Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Jazz Legend Gary Burton Reflects on Seven Decades in Music and Education

24/06/2022

Jazz Legend Gary Burton Reflects on Seven Decades in Music and Education The jazz fusion pioneer, LGBTQ advocate, and Berklee superstar is celebrating the 40th and 50th anniversaries of two Grammy-winning albums this year.

By

Daniel Pesquera

June 23, 2022

Gary Burton

Image courtesy of the artist

Berklee Nows Keyed In series features Berklee artists and experts making news and sounding off on the latest news and trends from the music world and beyond.

Few individuals have had as meaningful an impact on music and music education as jazz fusion pioneer and decorated Berklee alumnus Gary Burton '62 '89H. The vibraphonist made his presence felt early in his career, becoming the youngest winner of DownBeat's Jazzman of the Year in 1968, and his star never seemed to stop rising. He has performed on the world's biggest stages with legends including Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Stan Getz, Chet Atkins, and Eric Clapton, and his inventive four-mallet approach to vibraphone revolutionized the way the instrument was played. With over 60 albums as a bandleader to his name and seven Grammys in his trophy case, there isnt much that Burton has not achieved in his illustrious career.

Burton has had significant influence on countless up-and-coming musicians, many of whom he mentored while at Berklee. Beginning as a percussion teacher in 1971, Burton eventually became the colleges dean of curriculum before taking over the daily operations of the institution as executive vice president. He is credited with giving many current jazz stars their big breaks, including Berklee graduates Julian Lage '08, Tommy Smith '85, Vadim Neselovskyi '04, and Luques Curtis B.M. '04.

Beyond his music and accolades, Burton is also a strong champion of gay rights. While he did not come out publicly until the middle of his life, he has been an important advocate for the cause, even canceling shows in states to protest laws that he felt discriminated against the LGBTQ community.

This year marks the 50th and 40th anniversaries of Burton's Grammy Award-winning records Alone at Last, released in 1972, and In Concert, Z rich, October 28, 1979, the iconic live album with Chick Corea released in 1982, in addition to it being his 60th Berklee reunion year. The Media Relations team was fortunate enough to catch up with Burton during Pride Month as he looked back on his life in jazz, music, and higher education.

When you reflect on the multitude of incredible experiences in your seven decades in jazz, what moments stand out to you? A lot of those moments happened earlier in my career because that's when things impress you the most, such as the first time I played Carnegie Hall with Stan Getz in 1964. Just being in the place, the most famous concert hall in America. And here I am, a 19-year-old. How could this happen?

Image by Phil Farnsworth

Another performance that stands out was a 1968 jazz festival in Paris at the Salle Pleyel. My new quartet was kind of radical for the time. We were mixing rock influences with jazz and really starting the whole fusion thing. We opened the concert for Sarah Vaughn. We noticed that the audience was getting very restless between songs, talking loudly and even standing up and arguing with each. We found out later that half the audience thought we were the next great thing, and the other half thought we were blasphemy to jazz. As we finished the set, our drummer Bob Moses was playing a solo and one of his tom-toms fell off and hit the stage. A hush came over the audience Moses went with it and purposefully knocked over his cymbal, which crashed to the floor. At this point, the audience went crazy. The police actually had to come and make everyone leave the hall. For years that resonated with me as one of the wildest nights of my career.

You studied at Berklee in the early '60s during the incipient stages of your professional journey. How did music become your chosen life path and how did your early career goals compare to where you ended up? Well, I never planned to study music. My plan was to either study medicine or engineering. What changed everything for me was the very first jazz band camp that ever took place in the nation, which happened to come to my home state of Indiana the summer after my junior year of high school. The camp was amazing. There were a hundred kids like me playing music day and night. In fact, several of the teachers were from Berklee. I came home with a new plan to become a professional musician, and my parents, to their credit, said okay.

My goal originally after the camp was to get into Berklee, learn about jazz, and then go on to New York where, if I was lucky, I might one day get to play on a record. I wanted to be successful enough to make a living, feel secure, and make the kind of music that I wanted to make. That was it. It was never to become any kind of star or win awards. So everything on top of playing the music I wanted to play has felt like a gift, and I think that's really kept me grounded. I was fortunate enough to connect with the right people after graduating high school and ended up with a record deal before I even attended Berklee at 17!

As an educator at Berklee for 33 years, your impact on the next generation of jazz artists is immeasurable. Did you have an aspiration to teach or did you fall into it more organically after you became an established artist? I had never thought of becoming a teacher. At the time I graduated high school, there were only two jazz programs in the entire country: [University of] North Texas and Berklee. By 1970, there was an explosion of jazz offerings across the country and I was being asked to teach a lot of clinics. I found that explaining concepts in music came easy to me, which isn't always the case for a lot of jazz musicians. I loved teaching. I actuall
LINK: https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-now/news/jazz-legend-gary-burton-refle...
See more stories from berklee

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Streaming Server Awarded Trusted Partner Network Gold Logo Certification

January 8, 2024 Colorfront (colorfront.com), a leader in high-performance, on-s...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Unleashes New Opportunities for Content Owners Plus Other Ground-Breaking Visual Experiences at Nab 2024

March 20, 2024 NAB 2024, Las Vegas - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-awa...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Innovations for HDR Cinema at Cinemacon 2025

April 1, 2025 CINEMACON, APRIL 1, 2025 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming syste...

07/05/2026

Colorfront to Showcase Advanced HDR Cinema Mastering Solutions at CineEurope 2025

June 15, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), an Academy and Emmy Award-winning de...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit

June 15, 2025 Colorfront participated in the ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Held at The Phenomena Experience, the event feat...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Does IBC 2024 Live From Stockholm!

