Vibraphonist Gary Burton

Vibraphonist Gary Burton has wrapped his music career. "I wanna stop while I'm at my peak rather than compromise." https://t.co/UaJW1jsNkp pic.twitter.com/vOtxGzjYgC

— Jazz Night (@jazznight) 9 de junho de 2017

Gary Burton & Makoto Ozone

Gary Burton & Makoto Ozone Presented by South Florida JAZZ March 4, 2017

South Florida JAZZ, the area’s premier modern jazz organization, presents the renowned Gary Burton / Makoto Ozone on Saturday, March 4, 2017 at 8 PM. The concert takes place at the Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center on the Nova Southeastern University campus, 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr Blvd, Davie 33314. Tickets are $40 ($10 for students under age 25 with valid I.D.) and can be purchased from Ticketmaster either online via southfloridajazz.org or by calling 954-462-0222.

Vibraphonist Gary Burton  is well known to South Florida JAZZ audiences, serving as the organization’s artistic advisor, while also playing notable duo performances with  pianists Chick Corea and Makoto Ozone, as well as with his band. Gary is the most important vibraphonist of the modern era. Largely self-taught, he has been a major innovator on his instrument having mastered a much-copied four-mallet technique. His accomplishments are widely noticed with 22 nominations resulting in seven Grammy Awards. He has been voted Best Vibraphonist in innumerable trade publications. In 2016 he was awarded a Fellowship by the NEA as a Jazz Master.

Makoto Ozone (o-zo-nee) was born into a musical family in Kobe, Japan and began to play rogan at age two. At twelve, inspired by Oscar Peterson, he switched to piano. While classically trained, he strove to become a jazz pianist and met Gary Burton whenhe came to Berklee School of Muicis in Boston to study in 1980. He played a solo concert in Carnegie Hall in 1983, the samae year that he joined Gary's band. He stayed in the US until 1989, returnig to Japan where he continued  his jazz career and also hosted a TV show. In recent years, Makoto has been performing works from the classical repertoire with major orchestras to rave reviews - a very rare acceptance of a jazz musician. He remains a serious jazz player, as this concert will confirm.

In 2013, in commemoration of the  30th  anniversary of their debut together, Makoto toured with Gary in Japan for a month. They have now collaborated memorably for over 33 years.

Gary Burton, Randy Brecker and Steve Khan ....

At JazzWax today, Gary Burton, Randy Brecker and Steve Khan remember Larry Coryell, the late fusion guitarist. https://t.co/cQ29n03udL pic.twitter.com/BbEZkaA1eZ

— Marc Myers (@JazzWax) 22 de fevereiro de 2017

Gary Burton-Something's Coming

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Vibraphonist Gary Burton has had an extraordinary career. The four-mallet pioneer and jazz-fusion trailblazer has won seven Grammys and continues to make superb music in the States and abroad. I've always been fond of his 1960s recordings. Through these albums, you can hear jazz transition in the hands of one young artist, shifting from jazz-pop (Groovy Sound of Music) to jazz-samba (with Stan Getz), jazz-pop rock (Time Machine), jazz-country (Tennessee Firebird), Latin-jazz with George Shearing, jazz-fusion (Duster) and beyond. One of my favorites by Gary during this period is Something's Coming. [Photo above of Gary Burton in 1963]

Recorded in August 1963, Something's Coming features Gary Burton (vib), Jim Hall (g), Chuck Israels (b) and Larry Bunker (d). There are jazz standards (On Green Dolphin Street), abstract originals (Mike Gibbs' Six Improvisatory Sketches and Jim Hall's Careful) and Broadway show tunes (the album's title track, from West Side Story, which is the album's high point for me). What makes this album particularly special is how Gary and Jim Hall interact—circling each other, musically, and playing off each other in challenging ways.

