LIANE HANSEN, Host: This is Weekend Edition, I'm Liane Hansen. I'd like to take the opportunity now to introduce three guests, who have joined us from the studios of WNYC in New York. The first guest's name is Ralph Towner, you will be hearing his voice, as well as his playing on various guitars and keyboards. Good morning, Ralph.
RALPH TOWNER, Musician: Good morning.
HANSEN: Paul McCandless joins us as well. You will be hearing him on various reed instruments and basically anything else he can get into his mouth. Paul, good morning.
PAUL MCCANDLESS, Musician: Good morning.
HANSEN: And Glen Moore also joins us and you will be hearing him on bass. Good morning, Glen.
GLEN MOORE, Musician: Good morning, Liane.
HANSEN: Together, they are 'Oregon.' They have been together for more than 20 years. They have just released their 18th album on Intuition Records. It's called 'Always, Never and Forever' but they are going to please us right now with a tune from that album, played live at our studios at WNYC. Fellows, I'm going to give it over to you.
(They perform cut from album.)
HANSEN: What an exuberant tune for a Sunday morning. Very, very nice. This album that we now have here in the states, and I understand it was released in Germany a full two years before we finally got it here. What do you think what we hear on this album and perhaps what we hear on this tune that you just played - what do you think it represents about you, musically and where you all are at this point in time?
Mr. MCCANDLESS: This music, I think, allows for one of our great abilities and passions, which is improvisation, and it occurs in a number of different ways. We have very structured improvisation, things that go over making variations over a set of chord changes. Have things like in this last piece that are completely open, where during the guitar solo, Ralph just basically invents the whole solo. It's just - Glen plays a 'D' and Ralph is off and running.
HANSEN: When you all got together, 20 years ago, what do you think were the forces that brought you together and do you think those same forces are what keep you together?
Mr. TOWNER: Yes.
HANSEN: That's an answer to our second question.
Mr. MCCANDLESS: When we started playing together, we found an incredible, the sound of our instruments and how they went together were not a usual ensemble. It was very odd to have like oboe and classical guitar in an improvising situation, along with various percussion instruments and the kind of music Ralph was writing at the time sounded very fresh to us, so that ignited our delight in the sound of this group and these instruments.
HANSEN: Yeah, it was at a time when boundaries between, I guess you could call them genres, seemed to be breaking down.
Mr. MCCANDLESS: Very much so.
HANSEN: Yeah, were limits also being lifted on the instruments themselves, do you think and perhaps how maybe classical music instruments were being used in other ways and other ways in composition?
Mr. MOORE: Yes, there was quite an attempt to leave the standard instrumentation, especially in the end of the '60s and early '70s in New York, it was wonderful. Interest in all sorts of music and trying to expand the traditions of jazz improvisation. This included using instruments that weren't normally used in improvisation, at least Western jazz. And in all our training of the various instruments, we had trained on a lot of classical instruments such as classical guitar, and of course Paul's double reeds and our percussionist at the time was trained in Indian music and Sitar and also he was a conductor of Western 20th Century music. So, all these things we found a way, basically, was to write original music incorporating the instruments and our abilities and that's what we launched ourselves from.
HANSEN: Ralph, you do a lot of the composition.
Mr. TOWNER: Right, I seem to be the-
HANSEN: -The head composer. Are you always writing? Always carrying pieces of composition in your head?
Mr. TOWNER: Sometimes, latently. I don't even know that I'm composing, but it seems to just be one of those things that I've been born with. But I do sit down, you do have to sit down with an instrument and you know, develop the discipline to write the things down that you hear and play in order to pass them onto other musicians. But it's generally a fulltime job. Everyone writes, though, I'm not the only composer.
HANSEN: Yes. Yeah.
Mr. TOWNER: The composition is done in a very private way, individually and then we drag our, we drag the carcass in from the arctic into the campfire.
HANSEN: And cook it for dinner.
Mr. TOWNER: Yeah, exactly. There's a few arguments on how it should be cooked, basically.
