(Contemporary Jazz, Mainstream Jazz, Post-Bop) The New Gary Burton Quartet - Guided Tour - 2013 [Mack Avenue: MAC1074], MP3, 320 kbps

At the age of 70, Gary Burton, jazz's most innovative and accomplished vibraphonist, forges ahead with a new recording which solidifies the reputation of his great new band, The New Gary Burton Quartet.
On Guided Tour, he proves that The New Gary Burton Quartet—which he premiered last summer on his Mack Avenue debut, Common Ground—was no one-trick pony. Featuring the prodigal guitar genius Julian Lage as well as two veterans, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Antonio Sanchez, Guided Tour provides a road map to one of the most dynamic bands on the scene today.
Each of the group's members has contributed original compositions that illuminate their wide range of cross-cultural musical styles. These go from haunting ballads to a Latin-tinged feature for percussion and vibraphone and they include two new songs by Burton, a famously reticent composer, who has always relied primarily on others' compositions for his repertoire.
Throughout his career, Burton has made a point of introducing new artists, such as Pat Metheny and Larry Coryell, to the jazz world. The latest in this long line of virtuoso guitarists is Julian Lage who first played with Burton in 2004 aged just 15.
http://www.mackavenue.com/catalog/detail/guided_tour/

On Guided Tour, Burton sought out original material from all the group’s members (as he did with Common Ground), illuminating their wide range of cross-cultural musical styles. “They outdid themselves this time,” he says. The program includes “Legacy”—a haunting ballad written by Scott Colley to honor his recently deceased father—and the two Antonio Sanchez pieces that bookend the disc: the splashy Latin-themed opener, “Caminos,” featuring solos from only the percussion instruments (drums and vibes); and “Monk Fish,” a romp on familiar chords infused with the wry humor found in the music of bop-era pianist Thelonious Monk.
Three pieces from Lage demonstrate the unusually mature sense of composition that also marks his solos. In “The Lookout,” he cleverly recasts “Careful,” written by the influential guitarist Jim Hall (and one that Burton has recorded, with Hall himself, in the past). On “Sunday’s Uncle,” we find Lage playing what Burton calls “one of his own devilishly challenging melody themes with apparent ease, in counterpoint to my own part—which is considerably less difficult I’m happy to say”—before easing into a particularly memorably solo. And “Helena” exploits the guitar’s Iberian heritage while updating that tradition with complex rhythms and jazz harmonies.
What’s more, Burton—a famously reticent composer, who has always relied primarily on others’ compositions for his repertoire—contributed two new songs of his own. He describes the first, a jazz waltz entitled “Jane Fonda Called Again,” as “whimsical and Bill Evans-ish (intentionally so).” He might have added that it subtly recalls some of the legendary composers whose music has dovetailed with Burton’s own throughout his career, such as Steve Swallow, Carla Bley and Pat Metheny; Lage’s solo especially stands out. And Burton’s “Remembering Tano” pays tribute to his “tango mentor,” the master composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla (nicknamed “Tano,” for his Italian heritage); their 1986 collaboration The New Tango opened up a fresh avenue of world-music exploration for the vibist.
Two songs from outside the band complete the set list: the stately Michel Legrand ballad “Once Upon A Summertime” and pianist Fred Hersch’s “Jackalope,” written (mostly) in 7/4 time and delightfully unpredictable in its phrasing.
http://www.mackavenue.com/artists/detail/gary_burton/

Gary Burton: Vibraphone
Julian Lage: Guitar
Scott Colley: Bass
Antonio Sanchéz: Drums