Gary Burton's Incredible Solo
Today I want to be a little more personal and less academic, because I believe there are moments and experiences that need to be told this way, and that is exactly what Wiki Jazz is here for: to share the language of jazz music with the world, hoping, even in some small way, to succeed.
There is a musical moment that has stayed with me since I was barely a teenager, just beginning to discover the vibraphone and its music. Gary Burton’s solo on “Chega de Saudade.” A moment that shaped me both as a musician and as a listener. This solo is something magical, one that does full justice to a magnificent instrument like the vibraphone, which until that day had been widely used in jazz but had probably never been approached with such a broad vision of sonic possibility. Even though Gary Burton came after Hutcherson and Lionel Hampton, he has rightfully earned his place in the history of jazz and of this instrument.
This solo, recorded in what was probably 1966, exactly sixty years ago, is still studied today by countless young musicians trying to make their way on the vibraphone. We see a very young Burton, long hair and the unmistakable look of the era, but above all a four-mallet technique and a speed of execution that in the world of the vibraphone has probably never been matched since.
This video makes me think that, sixty years on, the vibraphone is still considered on a par with the marimba and xylophone, seen simply as an orchestral instrument, and that genuinely makes me angry. How is it possible that so few schools in the world, and especially in Italy, still do not recognize it as a standalone instrument, equal to the piano, the guitar, or the violin? In the United States they are light years ahead: colleges offer dedicated programs for this instrument, and I would love to see that same openness of mind and artistic vision here in Europe too, where there is no shortage of musicians who have made the vibraphone their life.
I hope I have given you a moment to reflect and something worth listening to. Let me know in the comments, and thank you, as always, for the support you give Wiki Jazz every day.