Recorded in 2001 live at the State Opera House in Munich, Out of Towners features the Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette trio in the kind of performance we've come to expect from them these last 21 years: Stellar. Being one of contemporary jazz's longest-running bands has its advantages; one of them is having nothing to prove. First and foremost, this band plays standards like no one else.
In January 1985, Chet performed a gig in Dallas, Texas with Fred Raulston's talented band featuring Martha Burke on vocals. The band also met the next day in the studio to record Would You Believe? The live date was issued on three LP's/CD's: My Foolish Heart, Misty, and Time After Time. On My Foolish Heart, Chet plays a cool solos to compliment Martha Burks' swinging takes of "Girl Talk" and "The Lady is a Tramp". He's also in good form on his instrumental "My Funny Valentine". However, the CD closes with another one of Chet's throw-away performances of "But Not For Me".
After critically-lauded projects with trumpeter Paolo Fresu (Chiaroscuro) and with fellow guitarists Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan (Travel Guide), Ralph Towner returns to solo guitar for My Foolish Heart. Whether on classical guitar or 12-string guitar Towner’s touch is immediately identifiable. Solo music is an important thread through his rich discography and this new album – recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in February 2016 and produced by Manfred Eicher – follows in the great tradition of Diary, Solo Concert, Ana, Anthem, and Time Line. It features finely-honed new compositions as well as a pair of tunes (“Shard” and “Rewind”) from the songbook of Oregon, a dedication to the late Paul Bley (“Blue As In Bley”) and a single standard – Victor Young’s “My Foolish Heart” which Towner first came to love in Bill Evans’s interpretation.