The Genre-Bending Fusion of Oregon

It's jazz fusion week here on Rock Revival, a week where we stray abit from pure rock into the exciting world of fusion.

There are few bands more exciting than Oregon, a jazz-world band that has featured the stellar line-up of Ralph Towner (guitar, piano, synthesizer, trumpet), Paul McCandless (woodwind instruments), Glen Moore (double bass, violin, piano) and Colin Walcott (sitar, tabla) who died in 1984

The band has it's base in jazz but picks up folk, indian classical, flamenco and many other influences to make a truly unique sound.

Oregon enjoys a cult following. Apollo astronauts took a recording of Oregon's music to the moon and named two lunar craters after compositions by the ensemble "Icarus" and "Ghost Beads".

The are still together. Their last album was 1000 kilometres released in 2007

Who Loves Oregon ? East-West Jazz At It's best

Every now and then on Rock Revival, we venture out of rock into the very large and strange world of jazz and the even more alien world of world music.

Today it's time for both as we take a look at Oregon, a truly unique band that blends jazz, indian music, folk, western classical and the avante-garde into something that rises well above world-fusion bands

Oregon formed in 1970, with core members Ralph Towner (guitar, piano, synthesizer, trumpet), Paul McCandless (woodwind instruments), and Glen Moore (double bass, violin, piano).The percussionist, Colin Walcott, master of the tabla but also of the sitar, died in 1984 and was replaced by Trilok Gurtu, a man who most east-west fusion fans will be well aware of.
The group enjoys an cult (Apollo astronauts took one of their albums to the moon)

I have to confess I have only heard four of their 16 albums; their later ones are said to steer into more mainstream jazz territory; of the 4 I have heard Out of the Woods (1978) is pretty incredible; check it out !

PS: If you like this kind of music let me know, I am about to do a 101 post on the label ECM.