Gary Burton Quartet With Orchestra - A Genuine Tong Funeral (composed by Carla Bley) (1968)

Some classic Carla Bley this Friday and next, starting with "A dark opera without words... based on emotions towards death - from the most irreverent to those of deepest loss", as she described it.  Written between 1964 and 1967, Bley expanded the work with sections specifically for vibraphone quartet when Gary Burton expressed an interest in it.  Thus the final version came together as this enjoyably strange record, with members of the Jazz Composer's Orchestra supporting Burton's quartet.

With 15 tracks, several under a minute long, A Genuine Tong Funeral is a great insight into Bley's versatility as a composer as far back as the mid-60s.  The dirge-like themes that might be expected for such a weighty concept are just as likely to be sitting alongside jaunty, upbeat passages, or the occasional full-on blast of free jazz skronk towards the end.  Burton proves to be the ideal musician to front the project, giving its spindly complexity an accessible cool.  ECM's Dreams So Real from the following decade might be the deserved classic of 'Burton Plays Bley', but this ambitious little oddity is just as worthy of recommendation in its own right.

 

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pw: sgtg

 

Gary Burton plays Carla Bley at SGTG:

Dreams So Real

Gary Burton at SGTG:

Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett

Fluid Rustle (Eberhard Weber)

Lyric Suite For Sextet (with Chick Corea) 

Carla Bley at SGTG:

The Jazz Composer's Orchestra

Fleur Carnivore

Appearing Nightly

Trios 

Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett - s/t (1971)

Another look at that period in Keith Jarrett's early career, previously visited on Expectations, where he was still figuring out his overall direction.  Sharing the limelight for this album was vibes maestro Gary Burton, who'd been recording for longer but was in a similar phase of experimenting with his modes of expression.  Both would end up at ECM within the year, and both had already recorded for Atlantic, the label for this self-titled and often under-rated LP.

The material is all Jarrett's except for Como En Vietnam written by Steve Swallow, the bassist for the album.  Jarrett takes a brief solo on soprano sax on that track, but otherwise sticks to piano.  Gary Burton sounds great throughout, with his cool, languid tone shining on the mid-tempo material, but equally capable on the upbeat, knottier moments.  The other supporting voice is session guitarist Sam Brown, who adds the same bluesy, funky touch that he brought to Expectations.  Think of this great little record as a distillation of some of the best bits of Expectations, with the huge added bonus of Gary Burton, and you can't go wrong.

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Chick Corea & Gary Burton - Lyric Suite For Sextet (1983)

The 80s adventures of Armando Anthony Corea continue (prev. posts: Children's Songs & Voyage) with this September 1982 recording.  Winding up (for the time being; they'd reunite again from the late 90s onward) a partnership that began a decade prior, Chick and vibesman Gary Burton decided to push the boat out a bit and record this Corea-penned suite, accompanied by a string quartet.

What could've been, at the very least, an interesting experiment does sound exactly like that in the album's early tracks, to be honest.  Corea's always-exciting pianism and Burton's gorgeous vibes blend as beautifully as ever, but the strings can feel a little grafted on.  Not to worry though, as this is an album that peaks midway and then just cruises at that altitude through to its close.

The crossing point from 'interesting experiment' to 'absolutely lovely' coincides with IMO Corea's compositional highlight of the whole thing, Brasilia.  Sounding like a perfect modern-classical package that Erased Tapes' Robert Raths would give his eye teeth to get his hands on, that track and its follow-up, Dream, are also the two longest pieces in the set, giving the listener extra time to luxuriate in their brilliance.  In summary, a really nice suite of music for autumnal chillout, raised up to near-essential by the huge step up in quality in its second half.

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Eberhard Weber - Fluid Rustle (1979)

Haven't posted an Eberhard Weber solo album yet, so it's long overdue to rectify.  This is my absolute favourite, in which the instantly recognisable upright-electric bassist pared back his unique music to just bass, vibes/marimba (Gary Burton), guitar/balalaika (Bill Frisell), and two vocalists (Norma Winstone and Bonnie Herman) adding wordless magic.

Making his ECM debut after being discovered by Weber on tour, Frisell is tentative and understated here - to a fault, in his own retrospective analysis, but his minimalist volume swells and gentle arpeggios are perfectly placed on this winter's morning walk of an album.  The side-long Quiet Departures starts off with Frisell in this zone, accompanied by Burton, before the bass and voices enter.  By the halfway mark, this pre-dawn chill has started to see some sunlight, as Frisell strums an open chord on the balalaika (with a more energetic lead guitar overdubbed), and the voices set off on a gorgeous melodic progression.

The sunlight continues to burst through on the title track, with Winstone and Herman in full voice as Burton and Weber sparkle all around them, before another subtle, fluid solo from Frisell.  The rest of the album turns colder and more desolate, with a plaintive Burton solo providing the centrepiece of A Pale Smile, and the closing Visible Thoughts ending the day back in the wintry dark as the voices turn into eerie whispers.  A highly, highly recommended standout album in Weber's peerless catalogue.

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Gary Burton Quintet - Dreams So Real: Music of Carla Bley (1976)

A definite Spring favourite this one, with a clean, fresh sound like a homemade lemonade.  The great four-malletted vibesman was accompanied for one of his most legendary recordings by drums, electric bass, and two guitarists, a lineup that really lets the strength of the composer's writing shine through.

Recorded in the same month as Pat Metheny's ageless debut album, Dreams So Real is from the dead-centre of ECM's purple patch when classic after classic were being seemingly effortlessly turned out, and needless to say is a gorgeous listen.  Burton is highlighted solo on the beautifully tender Jesus Maria, and the larger part of the rest of the album is in a mellow vein too.

One notable exception is the three-song medley of the second track, in which Metheny and Goodrick (the latter too often underrated, in the shadow of the former who'd become a superstar) bop along with a funky, rock-solid underpinning from Steve Swallow, who himself had the most direct connection to Carla Bley.  Bley herself of course would remain just ECM-adjacent until much more recently, so this flawless record would be key to highlighting her music on the main label.

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