HANSEN: I'm sure, but you know what they say, too many cooks, right? You don't want to spoil the composition, either.
Mr. TOWNER: That's kind of the notion.
HANSEN: Tell us what we're going to hear next.
Mr. MCCANDLESS: This is a tune called 'Nightfall,' which is on Ralph's new solo album on ECM. The record is called 'Open Letter.' I'm going to be on saxophone again, but this time piccolo saxophone, and Ralph is playing the 12-string guitar.
HANSEN: And that was Paul McCandless we heard and Glen Moore joins on bass.
(they play cut)
HANSEN: Have you all developed an efficiency of communication, given that you've been together for more than two decades? I mean, you know, a look, a glance, a nod, will convey many things? I don't know, maybe sort of like couples that have been married for a long time, they can communicate with one another without ever saying anything. Have you all reached that point?
Mr. MCCANDLESS: Just a little kick under the table will suffice.
HANSEN: Or the next time, we're not going to give Paul enough time to change reeds, right? But have you, but have you found you've really developed an almost intuitive way of communicating with one another?
Mr. TOWNER: Yes, I think through the music we're all here together because we've managed to be able to stick together during the non-musical parts of what we do and the music is the easy part. Setting up for doing this program, you can see that, and when we actually get to the playing, why that's the gravy.
HANSEN: Glen Moore, Ralph Towner and Paul McCandless. Together they are 'Oregon.' They joined us from the studios of WNYC in New York, 'Oregon's' latest album, 'Always, Never and Forever,' is on Intuition Records. This in NPR's Weekend Edition, produced by Robert Malesky, edited by Ann Goodwin Sydes and directed by Ned Warden, with production help from Walter Ray Watson, Fred Wasser, Connie Drummer and Amy Holman. Our technical director is Rich Rarier with engineers Liz Buchel, Tom Carpenter, Rema Snyder, John Corrillo and Cori' Wheeler. We had help this week from Steve Schultis of member station WNYC and Patricia O'Kelly of the National Symphony Orchestra. Our theme music was written by B.J. Liederman with variations from Stethska Jarre. I'm Liane Hansen.
RALPH TOWNER, Musician: Good morning.
HANSEN: Paul McCandless joins us as well. You will be hearing him on various reed instruments and basically anything else he can get into his mouth. Paul, good morning.
PAUL MCCANDLESS, Musician: Good morning.
HANSEN: And Glen Moore also joins us and you will be hearing him on bass. Good morning, Glen.
GLEN MOORE, Musician: Good morning, Liane.
HANSEN: Together, they are 'Oregon.' They have been together for more than 20 years. They have just released their 18th album on Intuition Records. It's called 'Always, Never and Forever' but they are going to please us right now with a tune from that album, played live at our studios at WNYC. Fellows, I'm going to give it over to you.
(They perform cut from album.)
HANSEN: What an exuberant tune for a Sunday morning. Very, very nice. This album that we now have here in the states, and I understand it was released in Germany a full two years before we finally got it here. What do you think what we hear on this album and perhaps what we hear on this tune that you just played - what do you think it represents about you, musically and where you all are at this point in time?
Mr. MCCANDLESS: This music, I think, allows for one of our great abilities and passions, which is improvisation, and it occurs in a number of different ways. We have very structured improvisation, things that go over making variations over a set of chord changes. Have things like in this last piece that are completely open, where during the guitar solo, Ralph just basically invents the whole solo. It's just - Glen plays a 'D' and Ralph is off and running.
HANSEN: When you all got together, 20 years ago, what do you think were the forces that brought you together and do you think those same forces are what keep you together?
Mr. TOWNER: Yes.
HANSEN: That's an answer to our second question.
Mr. MCCANDLESS: When we started playing together, we found an incredible, the sound of our instruments and how they went together were not a usual ensemble. It was very odd to have like oboe and classical guitar in an improvising situation, along with various percussion instruments and the kind of music Ralph was writing at the time sounded very fresh to us, so that ignited our delight in the sound of this group and these instruments.
