GARY BURTON - Something's Coming!/The Groovy Sound Of Music/The Time Machine
BGO Records: BGOCD1241 (2 CD Set)
Something’s Coming
Gary Burton (vibes) Jim Hall (guitar) Chuck Israels (bass) Larry Bunker (drums)
Recorded RCA Victor studios, NYC ,1964
The Groovy Sound of Music
Gary Burton (vibes) Bob Brookmeyer (trombone) Phil Woods (alto sax and clarinet) Joe Puma (guitar) Steve Swallow (bass) Ed Shaughnessy (drums) plus orchestra.
Recorded RCA Victor studios NYC, 1965
The Time Machine
Gary Burton (vibes, piano, marimba) Steve Swallow (bass) Larry Bunker (percussion)
Recorded at RCA Victor studios, NYC, 1966
Here we have another elegantly packaged re-issue from the excellent BGO label, their third Gary Burton set, restoring to the catalogue a further helping of music created whilst he was under contract to RCA. First up we have `Something’s Coming’, his third album as leader and one that evidences the emergence of the distinctive style that was to come to full maturity in his later work with ECM. Always at his most inspired in the company of guitarists he is partnered here by Jim Hall, who, at this moment in time, was probably better known than the leader through his work with the Chico Hamilton Quintet, the Jimmy Giuffre 3 and Sonny Rollins. On bass we have the redoubtable Chuck Israels, fresh from a stint with the Bill Evans Trio and percussionist Larry Bunker, who stoked the engine room in more West Coast sessions than you can shake a stick at. In this sort of company Burton was on his way to the premier league and in a well-balanced playlist of standards and original compositions, expectations are fully realised.
They open with a sprightly `On Green Dolphin Street`, the first of the standards in a list that includes the title track taken from West Side Story, a peppy `Summertime` and an exquisite `Little Girl Blue` performed in its original ¾ tempo. All are subject to novel interpretation and elicit many examples of stimulating and intuitive interplay, Of the originals there is a variant of the blues form by Jim Hall and a couple of intriguing pieces by British composer Mike Gibbs, whom Burton had met as a fellow student at Berklee. `Melanie` is a thing of contrasting time signatures and a masterly demonstration of Bunker’s dexterity whilst `Six Improvisatory Sketches` is a cerebral exercise built out of short musical phrases leading to free extemporisation shorn of a fixed harmonic and rhythmic context, presaging the sort of music Burton would become noted for at ECM.
The second album featured in the set is one of those jazz interpretations of songs from the shows affairs that enjoyed some currency in the fifties and early sixties, this one designed to capitalise on the success of `The Sound of Music` which was released in the same year. Of the eight tunes selected from the score, four carry the cargo of rather fussy orchestral arrangements by Gary McFarland but Burton sails through them with his quicksilver virtuosity unimpeded by the somewhat cloying strings and woodwind. More interesting are the four sextet tracks for jazz ensemble which feature some fine comping from Joe Puma and an extended solo by Bob Brookmeyer in `My Favourite Things`. Disappointingly though Phil Woods only gets to provide contrapuntal fills, frills and obbligatos and although he does so with great effect it seems wrong not to have given such a towering talent some solo space. The highlight of the set however belongs to Burton who delivers a crystalline four mallet solo performance of the waltz `Edelweiss` with consummate poise and delicacy redeeming a session that purists might be tempted to sniffily disregard as a commercially oriented digression.
The final disc finds Burton going further out a limb in an experimental sense, being an early example of multi-tracking in which he overdubs piano and marimba plus extra bass and percussion parts thereby enlarging the sound and scope of what is essentially a trio recording. Two more pieces from Mike Gibbs benefit from these ingenious innovations which also include tape speed manipulation and with the aid of these techniques Burton is able to play four instruments by himself on a version of the Beatles `Norwegian Wood`. Also featured are originals by the leader and the set opens with a transcendent other worldly piece entitled `The Sunset Bell` in which his vibes are overdubbed onto his piano based theme. `Six-Nix, Quick, Flix` is a spiky allegro which dates back to his days with the George Shearing Quintet and is followed by two abstract vignettes one of which serves as a prelude to Jobim’s `No More Blues`, a tune that Burton was to re-visit on numerous occasions.
