May 13, 1977 review: Gary Burton with Eberhard Weber at the Statler's Terrace Room

 

Every once in a while, my reviewing assignments took me to jazz shows. This one was a plum.

May 13, 1977

Gary Burton: Sound Experience

           There are a lot of fine jazz people in town this week – Elvin Jones at Eduardo’s, Charlie Byrd at the Statler Hilton, Dave Brubeck tonight at Shea’s Buffalo, Flora Purim tomorrow at UB and the all-star jam session tomorrow at the Statler – and there’s one rarified experience.

          That’s Gary Burton, whose shimmering vibraharp and blinding agility with his mallets positively delighted a spiffed-up crowd of slightly more than 300 in the Statler Hilton’s Terrace Room Thursday night for a show sponsored by Buffalo Jazz Report magazine.

          One can’t admire the pillars of jazz-rock – Return to Forever, Weather Report and Keith Jarrett – without crediting Burton as one of the architects. It’s a shame more of last Saturday’s Return to Forever concert crowd didn’t show up.

          The half-capacity turnout leaves Jazz Report publisher Bill Wahl glumly philosophical at intermission. This week’s heavy jazz and rock schedules didn’t help, he observes. And then there’s the impending final exams at the colleges.

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FURTHERMORE, Burton – now a teacher at his alma mater, the noted Berklee School of Music in Boston – isn’t the sort who’ll compromise to gain popularity. You don’t ask that of a man who teaches advanced instrumental concepts and improvisational techniques.

          Burton is in his mid-30s but looks younger, wears a moustache and jeans and uses the four-mallet style with which he revolutionized vibes playing in the early ‘60s.

          It’s like chopsticks in reverse, especially when Burton maneuvers them for rapidly changing chord intervals. Much of the time, only three mallets strike, one tapping a melody and the others holding a rhythmic figure.

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HE’S CAPABLE of sudden crescendos and hammered intensity, but mostly he lays down a soft carpet of sound, piled high with resonant vibrato. The rest of the band treads lightly across it.

          Then again, half the quartet is bass players. The remarkable German-born Eberhard Weber – he’s the one with the long blond hair – bends notes all night on a standup bass, striking up solos that might more reasonably come from a Spanish guitar.

          And then there’s equally remarkable Steve Swallow – he’s the one with the short hair and the long black beard – augmenting Weber on electric bass. Swallow writes and his compositions give the band several breathtaking workouts, notably in “Falling Grace.”

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MISSING IS Pat Metheny. The young guitarist has left to lead his own group. Another Berklee student, Mitch Cooley, watches his music stand and approximates Metheny’s warm fascination with mid-range notes and burnished tones.

          Drummer Danny Gottlieb smilingly provides a lot of cymbal. His beat is more jazz than rock and it’s just right for Burton.

          Besides Swallow’s contributions, the set includes Chick Corea’s “Sea Journey” (the opener), a blistering Carla Bley “Oyos Del Gato,” Flora Purim’s airy “Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly” and Keith Jarrett’s “Coral.”

          There’s no shortage of applause when WBFO-FM’s John Hunt says: “I’d like to get them back for one more number.” Burton, sweating from the evening’s workout, eases back out and does three.

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IN THE PHOTO: Gary Burton on the back cover of his “Passengers” album.

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FOOTNOTE: To get an idea of how Gary Burton and the band were cooking at the time, there’s the “Passengers” album, which was recorded with Pat Metheny in the lineup in November 1976.

          Burton kept teaching at Berklee until 2004 and became executive vice president of the school. He hooked up with Chick Corea for eight duet albums between 1978 and 2012, six of them winning Grammys. His autobiography, “Learning to Listen,” was voted Jazz Book of the Year in 2013. One of the few prominent jazz musicians who is openly gay, he retired from performing in 2017.

          Bassist Steve Swallow, one of the first jazz bassists to switch exclusively to an electric instrument, joined Carly Bley’s band in 1978 and became her romantic partner. He’s still active at the age of 82.

          Bassist Eberhard Weber, who’s also 82, began collaborating with British singer-songwriter Kate Bush in the 1980s and his touring and recording tailed off after 1990. He hasn’t been able to perform since he suffered a stroke in 2007.

          Drummer Danny Gottlieb became one of the original members of the Pat Metheny group and in the 1980s toured with Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, Michael Franks, Randy Brecker, Stan Getz and, briefly, with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. In recent years, he's been on the faculty at the University of North Florida School of Music.