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Your Favorite Jazz Vibraphonists
by Michael Ricci
Member votes were tabulated and this list represents our favorite jazz vibraphonists. Fully transparent and easily verifiable, All About Jazz's favorite vibraphonists poll was conducted during the 2023-2024 calendar year and ran up through June 27, 2024. We want to thank every member who participated in creating this impressive list (100 total!) for the next generation of jazz enthusiasts to discover. 1Gary Burton2Milt Jackson3Bobby Hutcherson4Lionel Hampton5Joe Locke6Cal Tjader7Stefon Harris8Mike Mainieri9Warren Wolf10Steve Nelson11Marco Pacassoni12Roy Ayers13Walt Dickerson14Joel Ross15Red Norvo16Terry ...
Continue ReadingGary Burton: On ECM & Playing With Pat Metheny
by Mark Sullivan
Vibraphonist Gary Burton was a busy man at the 2015 Detroit Jazz Festival. He was a member of the Mack Avenue Superband (organized by Mack Avenue Records, his current record label), and joined Artist-in-Residence Pat Metheny for two shows. The Pat Metheny/Gary Burton Quartet Reunion took place on Saturday night, and the North American premiere of Metheny's “Hommage" for Eberhard Weber for soloists and big band closed the festival on Monday night. This interview took place backstage just before the ...
Continue ReadingEberhard Weber: Hommage à Eberhard Weber
by John Kelman
Despite being waylaid from playing the instrument that defined his approach to both performance and composition by a severe 2007 stroke, Eberhard Weber has managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible feat of continuing to make recordings that revolve around his instantly recognizable, custom-made electro-acoustic instrument: 2013's Resumé and 2015's appropriately titled Encore, both on ECM Records, the label that's been home to the bassist, composer and occasional bandleader since Colours of Chloë (1974), his award-winning leader debut. Now, it's true ...
Continue ReadingGary Burton: A Lifetime of Collaborations
by Chris M. Slawecki
This interview was first published at All About Jazz in April 1999. Vibraphonist, composer and teacher, Gary Burton was among the first modern jazz musicians to come out of the fertile American Midwestern musical ground from which Pat Metheny and others later grew. Born in Anderson, Indiana, Burton began his professional career while still a teenager, supporting country guitarist Hank Garland. He began to blossom as a solo artist in the early 1960s as one of the first ...
Continue ReadingGary Burton: The Art of Listening
by Mike Brannon
This article was originally published at All About Jazz in February 2001. If you had to choose one living musician who has pioneered the current state and techniques of his instrument, championed jazz education and performed with most of the current crop of established, contemporary jazz artists (Chick, Metheny, Jarrett, Herbie) plus has 'discovered' and been instrumental in bringing up new leaders in his own bands (Metheny, Makoto Ozone, Tommy Smith, etc), that would be Gary Burton.
Continue Reading"Thousands of Bouquets": An Interview with Gary Burton on Jazz and Japan
by Wayne Zade
This article was originally published at All About Jazz in May 2000 as part of a “Jazz and Japan" interview series. All About Jazz: What do you remember about your first trip to play in Japan? Gary Burton: I was 19 years old, playing with George Shearing. We spent five weeks in Japan playing in about five different cities. I had a lot of days off, so I explored Tokyo, Osaka, etc., and began to learn ...
Continue ReadingSeven Songs for Quartet and Chamber Orchestra
by John Kelman
While there is still a handful of ECM titles from vibraphonist Gary Burton that remain unreleased on CD, perhaps the most unique of the bunch is Seven Songs for Quartet and Chamber Orchestra, originally issued by the German label in 1974 and the first of two collaborations with Zimbabwe-born, British-resident composer/pianist/trombonist Michael Gibbs. The similarly intriguing In the Public Interest (Polydor, 1974) is a more conventionally configured large ensemble with horns, reeds, piano, bass and drums; Seven Songs, on the ...
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