Oregon: Acoustic State of Music
Eine dokumentarisch-analytische Annäherung
An attempt towards understanding the chamber-jazz ensemble "Oregon" is made via biographical-analytical perspectives. Through the dialectics of collective communication and personal exploration, the formation integrates an abundance of styles and reveals cohesion among jazz, ethnic music, world music, and so-called "serious music", with the intent of a continuous cross fertilization process.
Biographical-musical developments of guitarist Ralph Towner, bassist Glen Moore, percussionist and guitar player Collin Walcott, and horn player Paul McCandless are provided at the beginning, for overall comprehension. Their similarities are the American middle-class background, the individual classical music studies, then the practise-oriented experience of jazz, and finally, their direct involvement with the world music scene of the present.
Analytical casuistry shows the members of "Oregon" as multi-instrumentalists, whose instrumentation heavily depends on the character of each individual musical piece; additional characteristics are rhythmical-metrical variety, extended harmonics, enlarged form mutations on the basis of a 32 bar song form, and the organic integration of composition and improvisation. The qroup organizes their titles according to suite-like sequences, which are structurally-parametrically joined together through transitionary passages. The individual traits are first described in general and then illustrated with the composition "Along the Way", which is included as a transcription.