To those who are ideologically opposed to such contrivances I should say `fear not`; nothing sounds artificial or gimmicky and the album marks an important step in the career of a musician who was to become and will remain for ever one of the most important musicians in the annals of jazz but as if to demonstrate the power of his artistic and technical autonomy he finishes the set with a shimmering solo performance of `My Funny Valentine` that blows everything else out of the ball park.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
BGO Records: BGOCD1241 (2 CD Set)
Something’s Coming
Gary Burton (vibes) Jim Hall (guitar) Chuck Israels (bass) Larry Bunker (drums)
Recorded RCA Victor studios, NYC ,1964
The Groovy Sound of Music
Gary Burton (vibes) Bob Brookmeyer (trombone) Phil Woods (alto sax and clarinet) Joe Puma (guitar) Steve Swallow (bass) Ed Shaughnessy (drums) plus orchestra.
Recorded RCA Victor studios NYC, 1965
The Time Machine
Gary Burton (vibes, piano, marimba) Steve Swallow (bass) Larry Bunker (percussion)
Recorded at RCA Victor studios, NYC, 1966
Here we have another elegantly packaged re-issue from the excellent BGO label, their third Gary Burton set, restoring to the catalogue a further helping of music created whilst he was under contract to RCA. First up we have `Something’s Coming’, his third album as leader and one that evidences the emergence of the distinctive style that was to come to full maturity in his later work with ECM. Always at his most inspired in the company of guitarists he is partnered here by Jim Hall, who, at this moment in time, was probably better known than the leader through his work with the Chico Hamilton Quintet, the Jimmy Giuffre 3 and Sonny Rollins. On bass we have the redoubtable Chuck Israels, fresh from a stint with the Bill Evans Trio and percussionist Larry Bunker, who stoked the engine room in more West Coast sessions than you can shake a stick at. In this sort of company Burton was on his way to the premier league and in a well-balanced playlist of standards and original compositions, expectations are fully realised.
They open with a sprightly `On Green Dolphin Street`, the first of the standards in a list that includes the title track taken from West Side Story, a peppy `Summertime` and an exquisite `Little Girl Blue` performed in its original ¾ tempo. All are subject to novel interpretation and elicit many examples of stimulating and intuitive interplay, Of the originals there is a variant of the blues form by Jim Hall and a couple of intriguing pieces by British composer Mike Gibbs, whom Burton had met as a fellow student at Berklee. `Melanie` is a thing of contrasting time signatures and a masterly demonstration of Bunker’s dexterity whilst `Six Improvisatory Sketches` is a cerebral exercise built out of short musical phrases leading to free extemporisation shorn of a fixed harmonic and rhythmic context, presaging the sort of music Burton would become noted for at ECM.
The second album featured in the set is one of those jazz interpretations of songs from the shows affairs that enjoyed some currency in the fifties and early sixties, this one designed to capitalise on the success of `The Sound of Music` which was released in the same year. Of the eight tunes selected from the score, four carry the cargo of rather fussy orchestral arrangements by Gary McFarland but Burton sails through them with his quicksilver virtuosity unimpeded by the somewhat cloying strings and woodwind. More interesting are the four sextet tracks for jazz ensemble which feature some fine comping from Joe Puma and an extended solo by Bob Brookmeyer in `My Favourite Things`. Disappointingly though Phil Woods only gets to provide contrapuntal fills, frills and obbligatos and although he does so with great effect it seems wrong not to have given such a towering talent some solo space. The highlight of the set however belongs to Burton who delivers a crystalline four mallet solo performance of the waltz `Edelweiss` with consummate poise and delicacy redeeming a session that purists might be tempted to sniffily disregard as a commercially oriented digression.
The final disc finds Burton going further out a limb in an experimental sense, being an early example of multi-tracking in which he overdubs piano and marimba plus extra bass and percussion parts thereby enlarging the sound and scope of what is essentially a trio recording. Two more pieces from Mike Gibbs benefit from these ingenious innovations which also include tape speed manipulation and with the aid of these techniques Burton is able to play four instruments by himself on a version of the Beatles `Norwegian Wood`. Also featured are originals by the leader and the set opens with a transcendent other worldly piece entitled `The Sunset Bell` in which his vibes are overdubbed onto his piano based theme. `Six-Nix, Quick, Flix` is a spiky allegro which dates back to his days with the George Shearing Quintet and is followed by two abstract vignettes one of which serves as a prelude to Jobim’s `No More Blues`, a tune that Burton was to re-visit on numerous occasions.
To those who are ideologically opposed to such contrivances I should say `fear not`; nothing sounds artificial or gimmicky and the album marks an important step in the career of a musician who was to become and will remain for ever one of the most important musicians in the annals of jazz but as if to demonstrate the power of his artistic and technical autonomy he finishes the set with a shimmering solo performance of `My Funny Valentine` that blows everything else out of the ball park.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