The album was produced for RCA by George Avakian. Both Jim and Gary were recording separately for the label in 1963, and bringing them together must have seemed like a natural move for George, given each artist's musical sophistication and passion for improvisation. Gary was just 20 at the time, and like Herbie Hancock (who was 23 in '63), he was a prodigy, exhibiting enormous jazz skills and depth at an early age. Jim was 33 and had been recording extensively since the 1950s with artists on the cutting edge. Israels and Bunker had been two-thirds of the Bill Evans Trio.

As with Undercurrent (above), Jim's first duet album with Bill Evans in 1962, you can hear deft instrumental swordplay on Something's Coming. Breathtaking stuff.

Today, Gary and I spoke by email...

"Jim and I didn’t plan out the record together. I convinced Jim to do it, and he just came to the studio for the two days we recorded. I planned all the tunes and the arrangements, though we fine-tuned things during the sessions, of course. Jim was famously reclusive, but weeks later I managed to talk him into coming uptown to my apartment to listen to the rough takes of the album, to see if he had any suggestions. That's when I told him I had worries about choosing the vibes as my instrument—too little known, I feared. I said, 'What if it turns out to be about as popular as the accordion?' Jim told me about this Argentine guy—Astor Piazzolla—who was a killer jazz player of an accordion-type of instrument and that I shouldn't worry about it. Little did I know I would meet Astor a couple of years later and then tour and record with him in the 1980s. Two decades later, I mentioned that to Jim. He said he didn’t remember telling me about Piazzolla, but hey, a lot of time had passed in the meantime." 

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Gary Burton's Something's Coming (RCA) with Jim Hall here.

JazzWax clip: Here's Something's Coming from the album of the same name...

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Hank Garland: 1930-2004 - A Tribute

Published on Dec 28, 2013
Guitarist Hank Garland performing "Move" with Gary Burton, vibes, Joe Benjamin, bass and Joe Morello, drums.

Vadim Neselovskyi Trio ft Gary Burton and the Pletenitsa Balkan Choir

Vadim Neselovskyi Trio featuring Gary Burton and the Pletenitsa Balkan Choir in the Berklee Performance Center. Vadim's "Get Up and Go" was performed as part of the Concert for the Ukrainian People at the Berklee Performance Center on June 10, 2015.

The concert was presented in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Please make a gift in support of Ukrainian refugees at:

https://donate.unrefugees.org/ea-acti...
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vadim-...
https://www.facebook.com/PletenitsaBa...

Gary Burton: vibes

Pletenitsa Balkan Choir
Christiane Karam: soprano/director
Inna Dudukina: tenor/student assistant
Harshitha Krishnan: soprano
Ana Maria Villa: soprano
Belyana Hristova: soprano
Lyusi Simon: soprano
Annalisa Lombardo: mezzo
Gina Michelle Buckner: mezzo
Dana Prtotsenko: alto
Ekaterina Tolkishevskaya: alto
Nadia Chechet: alto
Ernest Deriabin: tenor
Joakim Molander: bass
Kia Eshghi: bass

Vadim Neselovskyi Trio
Vadim Neselovskyi: piano
Dan Loomis: bass
Ronen Itzik: drums

Rob Rose: executive producer
Ed Liberatore: house sound
Mauricio Bernal: lighting
Santiago Banuelos: spot
Chris Higgins: spot
Yunyun Huang: stage crew

Filmed by Berklee Video Services
Reggie Lofton: video producer
Eli Chess: director/switcher
Ulises Estrada: video engineer
Simon Benegas: camera
Nicole Dillman: camera
Bailey Gordon: camera
Julie Almer: camera
Sara Pagiaro: editor

Jazz Giant Gary Burton Celebrating New Quartet, CD And Autobiography

By OWEN McNALLY, Special to The Courant
The Hartford Courant
September 22, 2013

Celebrating the 70th year of his birth, Gary Burton, the seven-time Grammy Award-winning jazz giant, premier vibraphonist, bandleader, innovative college educator and discoverer and nurturer of young talent, is on the road again promoting his latest disc, "Guided Tour," with his acclaimed New Gary Burton Quartet.

