Oregon - Vanguard Visionaries (2007)

Oregon released nine albums between 1970 and 1978 for Vanguard, the first label to sign them. In its Vanguard Visionaries series (which is unattractive in its packaging, and sometimes lazy in its selections), the label picks ten tracks from three of those albums -- the classic second disc Music of Another Present Era, and its two follow-ups, Distant Hills, and Winter Light -- to illustrate the group's groundbreaking acoustic approach to melding jazz, improvisation, modern classical composition and world music. While Oregon has undergone numerous label changes and suffered the untimely death of multi-instrumentalist Collin Walcott, its approach has changed very little while its techniques and music have grown out of what was sewn here. These early tunes are still forward thinking in approach, discipline, compositional dynamics and sheer good taste. There is nothing extra on any of these tracks. Six of these cuts are taken from the band's early masterpiece and second offering, Music of Another Present Era where Indian classical instruments such as the sitar and tables are heard with oboe, 12-string and classical guitar, and double bass and piano. Each member of this group -- Walcott, Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless, and Glen Moore -- was a composer in his own right. Tracks like "Sail," "Canyon Song," "The Silence of a Candle," and "The Swan" illustrate the band's definitive poetic lyricism in both jazz and various folk musics, while others, such as "Tide Pool," and "Mi Chinita" demonstrate the restless balance between composition and improvisation. This is a fine sampler, and any and all of the three albums represented here are worth owning, beginning with Music of Another Present Era which is more than double the length of what's on offer from it here. © Thom Jurek