Gary Burton | |
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![]() Burton in 2008 | |
Background information | |
Born | Anderson, Indiana, U.S. | January 23, 1943
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Vibraphone |
Years active | 1960–2017 |
Labels |
Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) [1] is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated. [2] He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years teaching at the Berklee College of Music.
Burton was born in Anderson, Indiana, United States. [1] Beginning music at six years old, he mostly taught himself to play marimba and vibraphone. [3] He began studying piano at age sixteen while finishing high school at Princeton Community High School in Princeton, Indiana (1956–60). He has cited jazz pianist Bill Evans as the inspiration for his approach to the vibraphone. [4]
Burton attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, [3] in 1960–61 and the Stan Kenton Clinic at Indiana University in 1960. He studied with Herb Pomeroy and soon befriended composer and arranger Michael Gibbs. [1] After establishing his career during the 1960s, he returned to join the staff of Berklee from 1971 to 2004, serving first as professor, then dean, and executive vice president, during his last decade at the college. In 1989, Burton received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee. [5]
Early in his career, at the behest of Nashville saxophonist Boots Randolph, [3] Burton moved to Nashville, Tennessee and recorded with several musicians from the area, including guitarist Hank Garland, pianist Floyd Cramer and guitarist Chet Atkins.
Burton toured the U.S. and Japan with pianist George Shearing. [6] Shearing asked Burton to write a whole album of compositions for him which were released as Out of the Woods in 1965. Burton described the album in his autobiography, Learning to Listen, as his "most ambitious effort at composing and arranging". [7] Burton played with saxophonist Stan Getz from 1964 to 1966. [1] It was during this time that he appeared with the band in the movie Get Yourself a College Girl , playing "Girl from Ipanema" with Astrud Gilberto. In 1967, he formed the Gary Burton Quartet with guitarist Larry Coryell, drummer Roy Haynes, and bassist Steve Swallow. [1] Predating the jazz-rock fusion [6] craze of the 1970s, the group's first album, Duster , [1] combined jazz, country, and rock. However, some of Burton's previous albums (notably Tennessee Firebird and The Time Machine , both from 1966) had already shown his inclination toward such experimentation. After Coryell left the quartet in the late 1960s, Burton worked with guitarists Jerry Hahn, David Pritchard, Mick Goodrick, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Julian Lage.
Burton was named DownBeat magazine's Jazzman of the Year in 1968 (the youngest to receive that title) and won his first Grammy Award in 1972. The following year Burton began a forty-year collaboration with pianist Chick Corea, [8] recognized for popularizing the format of jazz duet performance. Their eight albums won Grammy Awards in 1979, 1981, 1997, 1999, 2009, and 2013.
Burton has played with a wide variety of jazz musicians, including Gato Barbieri, Carla Bley, Chick Corea, Peter Erskine, Stan Getz, Hank Garland, Stephane Grappelli, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, B. B. King, Steve Lacy, Pat Metheny, Makoto Ozone, Tiger Okoshi, Astor Piazzolla, Tommy Smith, Ralph Towner, and Eberhard Weber. [1]
Burton is known for his variation of traditional four-mallet grip which has come to be known as "Burton grip", and is popular among jazz vibraphonists, [1] as well as some concert marimbists, including Pius Cheung and Evelyn Glennie.
From 2004 to 2008, Burton hosted a weekly jazz radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio. In 2011, he released his first album for Mack Avenue Records, entitled Common Ground, featuring the New Gary Burton Quartet (with Julian Lage, Scott Colley, and Antonio Sanchez). In 2013, the group released Guided Tour, their second recording for Mack Avenue Records. Burton's autobiography, Learning to Listen, was published by Berklee Press in August 2013 and was voted "Jazz Book of the Year" by the Jazz Journalists Association.
