Some musicians make it seem all so easy. Take Gary Burton for example. He taught himself to play the vibraphone and, aged seventeen, recorded his first record in Nashville with a.o. Chet Atkins. Two years later he dropped out of the Berklee College of Music to go touring with George Shearing and Stan Getz. In 1969 Downbeat Magazine proclaimed him Jazzman of the Year. Crystal Silence, a duet album he recorded with pianist Chick Corea, is one of the classic albums of jazz history. In one of his latest projects with Makoto Ozone, the Japanese piano virtuoso and his musical partner of twenty years, Burton explores the improvisational possibilities of classical music. Put Burton and Ozone together and what you get is more than the sum of the individual parts.
