Gary Burton with Jerry Hahn (bootleg audio)

As promised in a recent post of a video of the Gary Burton Quartet with Larry Coryell, here is nice authorized  audio bootleg of the Gary Burton Quartet with Jerry Hahn on guitar in Hamburg 1968. Steve Swallow is on bass and  Roy Haynes and drums.  It was recorded at the "Funkhaus Hamburg" in Hamburg (Germany) on November 8, 1968. (See the set list at the end of this post.)




After Larry Coryell left the Burton Quartet, he tried to form a group with pianist Chick Corea, but the chemistry wasn't quite right.  He then heard Hahn who was based in San Francisco on the radio.

Hahn played on three albums with Burton:

• Country Roads & Other Places (RCA, 1969)
• Throb (Atlantic, 1969)
• Good Vibes (Atlantic, 1969)

Country Roads is the most outstanding of the three.

Jerry Hahn grew up in Nebraska, attended Wichita State University, and moved to San Francisco in 1962 where he played and recorded with John Handy from 1964 to 1966. After leaving Burton, Hahn formed the jazz-rock fusion group Jerry Hahn Brotherhood which featured keyboardist and vocalist Mike Finnegan.

Hahn has a website and there is a nice 2008 interview online which covers much of his career.

Here is the set list (clicking the time will take you to approximately the beginning of each tune on YouTube.)

1 Falling Grace (Swallow) (00:00)
2 General Mojo's Well-Laid Plan (Swallow) (3:45)
3 Green Mountains (Swallow) (8:26)
4 Walter L. (Burton) (11:29)
5 Sweet Rain (Gibbs) (15:44)
6 Singing Song (Burton) (18:53)
7 Good Citizen Swallow (Burton) (21:36)
8 African Flower (Ellington) (26:08)

Gary Burton Pioneering Fusion Band in Concert (video)

I recently discovered this outstanding live concert of the Gary Burton Quartet, which can arguably be called the first jazz rock fusion group.




Gary Burton (wikipedia, allmusic.com, website)  has had a very long and distinguished career as a vibraphonist and combo leader. Burton innovated the four-mallet style of playing vibes, a revolutionary and now often emulated method of playing.

Burton was also a pioneer of jazz-rock fusion.  In 1967, he formed the Gary Burton Quartet with Larry Coryell on guitar, drummer Roy Haynes, and bassist Steve Swallow. (Bob Moses is on drums in the video.) The GBQ got there before Mile Davis, who began to turn electric with Miles in the Sky and Files de Kilamanjaro in 1968 and In a Silent Way in 1969. And, they got there with excellence.  Burton was recognized as Downbeat magazine's "Jazzman of the Year" in 1968.

I bought those Davis albums and several of Burton's when they were new and fresh and, you know what, they still hold up.

The Burton Quartet with Coryell recorded these albums

• Duster (RCA, 1967)
• Lofty Fake Anagram (RCA, 1967)
• A Genuine Tong Funeral (RCA, 1968) with Carla Bley
• Gary Burton Quartet in Concert (RCA, 1968)

Coryell left the group in 1968, replaced by Jerry Hahn, and, later, a string of other outstanding guitarists.

More on the Burton group with Hahn in the near future.