Gary Burton Tennessee Firebird (CD)

Damals hatte kaum jemand ein Ohr für das, was Burton mit diesen Versionen von Folk und Country Standards ausprobierte, Lieder wie Faded Love, Panhandle Rag, Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair und Born To Lose aber es ist ein Album, das überlebte. Burton's Spielfreude und Gefühl für Country Arten läßt seine Jazz-Country Verknüpfung stimmen

Though the Stan Kenton and Buddy Rich late jazzmen stirred controversy in the 70's and 80s by vocally downgrading" country music, they didn't represent the views of all jazz musicians, for as different as jazz and country music may seem on the surface, they've had a long kinship. Trombone legend Jack Teagarden grew up in Texas listening to country and the blues. Gifted jazzmen like saxophonist Ray DeGeer, guitarist Jimmy Wyble and dixieland drummer Monte Mountjoy were members of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys.

In Nashville in the early 40's teenage guitarists Harold Bradley and Billy Byrd studied every note electric jazz guitar pioneer Charlie Christian played on the records of the Benny Goodman Sextet. When 15 year old Hank Garland worked with Paul Howard's Arkansas Cotton Pickers in the mid-40's, the band's drummer was Joe Morello, later acclaimed for his work with pianist Dave Brubeck's Quartet.

Alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, father of the jazz style known as bebop and an avatar of modern jazz, bought country records, listened to the Opry and, according to one story, perhaps apocryphal, perhaps not, once jammed with members of Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys. Chet Atkins and Homer & Jethro admired Django Reinhardt. Hank Garland not only admired Reinhardt, but also jazz guitarists Tal Farlow and Barney Kessel. Late in his career Garland studied with New York jazz guitarist Barry Galbraith.

Jazz vibes virtuoso Gary Burton sees a deeper connection. '(Country players) improvise; they take solos, they're respected for their hot playing abilities, even the way the kind of relate to each other reminds me of the way jazz guys socialize and tarry on. Rhythmically, there's a lot of similarities -jazz tends to be frequently a little more complex in structure - but the basic approach is quite similar, particularly ifyou' re thinking in terms of bluegrass where instrumental playing is the main focus.'