With a brilliant career spanning a half century — including early stints with such jazz legends as George Shearing and Stan Getz, followed by remarkable artistic achievements with his own all-star bands and classic collaborations with lifelong friends like Chick Corea and Pat Metheny — Burton has much to celebrate as he leads his New Gary Burton Quartet (NGBQ) on Thursday, Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Connecticut's Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on the Storrs campus.

Burton and his co-celebrants, the phenomenal, young guitarist Julian Lage (the mallet master's most recent protégé in a royal succession of guitar greats); bassist Scott Colley and drummer Antonio Sanchez grace the 2013-2014 season opener of Jorgensen's popular cabaret series. With its intimate, candlelit table-top setting, the series' nightclub ambience complements Burton's signature style, a luminously lyrical but also emotionally-fiery brand of chamber jazz.

Burton's career has been filled with innovative accomplishments, both as a musician and as an influential, long serving educator at Berklee College of Music. These range from his early pioneering experiments in fusing jazz and rock, even blending jazz and country, to his development of Berklee's first online courses, among other breakthroughs on both the bandstand and in the classroom.
Read more: http://www.courant.com/entertainment/music/hc-gary-burton-0922-20130922,0,989894.story

Vibraphone master Gary Burton has always had a gift ....

Vibraphone master Gary Burton has always had a gift for spotting young guitar talent. A renowned educator and the former dean of Berklee College of Music, where he enrolled as a student 50 years ago, Burton has hired aces like Larry Coryell, Pat Metheny and now a stunning find: 22-year-old Julian Lage (pronounced “lahj”). Profiled as a child in the 1997 documentary Jules at Eight, Lage first performed with Burton at age 12, then appeared during his teens on the Burton albums Generations and Next Generation. His playing was precocious, though not earth-shattering.

Photograph: Courtesy Ted Kurland Associates

Then Lage took off like a rocket. He scored a Grammy nomination for Sounding Point, a marvelously eclectic 2009 debut. He toured with violinist Mark O’Connor in a progressive string trio, displaying turn-on-a-dime harmonic command and a superior grasp of guitar styles from early hot jazz to neo-Americana. Forget his age: Lage is simply one of the finest players anywhere.

Meanwhile, Burton and Metheny kept in close touch: Quartet Live, Burton’s 2009 release, featured not only Metheny but also the guitarist’s drummer of choice, Antonio Sanchez. It was solid, even brilliant in places, but ultimately a version of something we’ve heard before. Burton’s New Quartet holds greater promise. Sanchez remains in the drum chair, while bassist Scott Colley takes over for longtime Burton colleague Steve Swallow. And Lage? His impeccable instincts and sparkling semiacoustic sound should again sit well with Burton’s finely honed lyricism.

Read more: http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/music/89805/gary-burton-new-quartet-at-blue-note-concert-preview#ixzz12WyZwhAy

Gary Burton, One of the greatest vibe players ever, demonstrates his mallets, the M25's from Vic Firth. the idea behind his mallets is to achieve diferent Volume levels, but keep the same feel and tone.

Gary Burton....

Born in 1943 and raised in Indiana, Gary Burton taught himself to play the vibraphone and, at the age of 17, made his recording debut in Nashville, Tennessee, with guitarists Hank Garland and Chet Atkins. Two years later, Burton left his studies at Berklee College of Music to join George Shearing and subsequently Stan Getz, with whom he worked from 1964-1966.

As a member of Getz’s quartet, Burton won Down Beat magazine’s Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition award in 1965. By the time he left Getz to form his own quartet in 1967, Burton had also recorded three albums under his name for RCA. Borrowing rhythms and sonorities from rock music, while maintaining jazz’s emphasis on improvisation and harmonic complexity, Burton’s first quartet attracted large audiences from both sides of the jazz-rock spectrum. Such albums as Duster and Lofty Fake Anagram established Burton and his band as progenitors of the jazz fusion phenomenon. Burton’s burgeoning popularity was quickly validated by Down Beat magazine, which awarded him its Jazzman of the Year award in 1968, the youngest ever to receive that honor. During his subsequent association with the ECM label (1973-1988) the Burton Quartet expanded to include the young Pat Metheny on guitar, and the band began to explore a repertoire of modern compositions. In the ’70s, Burton also began to focus on more intimate contexts for his music. His 1971 album Alone at Last, a solo vibraphone concert recorded at the 1971 Montreux Jazz Festival, was honored with his first Grammy Award. Burton also turned to the rarely heard duo format, recording with bassist Steve Swallow, guitarist Ralph Towner, and most notably with pianist Chick Corea, thus cementing a long personal and professional relationship that has garnered an additional four Grammy Awards.

