Vibraphone Icon Gary Burton Interviewed at AAJ

Since emerging in the 1960s, Gary Burton has quickly become one of the primary litmus tests for four-mallet vibraphonists in jazz. From his early days with Larry Coryell through to his groundbreaking ECM albums featuring a young legend-in-the-making, guitarist Pat Metheny, Burton changed way that the vibraphone could be used, with music that ranged from ethereal to fiery and deeply grounded.

Since then his career has been a case of milestone after milestone, whether it's his longstanding duet with pianist Chick Corea or his mentoring of young artists like guitarist Julian Lage.

Following what was to be a one-time reunion of his quartet with Metheny, bassist Steve Swallow and newcomer Antonio Sanchez on drums as part of Metheny's "By Invitation" series at the 2005 Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, the quartet decided it was having far too much fun to leave it at just one performance. A 2008 tour has resulted in Burton's latest release, Quartet Live (Concord, 2009), and the quartet will be touring this summer in support of its May 26, 2009 release.

Veteran AAJ contributor R.J. DeLuke spoke at length with Burton about his history, his innovations and his new release, in his in-depth interview, Gary Burton: Forging Ahead, published today at AAJ.

To celebrate the release of Quartet Live, AAJ is also making a number of other features available today:

1. Read AAJ Managing Editor John Kelman's insightful review of Quartet Live.
2. Download and/or listen to Burton speaking with AAJ contributor and host of The Jazz Session, Jason Crane, this week's The Jazz Session Podcast.
3. Download and/or listen to Burton's "Walter L," a complete track from Quartet Live, today's AAJ Daily Download.
4. Watch the Gary Burton Quartet perform Carla Bley's "Olhos De Gato" live at the 2008 North Sea Jazz Festival, today's AAJ Daily Video.
5. The Jazz Session will be giving away 5 copies of the new Burton CD together with five copies of the reissued Dreams So Real from the ECM Touchstones series. To enter,href="mailto:contest@thejazzsession.com?subject=BURTONAAJ">send an email to contest@thejazzsession.com with "BURTONAAJ" as the subject line.

AAJ is committed to providing the most extensive coverage available surrounding new releases, so be sure to check out all the buzz about Gary Burton and Quartet Live at AAJ today!