Like Minds

One of the pioneers of jazz-rock/jazz-fusion, vibraphonist Gary Burton has worked with many of the biggest names in jazz, among them tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and pianist George Shearing. But it was The Beatles that brought him to meld jazz and rock.

“I was at the right age,” Burton explains. “I was in my early 20s when The Beatles arrived on the scene and even though I was a jazz musician, I was looking around at what was going on in other kinds of music. Rock music up to that time for a musician was pretty boring, and then came The Beatles with much more creative song structures and types and styles of songs. I fell in love with them and actually got to see them live at Shea Stadium in New York in 1965 and still remember it as one of the most amazing nights of music history.

“So they were a big influence for me. Interestingly, Chick [Corea] missed The Beatles era, and only in the last few years, did he discover their music and so we do one on our latest record.”

Burton first hooked up with pianist and composer Chick Corea in 1971, and within a year they'd cut an album, Crystal Silence, the first of eight albums they've recorded together, in duo and band mode, over the past 40 years, four of which have won Grammys. Their most recent, 2012's Hot House, is where you'll hear their take on The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby.

“We do come from a fairly similar background in some ways. We're about the same age and we both grew up musically in Boston, where Chick grew up and I went to school, and we both moved to New York at about the same time and we both were part of the post-bebop era. We grew up playing jazz standards and bebop tunes and gradually became more modernised.

“Chick is a writing machine – this guy cranks out more original music than any other person in jazz, and has been doing so his entire career. So it's great for me. We play other songs as well, sometimes standards or jazz classics, but the bulk of our repertoire is made up of Chick Corea originals, and that's been a major part of my own musical evolution, the fact that I've been playing with him for over 40 years. And we play together every year.”

Just how simpatico the two musicians are is evident in their rendition of Armando's Rumba – two men, one vibraphone – and the pianist gives the vibraphonist a good run for his money. “He's a fan of the marimba, which is a relative of the vibraphone – the marimba has wooden keys – and some years ago we were making a record and I borrowed a marimba to play on one song and Chick kept going out into the studio during the breaks and playing around on it and ordered one and he's continued to play around with it ever since. So occasionally he grabs the mallets and plays something on the vibraphone.”