Also in the ’70s, Burton began his music education career with Berklee College of Music in Boston. Burton began as a teacher of percussion and improvisation at Berklee in 1971. In 1985 he was named Dean of Curriculum. In 1989, he received an honorary doctorate of music from the college, and in 1996, he was appointed Executive Vice President, responsible for overseeing the daily operation of the college.

After eight years at RCA Victor, five at Atlantic Records, and sixteen at ECM Records (resulting in two more Grammy awards in 1979 and 1981), Burton began recording for GRP Records in 1988. In 1990, he paired up again with his former protege Pat Metheny for Reunion, which landed the number one spot on Billboard magazine’s jazz chart. After recording a total of eight CD's for GRP, Burton began his current label affiliation with Concord Records. Departure (Gary Burton & Friends) was released in 1997 as well as Native Sense, another duet collaboration with Chick Corea, which garnered Gary's fourth Grammy Award in 1998. Also in 1997, Burton recorded his second collection of tango music, Astor Piazzolla Reunion, featuring the top tango musicians of Argentina, followed by Libertango in 2000, another Piazzolla project. His 1998 Concord release, Like Minds, an all-star hit featuring his frequent collaborators Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes, and Dave Holland, was also honored with a Grammy win, Burton’s fifth. Gary’s vibraphone tribute CD, For Hamp, Red, Bags and Cal, was released in March 2001 and was honored with Gary’s 12th Grammy nomination (to date he has a total of 15 Grammy nominations). His 2002 release was a unique project with Makoto Ozone, Gary's pianist collaborator of the past twenty years. For Virtuosi the pair explored the improvisational possibilities of classical themes including works by Brahms, Scarlatti, Ravel, Barber and others. In an unusual move, the Recording Academy nominated Virtuosi in the Grammy's Classical music category, a unique honor for Gary and Makoto.

As Gary announced his retirement from Berklee College of Music in 2003 after 33 years at the college, he formed a new band and began touring regularly. The "Generations" band featured a line-up of talented young musicians including then sixteen-year old guitarist Julian Lage and Russian-born pianist Vadim Nevelovskyi. Gary recorded two CDs with the group titled Generation and Next Generation and the band toured steadily from 2003 through mid-2006.

Since then, Gary has focused his recording and performing efforts on collaborations, with old friends and new, including tours and recordings with Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Makoto Ozone, Spanish pianist/composer Polo Orti, and French accordionist Richard Galliano. Armistad Suite with Polo Orti and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra was released in spring 2007. L’hymne a L’amour with Richard Galliano was released on the Camjazz label in August 2007. The double-CD live concert recording with Chick Corea, The New Crystal Silence, came out in 2008, resulting in the sixth Grammy for Gary Burton at the 2009 Grammy Awards. Chick and Gary toured full-time from September 2006 through spring 2008, and they will also be playing concerts in Europe in the second half of 2009.

In May, 2009, Gary's latest collaborative project will be represented by a new CD, Quartet Live, reprising the Gary Burton Quartet of the 1970's with Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow and Antonio Sanchez. Having already toured in Japan, USA, and Europe, this group will be making their third tour with performances in the USA and Canada in June, 2009.
http://www.garyburton.com/display_page.php?id=2

Gary Burton - Vibraphone Solo

Gary Burton, One of the greatest vibe players ever, demonstrates his mallets, the M25's from Vic Firth. the idea behind his mallets is to achieve diferent Volume levels, but keep the same feel and tone.