Election Section

Toy instruments have been used in classical music for their humor and novelty effect at least since Father Angerer’s nineteenth century Toy Symphony (I know, until recently everyone thought it was by Leopold Mozart). Just the other day, in 1948, experime ntalist John Cage wrote a Suite for Toy Piano. 

Jazz, though, has a way of taking toy or novelty instruments and making them central to the creative act. It takes the word play in a more literal sense than the classical world has since the 18th century. T he saxophone, xylophone, plucked bass, and drum kit or traps (short for contraptions) have all been central to the history of the music while even the more unusual hot fountain pen, goofus, claviette, manzello and stritch have made their mark on jazz in t he hands of gifted performers like Adrian Rollini and Roland Kirk.  

Among these freaks and crotchets, few are played by a more select fraternity than the vibraphone, an electric xylophone with metal instead of wood bars and an adjustable, rotating vane in the resonating tube suspended below each bar that produces varying degrees of vibrato. It is this varying of the vibrato that gives each player a unique voice. It was invented in 1916, just a few years before Victor Theremin invented his first electric musical instrument. 

Vibes became a jazz instrument, and the first electric jazz instrument as well, when Louis Armstrong was making his classic recording of I’m Confessin’ that I Love You on July 21, 1930 backed by the Les Hite band. Louis noticed a vibr aphone (also known as a vibraharp) in the corner of the recording studio and suggested that Hite’s drummer play a brief, improvised opening to the tune on it. The drummer happened to be Lionel Hampton and his few introductory bars became the opening notes to one of the great jazz careers. I always picture him bursting out of Louis’ brain, mallets in hand, like a fully-armed Athene erupting out of the head of Zeus. 

As I said, it’s not like there have been a lot of great vibraphone players. The few masters of this electric glockenspiel include Hampton, the originator; trombonist Tyree Glenn, his inspired follower who doubled on vibes; Red Norvo, really a genius on xylophone who switched to vibes late in his career; Milt Jackson, the modernist and star solo ist of the Modern Jazz Quartet; Terry Gibbs, the mainstreamer; Cal Tjader, exponent of Latin jazz; and Bobby Hutcherson, the avant-gardist. Then there’s Gary Burton, perhaps the most original vibes player since Hamp.  

Burton, born in 1943, grew up in Indiana and taught himself to play the vibes. A virtual child prodigy, he made his first recordings at seventeen with country guitarists Chet Atkins and Hank Garland. He soon switched to jazz, working first with George Shearing and then with Stan Getz.  

In 1967, he left Getz to form his own first quartet with Larry Coryell, Steve Swallow and Bob Moses, who was soon replaced by the great Roy Haynes. Their albums, such as Lofty Fake Anagram, were among the first jazz-rock fusion recordings and this was two years before Miles’ Bitches Brew. Among his most interesting recordings from this period is Genuine Tong Funeral. Burton commissioned Carla Bley to compose the extended piece and it remains one of the classics of the fusion period.  

His influences include not only jazz, country, and rock, but tango and classical as well. Over the years, Burton has worked with Carla Bley, Stephane Grappelli, Pat Metheny and Astor Piazzolla among others. His early championing of Piazzolla helped bring the Argentinian nuevo t ango giant to the attention of an American audience. Their live 1986 recording together at Montreux, The New Tango, remains one of the highpoints of both their careers.  

For the last 38 years, Burton has recorded with some of the greatest musicians of our time in various ensembles, in duet, and even got a Grammy award for his 1971 solo album, Alone at Last. His album, Virtuosi, released in 2002, presents his unique improvisational approach to such classical composers as Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Scarlatti, Ravel and Barber, as well as Gershwin and rococo ragtime composer Zez Confrey. Generations, his latest album, features his current band and was released in April, 2004 on the Concord label. The group will soon record a second album which should be out lat er this year. 

Burton was the first to create complex solos using four mallets, but his virtuosity always takes a backseat to his shimmering lyricism. Although his breathtaking tone and melodicism have made him popular with New Age audiences, this is no f uzzy, air-headed musical cotton candy. At its core, Burton’s music rings out with the clarity, strength and emotional depth that are the hallmark of all great jazz. 

Gary Burton Generations Band, featuring guitarist/composer Julian Lage, pianist Vadim Ne selovskyi, bassist Luques Curtis and drummer James Williams, performs at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday at Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West in Oakland, 8 p.m. For more information, 238-9200.›?