Search - Gary Burton, Chick Corea :: CRYSTAL SILENCE

This 1979 album by pianist Chick Corea and vibraphonist Gary Burton helped establish the viability of a modern chamber approach to jazz. Thank Corea's versatile, relaxed seamless use of jazz, folk, and Latin forms together with classical complexity and rigor. In Burton, he finds the perfect counterpart. In "Senor Mouse" and "What Game Shall We Play," in particular, the two lock in, as if one player were in full command of some delightfully hybrid, hammered instrument. Corea, with ringing, appropriately crystalline tone and careful modulation, often soars, often frolics, but never descends to banality. Burton, with his usual extraordinary four-mallet expansiveness, acts as both musical prompt and magnifier. The timbres and tones of piano and vibes are complementary, as are the sympathies of two surpassing players. --Peter Monaghan