Quartet Live (Concord Jazz)
Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow & Antonio Sánchez
Released May 2009
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Instrumental Album 2010
JazzTimes Top 10 Albums of 2009
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=0LerRBsOVpc&list=OLAK5uy_m7SB6VcTkLJNbK0A3C8qxa3RLxYBVYEMk
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7AzVwprP81MKTQ3cJbPioo?si=ktHXDJQBQ0K0nso6-8cw0Q
About:
Concord Jazz is proud to announce the release of QUARTET LIVE!, a revisited edition of the classic Gary Burton Quartet. The album features three original members and jazz legends Burton, Pat Metheny and Steve Swallow along with one new member, and perhaps one of the most prominent drummers of his generation, Antonio Sanchez.
The story begins in 1967 when bassist Steve Swallow joined with vibraphonist Gary Burton to form the original Gary Burton Quartet. In the early 1970s, then 19-year old guitarist Pat Metheny joined Burton’s band and one of the most celebrated careers in music began. This would be the start of a 35-year musical friendship between the vibist and guitarist that continues today. A decade ago Metheny discovered drummer Antonio Sanchez, inviting him to join The Pat Metheny Group, and the two have been playing together ever since.
Metheny came up with the idea to revisit the Gary Burton Quartet, the band that had been his entry into the jazz world: “For me, as a teenager in Missouri just starting to appreciate jazz, Gary’s group was the most innovative band around.” They decided to schedule a gig at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2005. The musicians’ rapport and the freshness of playing at Montreal was so energizing that the musicians took the act on the road in Japan and the US in 2006 and 2007, and the group reunited again for a European tour in 2008. QUARTET LIVE! was recorded while on tour at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland, CA. Burton says, “Without a doubt, the level of the group was at an all-time high that weekend. At Yoshi’s, everything just clicked.”
The special challenge for a jazz reunion is to achieve something more than simply playing the old material, and QUARTET LIVE! fully realizes this, taking the music into new territory. “We have all continued to evolve as players, so we play the songs in fresh ways now. We’ve all become better improvisers, too. But, more importantly, though we have each gone on to new ventures, when we got back together again the rapport that always came so easily is still front and center. This has been the most fun I’ve had in a very long time,” stated Burton. What we have here is four legendary musicians, improvisers and composers all, each at the top of his game, bringing modern jazz history to life on QUARTET LIVE!. The new Gary Burton Quartet will add more performances in the US and Canada in 2009.
Track Listing:
1. Sea Journey (Chick Corea / Neville Potter) 8:59
2. Olhos De Gato (Carla Bley) 6:36
3. Falling Grace (Steve Swallow) 7:18
4. Coral (Keith Jarrett) 6:23
5. Walter L (Gary Burton) 5:29
6. B and G (Midwestern Night’s Dream) (Pat Metheny) 6:53
7. Missouri Uncompromised (Pat Metheny) 7:33
8. Fleurette Africaine (Little African Flower) (Duke Ellington) 7:34
9. Hullo, Bolinas (Steve Swallow) 4:47
10. Syndrome (Carla Bley) 4:42
11. Question and Answer (Pat Metheny) 13:02
Personnel:
Gary Burton: vibes
Pat Metheny: guitar
Steve Swallow: electric bass
Antonio Sanchez: drums
Recorded live June 10 – 11, 2007 at Yoshi’s, Oakland, CA
Produced by Gary Burton and Pat Metheny
Recording Engineer: David Oakes
Mixed by Pete Karam
Mastered by Mark Wilder
Cover Art: Peter Max
Review:
Few musicians manage to sound as elegant and exotic,
or as thoughtful and buoyant, as Gary Burton, the pioneering vibraphonist who
helped create fusion in the 1960s and nurtured such future guitar greats as
Larry Coryell, Jerry Hahn and Kurt Rosenwinkel. But no guitarist blossomed
under Burton’s mentorship like Pat Metheny, whose four-year tenure in the
vibraphonist’s band in the early 1970s played a key role in developing Metheny’s
musical aesthetic and laid the foundation for his subsequent ascension to
stardom.
Burton and Metheny re-teamed in 2005 for a gig
at the Montreal Jazz Festival, where they were joined by electric bass great
Steve Swallow, a charter member of Burton’s quartet in 1967, and current
Metheny drummer Antonio Sanchez. The results were so inspired that the quartet
went on to tour each of the past three years and record this 11-song live album
at Yoshi’s in Oakland. The unusually empathetic playing and listening by each
player on Quartet Live yields impeccably nuanced musicianship,
as the group mixes fetching originals by Burton, Metheny and Swallow with
classics by Duke Ellington (“Little African Flower”), Carla Bley (“Olhos de
Gato”) and Burton’s longtime musical partner, Chick Corea (the album-opening
“Sea Journey”).
Sanchez’s drumming doesn’t sacrifice sensitivity
for intensity, while the ever-nimble Swallow contributes marvelous solos to
“Sea Journey” and to his exquisite ballad, “Falling Grace.” Burton and Metheny’s
lattice-like lines on the guitarist’s “Missouri Uncompromised” and Bley’s
“Syndrome” are a delight, and their playing-as might be expected-sparkles and
shimmers throughout. That makes the unexpected moments stand out, especially
Metheny’s edgy guitar-synth workout on “Question and Answer” and his raw-edged
solo on Burton’s hard-driving tribute to Hank Garland, “Walter L,” which at
times recalls the blues-rocking Eric Clapton.
George Varga (JazzTimes)