HANSEN: Yeah, it was at a time when boundaries between, I guess you could call them genres, seemed to be breaking down.
Mr. MCCANDLESS: Very much so.
HANSEN: Yeah, were limits also being lifted on the instruments themselves, do you think and perhaps how maybe classical music instruments were being used in other ways and other ways in composition?
Mr. MOORE: Yes, there was quite an attempt to leave the standard instrumentation, especially in the end of the '60s and early '70s in New York, it was wonderful. Interest in all sorts of music and trying to expand the traditions of jazz improvisation. This included using instruments that weren't normally used in improvisation, at least Western jazz. And in all our training of the various instruments, we had trained on a lot of classical instruments such as classical guitar, and of course Paul's double reeds and our percussionist at the time was trained in Indian music and Sitar and also he was a conductor of Western 20th Century music. So, all these things we found a way, basically, was to write original music incorporating the instruments and our abilities and that's what we launched ourselves from.
HANSEN: Ralph, you do a lot of the composition.
Mr. TOWNER: Right, I seem to be the-
HANSEN: -The head composer. Are you always writing? Always carrying pieces of composition in your head?
Mr. TOWNER: Sometimes, latently. I don't even know that I'm composing, but it seems to just be one of those things that I've been born with. But I do sit down, you do have to sit down with an instrument and you know, develop the discipline to write the things down that you hear and play in order to pass them onto other musicians. But it's generally a fulltime job. Everyone writes, though, I'm not the only composer.
HANSEN: Yes. Yeah.
Mr. TOWNER: The composition is done in a very private way, individually and then we drag our, we drag the carcass in from the arctic into the campfire.
HANSEN: And cook it for dinner.
Mr. TOWNER: Yeah, exactly. There's a few arguments on how it should be cooked, basically.
HANSEN: I'm sure, but you know what they say, too many cooks, right? You don't want to spoil the composition, either.
Mr. TOWNER: That's kind of the notion.
HANSEN: Tell us what we're going to hear next.
Mr. MCCANDLESS: This is a tune called 'Nightfall,' which is on Ralph's new solo album on ECM. The record is called 'Open Letter.' I'm going to be on saxophone again, but this time piccolo saxophone, and Ralph is playing the 12-string guitar.
HANSEN: And that was Paul McCandless we heard and Glen Moore joins on bass.
(they play cut)
HANSEN: Have you all developed an efficiency of communication, given that you've been together for more than two decades? I mean, you know, a look, a glance, a nod, will convey many things? I don't know, maybe sort of like couples that have been married for a long time, they can communicate with one another without ever saying anything. Have you all reached that point?
Mr. MCCANDLESS: Just a little kick under the table will suffice.
HANSEN: Or the next time, we're not going to give Paul enough time to change reeds, right? But have you, but have you found you've really developed an almost intuitive way of communicating with one another?
Mr. TOWNER: Yes, I think through the music we're all here together because we've managed to be able to stick together during the non-musical parts of what we do and the music is the easy part. Setting up for doing this program, you can see that, and when we actually get to the playing, why that's the gravy.
HANSEN: Glen Moore, Ralph Towner and Paul McCandless. Together they are 'Oregon.' They joined us from the studios of WNYC in New York, 'Oregon's' latest album, 'Always, Never and Forever,' is on Intuition Records. This in NPR's Weekend Edition, produced by Robert Malesky, edited by Ann Goodwin Sydes and directed by Ned Warden, with production help from Walter Ray Watson, Fred Wasser, Connie Drummer and Amy Holman. Our technical director is Rich Rarier with engineers Liz Buchel, Tom Carpenter, Rema Snyder, John Corrillo and Cori' Wheeler. We had help this week from Steve Schultis of member station WNYC and Patricia O'Kelly of the National Symphony Orchestra. Our theme music was written by B.J. Liederman with variations from Stethska Jarre. I'm Liane Hansen.