genus– bass guitar
- Pino Palladino– bass
- Sting– bass
- Dennis Chambers– drums
- Vinnie Colaiuta– drums
- Mark Mondesir – drums
- Trilok Gurtu– percussion
- Don Alias– percussion
- Zakir Hussain– tabla
- Mariko Takahashi– vocals
- David Sanborn– alto sax
- Michael Brecker– tenor sax
- Max Costa – arranger, engineer, mixing
- René Ameline, Gustav Hobel, Ken Jones, Eddie Kramer, Maurice Ouazana, Rd Rak – engineer
- Philippe Arnal, Adam Blackburn, Steve Cook, Simon Osborne – engineer assistant
- Sven Hoffman – engineer assistant
- Alberto Mayer – design
- Christian Rose – photography
- Jean-Philippe Allard – executive producer
- Christian Pégand – production coordination
Track listing:
All tracks by John McLaughlin, except where noted.
- Django – John Lewis
- Thelonius Melodius
- Amy and Joseph
- No Return
- El Ciego
- Jazz Jungle
- The Wish
- English Jam – Vinnie Colaiuta, John McLaughlin, Sting
- Tokyo Decadence
- Shin Jin Rui
- The Peacocks – Jimmy Rowles
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