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Gary Burton

 115

Gary Burton


 

Gary Burton

I have always been fascinated by vibraphonist. Perhaps it is because I see it as the intellectual man's drum-set. Being able to use 4-mallets at a time to make music only imagined (before) on piano is a special skill, one that takes talent. The vibraphone is a beautiful instrument and one that has spoken to my soul for quite sometime, so it wasn't long before I was introduced to Gary Burton. Gary was named the Downbeat Magazine's Jazzman of the Year in 1968- the youngest person to ever receive the award. Calling him a living legend would be selling him short. He has won multiple Grammy awards throughout his long, prolific, and stylistically wide-ranging career in music. He has taught music at Berklee College of Music for thirty-plus years. He's written a book: Learning To Listen: The Jazz Journey of Gary Burton. He's a jazz-master, what else is there to be said? I suppose I should mention the music... but it's hard to do that with a career as massive as Gary's. His work with his first quartet saw an emphasis on improvisation as well as harmonic complexity. As such, it should be no surprise that his work in the jazz-fusion attracted large audiences from both the rock and jazz spectrum. Gary Burton's four-mallett vibe playing flourishes like no other and commands the most attention. There's never a dull moment with Gary's playing. Songs like "Las Vegas Tango" and "Brownout" are timeless tracks that could have been written yesterday or today or tomorrow. The album from 1973, The New Quartet, would be the album I would point to anyone interested in what this whole Burton guy is all about. That album marked his first with the ECM label, a label he would be with from 1972-1988.  Many have noted a more introverted and laid-back vibe (no pun intended) than his more diverse, earlier Atlantic and RCA releases. But 1990's Reunion, an album he made with guitarist Pat Metheney would be a good choice too as both are prodigies on their chosen instrument. Also, you can't go wrong with 1972's Alone At Last, a total solo performance, in which he won his first (of his seven) Grammy award. The man has too many albums and collaborations to list. Let me put it like this: His first album (New Vibe in Town) came out in 1961 and his last album (Guided Tour) came out in 2013 (You do the math!). Burton retired from performing in March 2017 following a farewell tour with pianist and longtime collaborator Makoto Ozone. Check out his awesome NPR Tiny Desk Concert here. I'd like to end this with a quote from Gary himself: "Improvising musicians are capable of being musical travelers, voyagers. There is freedom to wander the musical landscape."

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Gary Burton

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