Mack Avenue

Vibraphonist Gary Burton’s quartets with guitar broke ground in the early years of jazz/rock, but not everyone knows it. This may be because both the jazz and rock elements were gentler than those of, say, Bitches Brew. Or it may be because the surfaces in Burton’s music are easygoing enough that it takes effort to notice the skill and novelty underneath.

After working mostly without guitar for a few decades, Burton revisited this era of his music in a recent tour and live CD with his old accomplices Pat Metheny and Steve Swallow. The fourth member of this quartet was Metheny’s recent drummer Antonio Sanchez, who also appears in this new Burton quartet along with bassist Scott Colley and the young guitarist Julian Lage. Common Ground picks up where Burton’s earlier “guitar” era (stretching roughly from 1966 to 1976) left off.

Eight of the ten tunes are new (the others are “My Funny Valentine” and Keith Jarrett’s “In Your Quiet Place”) but they are in the same vein one expects from Burton – tuneful, brisk, calm. Burton still examines each chord sequence thoroughly, even laying down some blues on “Did You Get It?,” with a deceptive lack of sweat. Lage follows up capably, often engaging in rhythmic games with Sanchez along the way. Colley supplies the more traditional jazz backdrop of acoustic bass in place of Swallow’s muted electric bass, and grapples well with the challenge of sculpting solos from his challenging instrument.

Time will tell whether Common Ground becomes a new start or a coda for Burton’s quartets. For now, though, it is a document of a well-integrated and engaging working band – lacking in grit, perhaps, but making up the difference in craftsmanship and melody.