GARY BURTON - Duster/ Country Roads and Other Places
B.G.O. Records : BGOCD1157
Gary Burton (vibes) with Larry Coryell or Jerry Hahn (guitar) Steve Swallow (acoustic & electric bass) Roy Haynes (drums)
Recorded in New York for R.C.A. records circa 1967/69
This valuable re-issue offers two of the thirteen albums Gary Burton recorded for RCA records between 1961 and 1969 in which he perfected a new fusion style that has proved to be every bit as influential as the more vociferous `New Thing` happening elsewhere at the same time. Effectively, Burton wrought nothing less than a quiet revolution and one that, unlike the more austere abstractions of Jimmy Giuffre, found expression through an amalgamation of elements that rested rather easier on the ear without conceding anything in artistic integrity.
Of the music on this two for one compilation, `Duster` offers more in the way of abstraction and introspection with its crystalline nuances and almost oriental inflections. There are fiery passages but they smoulder rather than burn; caress and seduce rather than provoke though all the time we are conscious of being in the presence of something radical. All the compositions are originals by either Burton, Steve Swallow or Mike Gibbs, whom Burton befriended at Berkley, and fulfil Burton’s stated mission to create music that achieves a unity of melody, harmony and improvisational development, rather like a seamless vestment that envelopes and flows around the wearer.
The second album, `Country Roads and Other Places` is more explicit it its allegiances particularly so in the pieces that reference country music modes: of these there is `Wichita Breakdown`, a banjo tune duet for Hahn and Burton, a vision of endless prairies in `And The Last Day` with its lazy guitar vamp and the evocative, insinuating groove of the title track. The `Other Places` are represented by an overdubbed duet for piano and vibes of Ravel’s `Prelude to Le Tombeau De Couperin`, both parts played by Burton and a solo rendition of the standard `My Foolish Heart`: both are superb but rather depart from the album’s prevailing ethos.
After `Country Roads` Burton went onto to Atlantic and then to ECM where his unique aesthetic was perfected. Today Burton is an elder statesman of the jazz world and although his technique remains peerless his music has become more conventionally mainstream so it is a good thing to have these re-issues to remind us of the power of his original vision.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
B.G.O. Records : BGOCD1157
Gary Burton (vibes) with Larry Coryell or Jerry Hahn (guitar) Steve Swallow (acoustic & electric bass) Roy Haynes (drums)
Recorded in New York for R.C.A. records circa 1967/69
This valuable re-issue offers two of the thirteen albums Gary Burton recorded for RCA records between 1961 and 1969 in which he perfected a new fusion style that has proved to be every bit as influential as the more vociferous `New Thing` happening elsewhere at the same time. Effectively, Burton wrought nothing less than a quiet revolution and one that, unlike the more austere abstractions of Jimmy Giuffre, found expression through an amalgamation of elements that rested rather easier on the ear without conceding anything in artistic integrity.
Of the music on this two for one compilation, `Duster` offers more in the way of abstraction and introspection with its crystalline nuances and almost oriental inflections. There are fiery passages but they smoulder rather than burn; caress and seduce rather than provoke though all the time we are conscious of being in the presence of something radical. All the compositions are originals by either Burton, Steve Swallow or Mike Gibbs, whom Burton befriended at Berkley, and fulfil Burton’s stated mission to create music that achieves a unity of melody, harmony and improvisational development, rather like a seamless vestment that envelopes and flows around the wearer.
The second album, `Country Roads and Other Places` is more explicit it its allegiances particularly so in the pieces that reference country music modes: of these there is `Wichita Breakdown`, a banjo tune duet for Hahn and Burton, a vision of endless prairies in `And The Last Day` with its lazy guitar vamp and the evocative, insinuating groove of the title track. The `Other Places` are represented by an overdubbed duet for piano and vibes of Ravel’s `Prelude to Le Tombeau De Couperin`, both parts played by Burton and a solo rendition of the standard `My Foolish Heart`: both are superb but rather depart from the album’s prevailing ethos.
After `Country Roads` Burton went onto to Atlantic and then to ECM where his unique aesthetic was perfected. Today Burton is an elder statesman of the jazz world and although his technique remains peerless his music has become more conventionally mainstream so it is a good thing to have these re-issues to remind us of the power of his original vision.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
