Gary Burton

Creating the sort of melodic instrumental music that fills lounges and elevators, vibraphone player Gary Burton's harmonic jazz fusions have won seven Grammy Awards and crafted out a unique place in music. Learning the marimba and vibraphone at the age of six, Burton grew up playing at state fairs and talent contests in Indiana before dropping out of Berklee College of Music at 17 to record with Chet Atkins and Hank Garland and later tour with pianist George Shearing and saxophonist Stan Getz. Forming his own quartet in 1967, he won his first Grammy in 1972 for the album Alone At Last and started a successful 40-year partnership with Chick Corea, which produced the acclaimed albums Duet (1979), In Concert (1982) and The New Crystal Silence (2004). Noted for an unusual playing technique which used four mallets and created a sound which drew from the jazz improvisations of Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, Burton went on to experiment with jazz-rock, Argentinean tango and country-pop sounds and collaborate with artists as diverse as k.d. Lang, Herbie Hancock and B.B. King.