#RIP Ralph Towner who died today at the age of 85. Born in Chehalis, Washington and trained in classical piano and guitar, he brought a composer’s discipline and harmonic depth to jazz, shaping a body of work that balanced written structure with improvisation. He is best known as a founding member of Oregon, the influential ensemble formed in the early 1970s with Paul McCandless, Collin Walcott, and Glen Moore. Oregon’s music drew equally from jazz improvisation, classical composition, folk, and