Gary Burton, Chick Corea

CD version. Crystal Silence is the first album by vibraphonist Gary Burton and pianist Chick Corea, recorded in Oslo in November 1972 and released by ECM in April 1973. A vibes and piano duo was a seldom-tested format in jazz, and this record set the terms for it. It also launched a partnership that would last more than forty years.

The two met almost by accident in Munich in 1972, where each had played a solo set at a festival. When the audience asked for an encore, Corea invited Burton, whose vibraphone was still on stage, to join him on his tune La Fiesta. Manfred Eicher heard them and asked them to record for his label. The session took place at Arne Bendiksen Studio on 6 November 1972, with Eicher producing and Jan Erik Kongshaug engineering. Burton brought pieces by Steve Swallow, and the programme adds one by Michael Gibbs to five Corea compositions.

The playing has the balance of chamber music, with melodies and counter-melodies passing between the instruments and harmonies that keep shifting under them. Corea's Señor Mouse makes a slick, quick-witted opener, while Gibbs's Feelings and Things brings a more sombre tone. The title piece had first appeared on Corea's Return to Forever, recorded in New York that February with electric piano, flute and voice. Here it stretches to nine subdued, unhurried minutes for the two instruments alone. Swallow's short Falling Grace is the most exhilarating track, gone in under three minutes.

Reviewers recognised early that something unusual had happened in Oslo. Billboard wrote that "the lyrical qualities of both men are displayed to maximum advantage" and predicted it might prove a classic. Decades later, writing on ECM Reviews, Tyran Grillo heard in it "silence crystallized into dazzling melodic gems". The success of the record led to concert tours and to a second studio album for ECM, Duet, recorded in 1978.

This CD is the 2019 reissue in ECM's Touchstones series, which brings key albums from the catalogue back into print in card sleeves. Crystal Silence was first released in 1973 as ECM 1024.