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NEW ONLINE IMPROVISATION COURSE:

My brand new project is an online music course, GARY BURTON: JAZZ IMPROVISATION, which I have just finished creating for Berklee Music, the online music school at my old college, Berklee College of Music. The creation of Berklee's online school was one of my personal projects during the last years I was Executive Vice President at the college, and I am very pleased that it has become a roaring success in its first decade. I just couldn't pass up the chance to be part of this marvelous educational venture. When I was a Berklee professor, my favorite activity was teaching improvisation, so it was pretty natural for me to translate my teaching approach into the online format. I look forward to working with students who enroll in the course this year.   

OTHER NEWS: 

I am now finished with my touring schedule for 2011 and the requirements of taking on a wide variety of projects over the past year turned out to be a little bigger than I expecte. But I am now taking a break from the road. There was a lot of new music to absorb, a lot of long distance travel to endure, and new faces to get acquainted with or old friends to get re-acquainted with. Last year, I toured some with Chick Corea and we completed our next CD called Hot House, set for release in spring 2012 (already released in Europe). Also, a good portion of 2011 was devoted to touring with the New Gary Burton Quartet to support the group's latest CD, Common Ground (named one of the top 10 jazz records of 2011 by Jazz Times).  The quartet performed in Europe and Japan as well as touring around the USA the second half of the year.

Meanwhile in the spring of 2012, I resumed touring with Chick Corea for 21 European concerts as we marked the release of the new Hot House CD.  And we managed to have a full house for every concert on the tour! Next we are going to tour the USA with the Harlem String Quartet later this year, a project we premiered last November at the Blue Note in New York.  Other future projects include a Japan tour with pianist Makoto Ozone in 2013, more gigs with guitarist Julian Lage and the quartet, and guest appearances on a few records being produced by various musician friends. 

As always, I appreciate your interest in my music and the support from audiences wherever I go.

Gary Burton
Ft Lauderdale, FL

FYI: Due to being unable to control the overwhelming spam that kept invading the old Guestbook portion of my website, I have decided to discontinue it. I regret not being able to hear directly from people, but I finally had to give up the technical battle with the spammers.