.:.impossible

Thanks for sharing these recordings Ted.

Further thoughts?

Reading through this thread got me nostalgic... Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins was my intro. I was probably twenty at the time. I was cobbling a fledgling collection together with loose change and white rice. The years that followed became an insatiable gorge on both discographies. I worked in a record store as a second job seven or eight summers ago when my daughter was first born. Dude brings in a crate of records, most of which were the usual shit, but I'll be damned if an original pressing of Monk Rollins isn't packed right there in the middle. I told the store owner not to pass on the collection. Store owner bought the crate for a few bucks and gave me the LP as a gift. It was a generous and special gift to me and remains a prized possession. That record store still has a Nessa LP sleeve framed on its wall. In many ways, that record remains quintessential Monk. Unbalanced in almost every sense, but as sturdy as a pile of ballast stones at the bottom of a harbor.

Eronel: "Well you needn't, Skippy... Ruby, my dear, I mean you!" Skippy: "Humph! Bye-ya."

Surely they could have found a better photo of Kakeshashi.

The Golden Quartet albums are very good and Ten Freedom Summers is another thing altogether!

Steve Reynolds, I want to commend you and thank you for your openness. I know this was three years ago now, which is sometimes multiple lifetimes for an addict. I hope you are well and continue to maintain your awareness. Cary Ralston

Gary Burton has made a major impact on the instrument. No two ways about it. He and Khan Jamal and the rest of his contemporaries sound so very different. Can't say I know Al Francis and I only know of the one late fifties Earl Griffith record with Cecil's group. I can't say how available everyone's records were, or how aware they were of each other. I don't know much/anything about Gary Burton's personal life and I've skipped almost everything with Stefan Grapelli on it, period. No accounting for taste, but you'll have to take my word for it, or hang out on some vibraphone forums for a few moments, that jazz vibraphone performance (should that be in quotes?) definitely went one way. Real quick YouTube search. 27k views. Khan Jamal or Gary Burton? Also, if you haven't checked out Bobby Naughton's records, http://www.bobbynaughton.com/buymusic.php

Yeah, but weren't they contemporaries?

Lots on YouTube. Here he is a few years ago in CT.

I'm not claiming that he is everyone's favorite player. Not at all. He's amazing to me, but I tend to prefer the albums I listed above, plus A Genuine Tong Funeral, Dreams So Real. I haven't heard Crystal Silence or Times Square. I'm sure I'll come across them one day. It's been some time since I've been able to buy records the way I want to buy records. In the past and future, I would buy a Gary Burton record in a used bin without hesitation. I've grown to like some more than others. Some just weren't for me. I'm a Bags, Hutch, Walt, and suddenly out of nowhere Bobby Naughton (I blame all of y'all for not pushing me toward him twenty years ago) nut. Regarding influence... I think everyone is still trying to find their own way to get out from underneath him, Bobby, and Bags. To this day. There are many excellent vibes players all across the world. Many! LH Stevens, who is discussed at length in Jim's link above, is a marimba great and most recently the head of premium vibraphone builder Malletech. They endorse Stefon Harris, Warren Wolf, both mentioned earlier. Joe Locke and Tony Miceli are the other two. They are all brilliant players in their own right! I don't think it would offend them to read this. I hope not! Gary Burton is freakishly good at his instrument.

Jay Hoggard still plays. We can list every musician that ever played four mallets. They've all influenced each other, and all of the vibraphonists that we haven't heard of. That doesn't change Burton's influence. Major educator, fifty years of recordings, well-documented on video and in print, the most widely used grip technique named after him. He was was most definitely a pioneer. Perhaps the pioneer. Inventor? No.

How important? Are you being facetious Dmitry? In 2017, he is practically the only influence on how people approach the vibraphone. Yes, you will hear Lionel Hampton or Red Norvo in a certain repertoire approach, and there's no shaking Milt Jackson's influence. That would be like an organ player suggesting that he isn't influenced by Jimmy Smith. Bobby Hutcherson is up there. You know how much I love Walt Dickerson. I have recently discovered Bobby Naughton. In fact, I'm basically obsessed. There is a long list of artists on the instrument; however, when it comes to influence, Gary Burton is the one that seems to have most shaped the last forty years. That's multiple generations already.

Hard to believe this is possible. You've been listening to jazz for a long time! For you, I'd recommend Duster, Lofty Fake Anagram, Country Roads & Other Places, and Gary Burton Quartet in Concert. 1968-1969. This was a good string of musicians playing around a general concept that seems integral to Gary Burton's musical personality. Obviously, Rod would be better informed than I, but this is how I hear it. From here, production values change, but the music is there. Gary Burton is a marvel from a technical and virtuostic viewpoint, his music is personal, and he achieves an idiosyncratic sound on an instrument with a fairly narrow timbre.

Looking forward to these! Thanks.