|
Gary Burton Takes His Fifth
March 6, 2000
Rob Hochschild
| |
 |
|
Gary Burton takes a solo in a 1995 concert. |
| |
|
The five Grammy Awards on Gary Burton's office shelf are testaments to a career that has succeeded as well as it has endured. A few years after bursting onto the scene in 1962 as Stan Getz's vibraphonist, Burton began leading his own group, and in 1972, collected his first Grammy. Last month, Berklee's executive vice president won his newest Grammy, for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group for his 1998 album "Like Minds." The recording brought Burton together with four other jazz greats: Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes, and Dave Holland.
It marks the fourth decade in a row that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has handed him such an honor. After returning from Los Angeles, Burton answered a few questions about his latest triumph.
Your previous four Grammys were all either in recognition of solo work or collaborations with Chick Corea. Does it feel any differently to receive a Grammy as one of five members of a group?
The first Grammy was for "Alone at Last," a solo recording. Then Grammy 2, 3, and 4 were duets with Chick. It does feel good to win another won on my own record (though Chick is on this one as well). For me it was kind of a real affirmation of my having become a fully established performer.
Considering the five of you never all played together before, how did you manage to get such a tight group sound?
We didn't know how it would work out till we got into the studio and tried it. We all assumed it would be a good match, but you never know. The main thing is that everyone really threw themselves into the music with no egos or attitudes to contend with. Plus a lot of credit goes to Roy Haynes, whose drumming just made us all feel right at home.
Did you feel you were creating the magic captured on this disc as the five of you were recording it?
Sometimes you record and you're not sure whether it's just okay or better than okay till you step back from it and hear it later. In this project, though, from the first take, it just felt like everything was really cooking. I knew at the end of the first day that we were onto something special.
Your liner notes say the idea for this record all started with an email Pat Metheny sent you. How did the session evolve from there?
Pat emailed to say that he had never yet played with Chick, and how about us all getting together for a record? I emailed Chick, he said yes, and within a day, we had everyone lined up. Then, it took me about a year to find a week we could all be available at the same time. Literally a year! But it was worth the wait.
Read more about Gary Burton..
[  Print-friendly Version ]
| 
