ePub Changing Direction: A Practical Approach to Directing Actors in Film and Theatre: Foreword by Ang Lee by Lenore DeKoven in Arts-Photography

Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. An amazing storyBy Tromba61As a jazz musician; I have known Gary Burtons name forever. I am currently studying improvisation with him (online thru Berklee). He is an inspired teacher and nice person; and it is a small miracle that someone of his stature is available for passing on his knowledge of music and improvisation. (It would be like getting investment advice from Warren Buffet.) Just as Gary tells plays music so eloquently; it is no surprise that he tells his own story with the same eloquence. You read of his early life in Indiana where a local lady teaches and sells xylophones; marimbas; and vibraphones. His precocious talent is noticed by anyone who hears him; and the musical doors swing wide open. His first break oddly comes in Nashville while he is still a teenager. He played clubs where he wasnt even old enough to drink. Youll read about his early days with George Shearing and Stan Getz. He is also very open and honest about discovering his sexuality. Hes a legendary musician from the heartland of American who turned a mountain of talent and a big heart into an amazing career as a musician (with 70 recordings as a leader) and educator.4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Good book about a brilliant musicianBy MacThe great vibraphonist Gary Burton offers an inside account of the jazz scene; the emerging jazz rock scene of the mid 1960s of which he was a very important contributor; while also giving us a glimpse into his own creative process as an improvising musician. I especially enjoyed the standalone profiles of various musicians that he worked with or was influenced by; and the chapters on George Shearing and Stan Getz are absolutely fascinating. There are a couple of areas where I would like to have seen more information: first; Gary was a highly exceptional musician from a very young age and I would have appreciated more from him about the nature of his talent and how he was able to develop his musical talent so quickly. That he recorded professionally at age 16; was offered a record contract shortly thereafter; AND had his music school education subsidized by the record company is incredible to say the least. Second; since Gary has such a vast discography I would have appreciated more information about the artists he recorded with; the tunes; interactions in the studio; how the records were made etc. He does offer some great information in this vein but I wish he would have given us more. My one criticism of the book is that a fair amount of space is given to the details of touring; international travel; intineraries etc. While some of this is interesting; that aspect of the book did bog down a bit for me. All in all this is a really nice and very interesting book about a very brilliant jazz musician.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. ITS ABOUT TIMEBy David KeymerIt puzzled me that it took so long for a book to appear on Gary Burtonrsquo;s life and career because there is no question that he is a great artist; an innovator both in technique (the four-mallet technique) and playing. He has also been; over the past forty some years; one of jazzrsquo;s great combo leaders; nurturing and working with a constellation of superior players. There are; to start; the amazing string of first rate guitarists who have played in his quartets and quintets; from Larry Coryell through Jerry Hahn; Sam Brown; Mick Goodrick; Pat Metheny and John Scofield (probably the most successful of them); up to teen phenomenon Julian Lange; who started with Burton at age sixteen and has played with him at least through 2013. There are also sidemen ndash;drummers Roy Haynes and Bob Moses; bassist Steve Swallow; and on and on; and the occasional unions with other musicians ndash;the duets with pianist Chick Corea; an album with Keith Jarrett; another with French violin great Stephanne Grappelli; and still another with nuevo tango giant Astor Piazzolla (and after his death; two more with Piazzollarsquo;s great quintet). And his apprenticeships with the George Shearing quintet (which had six people) and Stan Getzrsquo;s quartet. Listing the people Burton has played with is like listing my own past as a jazz listener and aficionado. Duster; his first (and very mild) fusion album appeared just when I was making the leap from teaching high school to entering grad school full time and I bought Country Roads and Other Places; an album that fused jazz and country music; the day our son was born. (Hersquo;s now 46.) Every time I play the tune ldquo;The Green Mountainsrdquo; it reminds me of our son as a small boy; joyous; sunny and always moving forward.As you might expect of an artist who has also been a success as music educator; first dean and then executive vice president at Berklee College of Music in Boston; Burton explains things well. His anecdotes ndash;often presented in sidebarsmdash;about Shearing; Swallow; Getz; Corea; Piazzollamdash;and others (Carla Bley; Miles; Mingus; Ellington; Milt Jackson [who for a long time nursed an irrational dislike of Burton]; Bill Evans; and Burtonrsquo;s antecedents on vibes; Red Norvo and Lionel Hampton) make this a near irresistible book for a jazz nut like me. I liked also Burtonrsquo;s account of his early years ndash;when he started playing vibes; his father had to build a platform for him to stand on so he could reach the keys; in his early years as a performer; he played wherever he could and with whomever he could get a gig with. He idolized pianist Bill Evans (who didnrsquo;t?) but when they finally got together for a session; nothing worked: there was a discontinuity in the flow of their two separate musics; and the tapes had to be deep-sixed. Much later; someone ndash;was it Eddie Gomez?mdash;told him that the same thing had happened when other outside musicians had played with Evansrsquo;s trio. There was something about the way Evans and his cohorts phrased music that threw them off.A sizeable portion of the book is dedicated to describing Burtonrsquo;s slow path to outing: he realized early that he was probably gay but jazz was not a career that supported a gay life so he buried his feelings; married twice; had kids; and only belatedly made public his inner feelings. Burtonrsquo;s account of his emotional journey is heartfelt but itrsquo;s not what I was reading this book for; which was jazz. What he wrote was good; but what I was interested in reading about was his interactions with other musicians; his thoughts on music he plays; and the back story of his many recording sessions. In that respect; I was disappointed by one omission: there is no mention of his collaborations with German bassist-cellist Eberhard Weber. Thatrsquo;s my problem; not Burtonrsquo;s: there are only so many things you can pack into a book; even a near-four hundred page one; but I would dearly have loved to read of Burtonrsquo;s collaboration with this fabulously gifted and utterly unique artist.This is a good book; even a very good book; about jazz but itrsquo;s not a great book. But with one exception; Art Pepperrsquo;s account of his drug-ridden life; I donrsquo;t know of any jazz autobiography I would call great. Itrsquo;s the books written about jazz masters by others that make it best ndash;John Szwed on Sun Ra; Terry Teachout on Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington; Robin Kellyrsquo;s masterful biography of Thelonious Monk. Thatrsquo;s what Irsquo;d like to see now: an empathetic and insightful biography of Gary Burton; master artist and; for a while in the late 60s and early 670s; cultural weathervane; and along with it; a study of the largely ignored question of what it was like to navigate an aggressively macho culture like performed jazz in the 50s through 7os (80S? hellip; 90s?). It could make a heck of a book so why not do it before Burton leaves us?