Matchbook
Released
Recorded just two months after his collaboration with bassist Steve Swallow, vibraphonist Gary Burton stepped into the studio with guitarist Ralph Towner to lay down yet another unique duo record. To their navigations of mostly Towner-penned originals, of which the opening “Drifting Petals” and an intimate distillation of “Icarus” stand out, they add blissful renditions of Mingus’s “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” and Bernstein’s On the Townchestnut “Some Other Time.” Each musician weaves in different thicknesses, meshing with tapestry-level grandeur. If you like either of them separately, you can’t go wrong with them together.