2005 · Album
Next Generation
Concord Jazz · Released: April 12, 2005 · Personnel: Gary Burton (vibraphone), Julian Lage (guitar), Vadim Neselovskyi (piano), Luques Curtis (bass), James Williams (drums)
Crystal Vibes, Patient Hands, Young Ears
Burton's vibes stream around piano and guitar with the ease of musicians who've already found their sound.
The first thing you hear is space. Gary Burton's vibraphone doesn't fill it — it occupies it, resonant and precise, while Julian Lage's guitar and Vadim Neselovskyi's piano move around it like they're trading the same warm room. The rhythm section anchors everything without pushing, Luques Curtis and James Williams content to let the front line breathe. There's swagger here too, especially on Curtis's "Ques Sez," where the bass gets playful and the whole band loosens up, but mostly this is formal music played with genuine ease — not stiff, just composed.
Burton brought together musicians early in his recognition as improvisers, and the album works because everyone sounds like they belong in the same conversation. Neselovskyi carries the strongest voice among them, his left hand recalling Pat Metheny's harmonic sensibility while his touch stays distinct. The standard "My Romance" lets Burton's vibes shine in a way his working groups don't always permit — that crystalline sound winding between the voices without apology. Samuel Barber's Fuga appears here too, a classical piece given straight rather than jazzed, which says something about what Burton was after: musicians who could move between languages without pretense.
AllMusic rated it four stars, and The Guardian's John Fordham found it glossily formal but rewarding for listeners wanting jazz that doesn't antagonize classical sensibilities. It's solid work from a vibraphonist in command of his aesthetic, anchored by young players who'd go on to deeper things elsewhere. Not a record that changed anything, but one that documented a moment when Burton believed these particular voices mattered.
