Customer Reviews

Crystal Silence

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I first picked up this 1973 album on vinyl about twenty years ago based on a review in the ROLLING STONE RECORD GUIDE when I began making musical journeys outside the realm of classic rock. Gary Burton is one of the finest vibraphonists of all time. [Burton's bands included such guitarists as Larry Coryell, John Scofield and Pat Metheny]. And Chick Corea is among the most significant keyboard players in jazz. [His fusion band Return to Forever included guitar wunderkind Al DiMeola.]

Both artists had been releasing solo albums since the Sixties before teaming up in the Seventies for their first of three duet albums. This nine-song collection is performed in a purely duet setting, with Corea and Burton performing songs by Steve Swallow (an alum of the Gary Burton Quartet), pianist/arranger Mike Gibbs, and Corea himself, who composed five of the tracks including the splendid "Senor Mouse."

What makes Burton's vibes playing so unique is his use of four mallets simultaneously to give it a richer fuller tone. And Corea's piano work is nothing short of astounding. For the uninitiated, don't let the term "jazz" scare you away from this recording. This music is quiet, soothing and introspective. The perfect balm at the end of a hectic day. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Forget your lift music, cocktail lounge prejudices - in the hands of Gary Burton, the vibes become infinitely expressive. Penetrating, soulful, jazzy, bluesy, quirky, Burton does the lot in a spirited partnership with Chick Corea.

Crystal Silence is a tour de force, music of great inventiveness and depth, beautifully recorded. Highly recommended.

I was fortunate enough, many years ago to be in NYC during the Jazz festival time. We had tickets one night to a show featuring the Woody Herman Big Band, then Chick Corea with the MusicMagic line-up. Anyway, there was an hour delay in setting up Chick after Woody that had an unbelievable resolution. Gary Burton was there, and he & Chick played basically the entire Crystal Silence album on stage while they set-up Chick Corea's band.

This is an unbeleivable album, probably one of my top five all time albums of any genre. It's also an amazing album for any aspiring drumkit player to practice with.

I would give it more stars if I could.

Gary Burton was impressing the likes of Chet Atkins and others in Nashville in 1956. I was playing on a live ABC TV network program with Chet Atkins when he asked me if I knew about Gary. I did not, but some years later I realized that Atkins, Eddie Arnold and the rest of those famous Nashville people knew a real talent when they heard one. Gary Burton soon became my "number one" on vibes, no disrepect for Milt Jackson intended. I have loved this "album" from the day I bought it from, and had it signed by, Gary himself. As noted, this was an LP when first released. Burton was appearing at a Kansas City music store promotion and seeing him play was an inspiring sight. His command of four mallets AND his astonishing technique is surpassed only by his ability to pull the listener along, step by exciting step, to ever more interesting levels of melodic and harmonic exploration. If you haven't hear Gary Burton before, where have you been? He was number one for years in the reader's Down Beat magazine polls. My current favorite CD is "Like Minds"!

I've been listening to this album since it first came out in '73 and I've never tired of it. I'm still moved by this music. Whenever these two musicians get together, the result is magical.

This has been my theme music since perhaps 1974. I drift away from it periodically, only to be drawn back to these melodies for inspiration, solace and re-assurance. Gary Burton and Chick Corea are consummate musicians, but this collection is their "crystalization" in musical perfection. Their other works just don't do much for me. For context, I am a Modern Jazz Quartet devotee.

The Crystal Silence duet affects my spirit/mind/body with the assurance that all is as it should be. I work more fluidly, think more vividly, relax more completely and "wist" more assuredly. Other listeners with a higher vibration rate will eschew these recordings. I'm grateful not to be speeding along that path.

These meditations are sublime.

i never thought i would like a vibraphone/vibraharp player as much as i like milt jackson. while this is the only recording of gary burton i have ever heard, i think he may now be competing for the title. his touch is very soft and gentle, producing a beautiful ringing sound. with chick on piano (almost accompanying burton!) this album is a must have. as usual, chick's piano playing does not cease. he still plays with the technicality and skill that we all know he has. excellent album.

Why did I as high school boy who knew nothing about jazz, fusion, Chick Corea, Gary Burton or much of anything else pick up and buy this lp at MusicLand in the Tippecanoe Mall in about 1979? I don't know. I do know I was looking for something I'd never heard before, and this album drew me to it. Maybe it was the mysterious sunrise (or sunset?)picture on the cover. I distinctly remember picking it out though. Wow! What a great album. I've wandered around all kinds of music since, and have recently dusted off my old lps. This one still stands as a fave. My old vinyl is pretty crackly, so I look forward to getting a new CD of it and being wowed once again.

"Crystal Silence" should be required listening for anyone who stumbles for the first time upon the musical genre of jazz. It is a primer: written notes sounding of improvisation, duets that segue seamlessly from one musician to the other, a sum that is so much more than its parts.

Gary Burton and Chick Corea are two giants in the pantheon of late twentieth century jazz, and this album, recorded in 1972, demonstrates why. The brilliant, exuberant duets these two masters perform remind us (or introduce us) to the most basic and compelling element of jazz - the conversation it creates among musicians (and the joy it brings us as listeners).

Hearing this exquisite marriage of piano and vibraphone is to experience the sound of crystal silence, still a musical tour de force after 35 years!

Forse il più bel disco del duo Burton-Corea,ricco di brani strepitosi come la "title-track" e "Senor mouse" che denotano la vera maestria strumentale e soprattutto il perfetto interplay fra i due musicisti in una perfetta fusione sonora ed armonica.