The Gary Burton Quartet Revisited was the main event in the Arena Santa Giuliana - featuring Burton, Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow and Antonio Sanchez the stage was set for some excellent music from this quartet of world class players.
The set included Metheny's B & G (Midwestern Nights Dream), Keith Jarrett's Coral and a beautiful duet between Burton & Metheny.
I really enjoyed this concert, Metheny keeping the effects to a minimum and playing some superb lyrical guitar, Burton, well, being Gary Burton never playing two notes where only one is needed and Steve Swallow, who must surely rank as one of the worlds best electric bass players, playing with his distinctive style, tone and intonation.
The only thing, for me anyway, that was missing was a bit of fire or a spark to really ignite this band into a truly stellar performance. None of the band particularly connected with the audience all playing 'heads down' and the passion - which we all know is there in this music - just did not translate to me in the audience.
Joe Locke, who has featured a couple of times in my blog continues his brand of vibes bringing huge emotion to his compositions and to this new quartet - the new CD from this line up will be terrific and is already top of my shopping list.
The midnight show featured another vibes player Bobby Hutcherson, a guy who has been around for quite a while - he has had a long association with McCoy Tyner. Equally well know as a player and composer, and cited as an influence by Locke (who was there to see his show).
Hutchersons set was a great mix of jazzy blues played with style and passion - Joe Gilman's great piano runs and some truly great drumming from Eddie Marshall who commanded the stage from his kit bursting into small really intense solo's interspersed with really cool brushwork when Hutcherson was at the vibes.
This was a great day for anyone who enjoyed the vibes and here in Perugia we had three excellent and totally different showcases for the instrument - and tonight it carries on with the huge talent of Roy Ayres!
1 comment:
There are some lovely shots of Hutcherson there... very jealous!
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