Customer Reviews

Our First Record

5 star:		(4)
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This wonderful album was recorded in 1970, before
Oregon's "official" first release, "Music of
Another Present Era," but not released until 1980.
It was in print on vinyl for about five minutes,
but then disappeared. It's a marvelous record,
and a must-own for fans of Oregon's early sound or
anyone interested in acoustic music that seeks
inspiration in a wide range of cultures and
sources. There are spirited versions of songs
that would appear of later albums -- "Canyon

Song," "Margueritte," and "Mary's New Bloom" --
played with such confidence and collective empathy
it's hard to believe this was the tentative first
recording by this band. One of the gems of this
album is "Aheer," a 7-minute Collin Walcott
composition, with Walcott on sitar, that stands as
one of the group's best recordings: Oregon's
ensemble sound is fully arrived on this track,
with Towner's incisive classical guitar dancing
with Walcott's sitar so deftly they sound like one
player with four hands. (Walcott, the group's
sitar player and percussionist, who died in a car
accident in the 1980s, didn't write very many
melodies, alas, but they're almost all poignant
and lovely, so discovering another major
composition by him is a major event.)

Only one track sounds dated -- the "space" track,
"Molecular," which has some studio gimmickry --
but the rest sounds as timeless as Bach. Few
groups of any kind were as articulate, subtly

emotional, and wide ranging in its influences --
and as swinging! -- as this.

As the title suggests, this IS Oregon's first record, recorded back in 1970 but never released (on LP) until a decade later, in 1980. I have no idea as to how long the 1980 LP sat dormant before being released on CD, but it must have been quite a while. (The Amazon.com product page info states that the CD was released just two years ago, in 2002.)

As one who has followed the careers of both Paul Winter (and his Consort) and the Oregon group, this album is a very special find for me. It was recorded at roughly the same time as was "Road," the first Winter Consort album that included these Oregon musicians, as well as Winter and David Darling, on cello. This group would go on to record one other Winter Consort album, "Icarus," before Oregon established its own identity on a series of albums for Vanguard,and, later, Elektra-Asylum and ECM (although Paul McCandless worked with the Winter Consort both before "Road" and after "Icarus," most notably in "Common Ground" and "Canyon").

Perhaps the most amazing aspects, to me, of "Our First Record" are the facts that Oregon as a group had established its basic sound - its vision - as early as it did and that this vision was so uniquely different from that of the early Winter Consort. The liner notes, as well as some additional web-reading, suggest that the basic sound evolved during jam sessions while with the Consort, and that it all came together during studio work spread over six weeks in 1970.

Whatever one chooses to call Oregon's music (world jazz fusion, acoustic fusion, "the first of the new-age groups," among others, have been applied), it is immediately distinctive, both for its unusual combination of instrumental timbres and for its adventurous range of material. It can groove, as good jazz must, as in the bass work of Glen Moore in "Collin's Delight" and the piano jazz work of Ralph Towner in "Margueritte." Or it can feature the lyrical (and often stratospheric) oboe work of Paul McCandless ("Canyon Song" and "Jade Vision"). And Collin Walcott's sitar and tabla work give the group its "world music" flavor.

This is very much a "studio production" in light of the amount of multi-tracking that appears. (Particularly intriguing is "Recuerdos," in which Paul McCandless appears to be playing a trio of oboes in the background, beneath the bluesy work of Ralph Towner on guitar and Glen Moore on bass). But neither this, nor the group's apologies (in the liner notes) about the quality of the 1970 sound, can detract from what is a superb first effort. In fact, I found nothing about which to quibble as far as the sound is concerned; it's really very fine, and no apologies are required. (The only drawback, and it is a very minor one that doesn't affect my own 5-star rating for the CD, is its 47:14 running time, due to its LP origins.)

A few of these tracks (no.'s 3, 5 and 6) are duplicated on "Oregon: Best of The Vanguard Years" (which, for some, means the best of Oregon, as Collin Walcott was lost to the group before they established their ECM career). But, for those who - like me - are interested in just how quickly the group's sound evolved, "Our First Album" is a must-have.

With this very first Oregon album "safely home," now all this particular compleatist needs is the CD release of those three early Winter Consort albums (two with McCandless and one with the full Oregon group) on the A&M label: "The Winter Consort," "Something in the Wind" and "Road"; these remain major gaps in the shared catalogs of these amazing musicians. In the meantime, "Our First Album" will tide me over nicely, thank you very much!

Bob Zeidler

This is a review of the sound quality only, not the music. Generally I've been disappointed with the 2004 Japanese remasters from the Oregon discography, but this disk is really good. I couldn't here any clipping or distortion, and the dynamics--while somewhat reduced--are still very punchy. Generally I recommend this disk if you can get it at a good price. If not, I'd go with the 2004 American version as it is probably the same (but I can't say for sure).

Oregon released the first "new age" album in 1970, 20 years before the term was coined. Their acoustic fusion of classical, jazz, and raga remains as unique and intriguing as it was when I picked up a vinyl copy back around 1980, and sounds just as good or better on CD. The grooves are light and ethereal. Great music for relaxing and meditating.

Ralph Towner - Guitar (12 String & Classical), Piano, Arranger, Mellophonium
Collin Walcott - Percussion, Sitar, Tabla, Guitar (12 String) Glen Moore - Bass, Flute
Paul McCandless - Horn (English), Oboe