Burton retired from performing in March 2017 following a farewell tour with pianist and longtime collaborator Makoto Ozone. [9] [10]
By the 1980s, Burton was in a gay relationship, and he came out publicly in a 1994 radio interview with Terry Gross, making him one of the rather few openly gay jazz musicians of prominence. In 2013, he married Jonathan Chong in Provincetown, Massachusetts. [11] Burton's current partner is Dustin Le. [12]
Recording date | Title | Label | Year released | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1961-07-06, -07 | New Vibe Man in Town | RCA | 1961 | |
1962-09-14, -15 | Who Is Gary Burton? | RCA | 1963 | |
1963-02-14, -20 1963-03-11 | 3 in Jazz | RCA | 1963 | |
1963-08-14 – -16 | Something's Coming! | RCA | 1964 | |
1964-12-21, -22 | The Groovy Sound of Music | RCA | 1965 | |
1966-04-05, -06 | The Time Machine | RCA | 1966 | |
1966-09-19 – -21 | Tennessee Firebird | RCA | 1967 | |
1967-04-18 – -20 | Duster | RCA | 1967 | Quartet |
1967-07 | A Genuine Tong Funeral | RCA | 1968 | |
1967-08-15 – 17 | Lofty Fake Anagram | RCA | 1967 | |
1968-02-23 | Gary Burton Quartet in Concert | RCA | 1968 | Live |
1968-09-24 – 27 | Country Roads & Other Places | RCA | 1969 | |
1969-06-02 – -05 | Throb | Atlantic | 1969 | |
1969-11-04 | Paris Encounter with Stéphane Grappelli | Atlantic | 1972 | |
1969-09-02 – -04, 1970-03-11 | Good Vibes | Atlantic | 1970 | |
1970-07-23 | Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett | Atlantic | 1971 | |
1971-06-02 | Live in Tokyo | Atlantic | 1971 | Live at Sankei Hall, Tokyo |
1971-06-19, 1971-09-07 | Alone at Last | Atlantic | 1972 | 3 tracks from live at the Montreux Jazz Festival |
1972-11-06 | Crystal Silence with Chick Corea | ECM | 1973 | |
1973-03-05, -06 | The New Quartet | ECM | 1973 | |
1973-06-25, -26 | In The Public Interest with Mike Gibbs | Polydor | 1974 | |
1973-12 | Seven Songs for Quartet and Chamber Orchestra | ECM | 1974 | |
1974-05-13, -14 | Hotel Hello with Steve Swallow | ECM | 1975 | |
1974-07-23, -24 | Ring with Eberhard Weber | ECM | 1974 | |
1974-07-26, -27 | Matchbook with Ralph Towner | ECM | 1975 | |
1975-12 | Dreams So Real | ECM | 1976 | |
1976-11 | Passengers with Eberhard Weber | ECM | 1977 | |
1978-01 | Times Square | ECM | 1978 | |
1978-10-23 – -25 | Duet with Chick Corea | ECM | 1979 | |
1979-10-28 | In Concert, Zürich, October 28, 1979 with Chick Corea | ECM | 1980 | Live at Limmathaus, Zürich |
1980-06 | Easy as Pie | ECM | 1981 | |
1981-01 | Live in Cannes | Jazz World | 1996 | Live at Palais des Festivals et des Congrès |
1982-01 | Picture This | ECM | 1982 | |
1982-09 | Lyric Suite for Sextet with Chick Corea | ECM | 1983 | |
1984-11 | Real Life Hits | ECM | 1985 | |
1985-05 | Slide Show with Ralph Towner | ECM | 1986 | |
1985-07-28 | Gary Burton And The Berklee Allstars | JVC | 1986 | |
1986-06 | Whiz Kids | ECM | 1987 | |
1986-07 | The New Tango with Astor Piazzolla | Atlantic | 1987 | Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival |
1988? | Times Like These | GRP | 1988 | |
1989-05-06 – -10 | Reunion with Pat Metheny, Will Lee, Peter Erskine, Mitchel Forman | GRP | 1990 | |
1990-03-29 | Right Time, Right Place with Paul Bley | GNP Crescendo | 1990 | |
1991? | Cool Nights | GRP | 1991 | |
1991-10-10, 1992-04-25 | Six Pack | GRP | 1992 | |
1993-05 | It's Another Day with Rebecca Parris | GRP | 1994 | |
1994-10-31, 1994-11-01 | Face to Face with Makoto Ozone | GRP | 1995 | |
1994-11-08 | Four Duke with Jay Leonhart, Joe Beck, Terry Clarke | LRC | 1995 | also released as Play the Music of Duke Ellington |
1996-09-20 – -22 | Departure | Concord Jazz | 1997 | |
1996-12-02 – -05 | Ástor Piazzolla Reunion: A Tango Excursion | Concord Jazz | 1998 | |
1997-06 | Native Sense - The New Duets with Chick Corea | Stretch | 1997 | |
1997-12-15 – -17 | Like Minds with Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes, and Dave Holland | Concord Jazz | 1998 | |
1999-01-20 – -24 | Libertango: The Music of Ástor Piazzolla | Concord Jazz | 2000 | |
2000-05-11, -23, -24, 2000-06--03 | For Hamp, Red, Bags, and Cal | Concord Jazz | 2001 | |
2001-08-14, -15, 2001-10-14, -15 | Virtuosi with Makoto Ozone | Concord Jazz | 2002 | |
2003-09-16 – -18 | Generations | Concord Jazz | 2004 | |
2004-11-08, -10 | Next Generation | Concord Jazz | 2005 | |
