Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943)[1] is an American jazzvibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated.[2] He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years teaching at the Berklee College of Music.
Biography
Burton was born in Anderson, Indiana, United States.[1] Beginning music at six years old, he mostly taught himself to play marimba and vibraphone.[3] He began studying piano at age sixteen while finishing high school at Princeton Community High School in Princeton, Indiana (1956–60). He has cited jazz pianist Bill Evans as the inspiration for his approach to the vibraphone.[4]
Burton attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts,[3] in 1960–61 and the Stan Kenton Clinic at Indiana University in 1960. He studied with Herb Pomeroy and soon befriended composer and arranger Michael Gibbs.[1] After establishing his career during the 1960s, he returned to join the staff of Berklee from 1971 to 2004, serving first as professor, then dean, and executive vice president, during his last decade at the college. In 1989, Burton received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee.[5]
Burton was named DownBeat magazine's Jazzman of the Year in 1968 (the youngest to receive that title) and won his first Grammy Award in 1972. The following year Burton began a forty-year collaboration with pianist Chick Corea,[8] recognized for popularizing the format of jazz duet performance. Their eight albums won Grammy Awards in 1979, 1981, 1997, 1999, 2009, and 2013.
Burton is known for his variation of traditional four-mallet grip which has come to be known as "Burton grip", and is popular among jazz vibraphonists,[1] as well as some concert marimbists, including Pius Cheung and Evelyn Glennie.
From 2004 to 2008, Burton hosted a weekly jazz radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio. In 2011, he released his first album for Mack Avenue Records, entitled Common Ground, featuring the New Gary Burton Quartet (with Julian Lage, Scott Colley, and Antonio Sanchez). In 2013, the group released Guided Tour, their second recording for Mack Avenue Records. Burton's autobiography, Learning to Listen, was published by Berklee Press in August 2013 and was voted "Jazz Book of the Year" by the Jazz Journalists Association.
Burton retired from performing in March 2017 following a farewell tour with pianist and longtime collaborator Makoto Ozone.[9][10]
Personal life
By the 1980s, Burton was in a gay relationship, and he came out publicly in a 1994 radio interview with Terry Gross, making him one of the rather few openly gay jazz musicians of prominence. In 2013, he married Jonathan Chong in Provincetown, Massachusetts.[11] Burton's current partner is Dustin Le.[12]