July 1, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Transkoder Delivers a Masterful Performance at Annapurna Studios

July 1, 2025 Passion and dedication will take you places. Come with us on a short trip to the heart of India, where Annapurna Studios is living-up to the inspi...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Opens a New Chapter in Color Tools For Cinema & Television

July 3, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at IBC 2025: Advanced Tools Make Easy Work of Critical Mastering Tasks and More!

September 1, 2025 IBC 2025, Amsterdam - Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the Acade...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Introduces Colorfront Immersive Utility, a New Mac App for Creating Apple Immersive Video

April 17, 2026 LOS ANGELES - April 17, 2026 - Colorfront today announced Colorf...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Even More AI Automation Power and Extends Technology Partnerships with Dolby Apple

April 23, 2026 NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...

07/05/2026

CNN Founder Ted Turner Dies at 87

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

FCC Urges Appeals Court to Toss Challenges to Nexstar-Tegna Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Carr Announces FCC Staff Promotions

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects Graham Quince May 6, 2026 0 Comments The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...

06/05/2026

Wisycom RF Solutions Support Gravity Medias Live Cycling and Marathon Broadcasts

Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...

06/05/2026

Sennheiser Spectera Module Now Available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons

A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...

06/05/2026

Ted Turner, Cable Television Pioneer, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, Dead at 87

Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...

06/05/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: Peacock Launches Visin de Campo (aka Pitchside Live), Will Stream All 104 Matches in Spanish

Peacock is going all-in on the beautiful game - streaming all 104 FIFA World Cup...

06/05/2026

NoiseWorks Audio launch VoiceAssist Basic, Standard & Advanced

New pricing tiers for vocal/dialogue restoration tool NoiseWorks Audio's AI-powered vocal and dialogue processing plug-in is now available in three diff...

06/05/2026

RME TotalMix FX 2 now available

Popular mixing & routing software overhauled Following a recent public beta test, RME have launched the final release version of the powerful mixing and rou...

06/05/2026

Focusrite: Designing The ISA C8X Audio Interface

New SOS Video Feature Focusrites ISA C8X is a milestone product that brings together the companys analogue heritage and their expertise in digital audio. Yo...

06/05/2026

L3Harris to Boost Polish Navy Combat Power with Advanced Ship System

Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...

06/05/2026

FCC's Anna Gomez Urges Rigorous Review of Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Ups Marc Engroff to CFO, Shifts Frank Eischet to Group COO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Amagi Launches In-Content Ads' to Attract More CTV Advertisers

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Expands Leadership Structure Appoints Marc Engroff...

Riedel Communications today announced the expansion of its leadership structure as part of a strategic initiative to strengthen both its operational management ...

06/05/2026

Production Sound Mixer Dirk Sciarrotta Delivers Camera Re...

For nearly three decades, Veteran Production Sound Mixer and Five-time Emmy Award Winner Dirk Sciarrotta has helped define the sonic identity of the long-runnin...

06/05/2026

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing Brie Clayton May 6, 2026 0 Comments ZEISS announces the launch of CinCraft LensCore, a nove...

06/05/2026

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Media

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Med...

06/05/2026

NAB Launches Weekly Podcast on Local Broadcast Policy

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Mavis Launches Mavis Studio iPad For Media Production

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Narrative Entertainment partners with Encompass to provid...

Narrative Entertainment has partnered with Encompass to deliver high-quality subtitling of its Great! network content using the Altitude Intelligence AI assiste...

06/05/2026

SipRadius extends its seamless creation and connectivity...

SipRadius, widely recognized for making content processing and connectivity secure and seamless, is proud to launch a dramatic new approach to AI content creati...

06/05/2026

Big Blue Marble at ANGA COM - TV as a Service in the spot...

When the broadband and media industry gathers at ANGA COM in Cologne from May 19 to 21, Big Blue Marble will be at the forefront. The international broadcast an...

06/05/2026

Cinegy makes its MPTS debut with software-defined televis...

Cinegy GmbH, a leading developer of software-defined television technology, is proud to exhibit at MPTS for the first time. Visitors to the stand will discover ...

06/05/2026

Val Jeanty Receives 2026 Doris Duke Artist Award

Val Jeanty Receives 2026 Doris Duke Artist Award Jeanty, a composer, percussionist, and turntablist, is the fourth Berklee recipient of the prestigious award ...

06/05/2026

Zeiss Launches CinCraft LensCore

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Gomez Urges Rigorous FCC Review of Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live...

When live cycling races and international marathons stretch for miles across cities and countryside, there is no margin for RF failure in live broadcast. As Chi...

06/05/2026

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore - Cinema Lens Looks for Compositi...

Oberkochen/Germany, May 5, 2026 ZEISS announces the launch of CinCraft LensCore, a novel solution for creating physically based cinematic lens looks for visual...

06/05/2026

VEON's Kyivstar Authorized to Resell Starlink for Businesses & Enterprises in Ukraine

06 May 2026 VEON's Kyivstar Authorized to Resell Starlink for Businesses & ...

06/05/2026

UKTV Brings the Early Years of Neighbours to U in 420Episode Back Catalogue Deal

UKTV has secured the exclusive rights to the early back catalogue of iconic Australian drama series Neighbours, following a landmark content deal with Fremantle...

06/05/2026

Sky commissions feature documentary to mark 10th anniversary of Manchester Arena bomb

Wednesday 6 May 2026 Sky commissions feature documentary to mark 10th anniversa...

06/05/2026

Sky and Formula 1 agree long-term partnership across UK, Ireland and Italy

Wednesday 6 May 2026 Sky and Formula 1 agree long-term partnership across UK, Ireland and Italy Sky in the UK & Ireland to remain the home of Formula 1 until ...