2007-06-10, -11 | Quartet Live with Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow, Antonio Sanchez | Concord Jazz | 2009 | Live at Yoshi's, Oakland, California |
2007–05, 2007-07 | The New Crystal Silence with Chick Corea | Concord Jazz | 2008 | [2CD] Live |
2011? | Common Ground | Mack Avenue | 2011 | |
2012? | Hot House with Chick Corea | Concord Jazz | 2012 | |
2013-03-21 – -23 | Time Thread with Makoto Ozone | Universal | 2013 | |
2013? | Guided Tour | Mack Avenue | 2013 | [13] |
Compilations
With Thomas Clausen
With Hank Garland
With Stan Getz
With George Shearing
With Eberhard Weber
With others
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1972 | Alone at Last | Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist | Won |
1979 | Duet (with Chick Corea) | Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group | Won |
1982 | In Concert, Zürich, October 28, 1979 (with Chick Corea) | Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group | Won |
1998 | "Rhumbata", Native Sense (with Chick Corea) | Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo | Won |
2000 | Like Minds (with Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes and Dave Holland) | Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group | Won |
2009 | The New Crystal Silence (with Chick Corea) | Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance | Won |
2012 | Hot House (with Chick Corea) | Grammy Award for Best Improvised Jazz Solo | Won |
Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" and "Windows" are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.
Stan Getz was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott Yanow as "one of the all-time great tenor saxophonists". Getz performed in bebop and cool jazz groups. Influenced by João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, he also helped popularize bossa nova in the United States with the hit 1964 single "The Girl from Ipanema".
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Michael Clement Irving Gibbs is a Rhodesian-born English jazz composer, conductor, arranger and producer as well as a trombonist and keyboardist.
Makoto Ozone is a Japanese jazz pianist.
In Concert, Zürich, October 28, 1979 is a live double album by pianist Chick Corea and vibraphonist Gary Burton recorded at the Limmathaus in Zürich and released on ECM the following year—the duo's third release for the label, following Crystal Silence (1973) and Duet (1979).
Chick Corea (1941–2021) was an American jazz pianist and composer born on June 12, 1941, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Corea started learning piano at age four. He recorded his first album, Tones for Joan's Bones, in 1966. Corea performed with Blue Mitchell, Willie Bobo, Cal Tjader and Herbie Mann in the mid-1960s. In the late 1960s he performed with Stan Getz and Miles Davis. The National Endowment for the Arts states, "He ranked with Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett as one of the leading piano stylists to emerge after Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, and he composed such notable jazz standards as 'Spain', 'La Fiesta', and 'Windows'."
John Anthony Pompeo, better known as Johnny Rae, was an American jazz drummer and vibraphonist.
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The recordings of American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz from 1944 to 1991.
Passengers is an album by American jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton, with German jazz bassist Eberhard Weber. It was recorded for ECM in November 1976 and released the following year. Burton's quartet features rhythm section Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow and Danny Gottlieb.
Guided Tour is a studio album by American jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. The album was recorded in New York City together with guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Antonio Sanchez, and released on August 6, 2013 via Mack Avenue Records. The record consists of 10 tracks, paying tribute to the legacies of Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Jim Hall, and Astor Piazzolla. Eight of the compositions were by band-members. This was Burton’s final studio album before his 2017 retirement.