Oregon (band)
| Oregon | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Eugene, Oregon, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, new-age, world fusion, chamber jazz |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Labels | Vanguard, Elektra, ECM, Portrait, Intuition, VeraBra, Chesky, CAM Jazz |
| Associated acts | Paul Winter Consort, Elvin Jones, Zbigniew Seifert, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio |
| Website | www |
| Members | |
| Past members | |
Oregon is an American jazz and world music group formed in 1971 by Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless, Glen Moore, and Collin Walcott.
Towner and Moore had been friends and occasional collaborators since meeting in 1960 as students at the University of Oregon. By 1969, both were working musicians living in New York; while collaborating with folksinger Tim Hardin they were introduced to world music pioneer Paul Winter's "Consort" ensemble, particularly member Collin Walcott, with whom Towner began improvising as an informal duo. By 1970 Towner and Moore had joined the Winter Consort and met fellow member McCandless; the four began exploring improvisation on their own, while their contributions continued to be seminal in redefining the Winter Consort "sound" in compositions like Towner's "Icarus".
The four musicians made their first group recording in 1970, but the label, Increase Records, went out of business before it could be released (it eventually was issued by Vanguard in 1980 as Our First Record). Oregon made its "formal" debut in NYC in 1971 (originally named "Thyme — Music of Another Present Era", the name change to Oregon was suggested by McCandless).
The group's first release Music of Another Present Era was issued on Vanguard in 1972 (the four also recorded for ECM, though the recording, 1973's Trios Solos, was billed as "Ralph Towner with Glen Moore"). With those initial recordings and the follow-ups Distant Hills (1973) and Winter Light (1974) (all on Vanguard), Oregon established itself as one of the leading improvisational groups of its day, blending Indian and Western classical music with jazz, folk, space music and avant-garde elements. The group released numerous albums on Vanguard throughout the 1970s, also making three records for Elektra/Asylum between 1978 and 1980 (including the highly acclaimed Out of the Woods and a live recording taken from performances at Carnegie Hall and in Canada in late 1979).
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