Gary Burton’s innovations in jazz, especially his approach to the vibraphone and his mastery of simultaneous four-mallet playing, have been the hallmark of a career that has spanned four-decades. His five GRAMMY® Awards and 13 GRAMMY® nominations cross multiple categories and attest to the high regard his music has achieved amongst his peers. Yet Burton’s genius as a jazz pioneer has been sometimes overlooked.

It was in Burton’s late 1960s group where the electric guitar first came into prominence as a leading instrument in jazz and where rock elements were first infused into a pulsating and virtuoso jazz mix. Before Miles Davis plugged in his guitarists—Gary’s 1967 fusion band predated the seminal BITCHES BREW recording—Burton was eagerly pushing the jazz form toward the more explosive rock genre. Ever since, Gary has enlisted an impressive list of young guitar players as erstwhile collaborators.

The vibraphonist’s experiments with Larry Coryell created a trailblazing jazz-rock sound that landed the Gary Burton Group concert performances with such mega-rock headliners as The Electric Flag and Cream (The Fillmore West in 1967). This was the first time a jazz ensemble ever broke the rock barrier. The same group also wowed the rock-hardened audiences at The Fillmore East when they opened for Moby Grape and the Fugs in 1968. Other guitarists who would later receive their first big break in Burton’s group were John Scofield, Jerry Hahn, Mick Goodrick, and Pat Metheny, considered by many as the pre-eminent jazz guitarist of his generation. In retrospect, an extraordinary list of alumnae graduated from under Burton’s wing and went on to reshape the future of jazz.

"There are two kinds of bandleaders, those who seek the comfort level of working exclusively with seasoned players, and those, like me, who enjoy the inspiration, spontaneity and informality of working with talented, young players. I thrive from that exchange, that charged interaction and take my cue from Stan Getz, who often hired younger players to stay sharp," explains Burton, who performed with the jazz legend while in his early 20s, from 1964 to 1966.

Burton’s recent recording output has been prolific—a period that found him recording a successful batch of theme-oriented albums for Concord Records, including LIBERTANGO: THE MUSIC OF ASTOR PIAZZOLA (2000), a CD tribute to his favorite vibraphone players, FOR HAMP, RED, BAGS & CAL (2001), and VIRTUOSI (2004), a classical vibes-piano duet album with Makoto Ozone (all three recordings received GRAMMY nominations), and two CD’s featuring his Next Generation Band of young musicians. LIKE MINDS, the vibist’s all-star project with Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Roy Haynes garnered his 5th Grammy in 2000.

The Indiana native began performing at age eight and discovered jazz at 13-years old via a Benny Goodman record. "Music was just a fun hobby at first, nothing to pursue as a career until I went to a Stan Kenton band camp one summer at Indiana University," he says. "I was from a small town and never had experienced anything like this. The energy in this group of 150 kids was incredible. I came back excited and committed to making it my life. Milt Jackson was my biggest influence on the vibes, but Bill Evans, Miles and Sonny Rollins were the key jazz figures that inspired both my music and career.”

For the better part of his professional career, Burton has used his position to help educate and mentor the next generation of musical talent, teaching at institutions around the world. In 2004, he ended his 32-year teaching career at his alma mater Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Now, Burton has returned to a full-time performing career maintaining a schedule of concerts and recordings with his Next Generation Band and various collaborations with Pat Metheny, Chick Corea and Makoto Ozone, and other special projects.