Rarum IV - Gary Burton Selected Recordings

Gary Burton's contribution to the ECM Rarum series is not nearly as willfully devoted to esoterica as some others, preferring to give listeners a concise evolution of the quartets and quintets he led from 1973 to 1986. The first quartet, with guitarist Mick Goodrick, bassist Abe Laboriel, and drummer Harry Blazer, disappears after one straightforward track ("Four or Less") — and a very young but still brilliant Pat Metheny (on electric 12-string guitar), bassist Steve Swallow, and drummer Bob Moses join Goodrick and Burton to bring more diverse colors to their sound while still burning at a rarefied, relatively quiet emotional level. There is a sizeable gap in the survey (1976-1982), and when it resumes with an urbane, relaxed performance of Mingus' "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love," Jim Odgren is on alto saxophone, the sole representative track of the five-year period where Burton swapped the guitar leads for horns. In two excerpts from Real Life Hits, horns are out and then-recent Berklee School alumnus pianist Makoto Ozone is in, with saxophonist Tommy Smith making the band a quintet again in the final track, "La Divetta." Interestingly, the tracks with Ozone have a higher energy level than the rest of the collection, leaving the impression, true or not, that Ozone was the energizing element. As a survey of Burton's working bands in mid-career — aided by a detailed look at this period by Burton in his liner notes — this collection achieves its modest goal, leaving another Burton ECM project (the records with Chick Corea) to the Corea volume in the Rarum series. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi