The vibraphone is one of the most beautiful and gentle instruments. It’s a piano for drummers - it is classified under percussion and is a vital part of the formal musical education of percussionists. It’s use in jazz is frequent, from the earliest periods to modern times. The first two major players of the vibraphone in jazz, Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo, started on the adult-sized xylophone in the 1920s. But the xylophone was wooden, so the bars produced short and low volume tones, and it had no pedal for sustaining notes. The newly invented aluminium-made vibraphone, which also had small electrically powered rotating discs at the top of the resonators that gave notes a synthetic vibrato, allowed the performer much wider flexibility. Lionel Hampton was the first to popularize the vibraphone as a jazz instrument during the mid-1930s with the Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet. In 1930, when he was still a drummer, Hampton was performing a gig at the NBC studios. There was always a vibraphone in the studio, and after the gig was over, he started messing with the instrument and became fascinated by it. Shortly after that, Hampton brought "the vibes" to a recording session with Louis Armstrong and their version of "Memories of You" is the first known jazz recording to incorporate the vibraphone.
Many innovative vibraphonists have come along over the decades: Red Norvo and Milt Jackson in the late ’40s and early ’50s were the stars in the generation that followed after Hampton. Red Norvo was one of jazz's early protagonists of the instrument. He was known as "Mr. Swing" and his most famous recordings include "Dance of the Octopus," "Bughouse, "Knocking on Wood," "Congo Blues", and "Hole in the Wall".
The third major vibraphonist, Milt Jackson, emerged in the mid-’40s and gave the instrument greater exposure through his many years with the preeminent Modern Jazz Quartet. Milt’s distinctive dampened tonal quality was achieved by reducing the speed of his instrument’s rotating discs, which was his invention. He preferred to set the vibraphone's oscillator to a low 3.3 revolutions per second (as opposed to Lionel Hampton's speed of 10 revolutions) for a more subtle vibrato. A brilliant player, Jackson is especially remembered for his cool swinging solos as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Milt Jackson was followed by Terry Gibbs, Cal Tjader and Mike Mainieri in the ‘50s. They were all great players. Terry Gibbs was a member of the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Louie Bellson, Mel Tormé, Buddy DeFranco and others. Cal Tjader was an American Latin jazz musician, known as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He also explored various other jazz idioms but never abandoned the music of Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, performing it until his death.
Mainieri was a pioneer in introducing an electronic vibraphone, known as a "synth-vibe" and has recorded with such musicians as Buddy Rich, Wes Montgomery, and Jeremy Steig.
Gary Burton with his revolutionary four-mallet technique in the ’60s was the absolute vibraphone star. Developing a pianistic style of playing with four mallets instead of two, caused him to be celebrated as an innovator. He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years at the Berklee College of Music.
Jay Hoggard in the ‘70s, Joe Locke in the ‘80s and Stefon Harris in the ‘90s were following the footsteps of the previously mentioned masters of the vibraphone. All of them made an impact in the history of this instrument and further developed the techniques of playing the vibraphone.
There are many contemporary musicians out there, playing the vibraphone and struggling to get gigs (it is still not that common in jazz as the piano, drums, trumpet, saxophone, etc.). My personal favorite albums that feature the vibraphone as a lead instrument are Gary Burton’s “Ring” and his duet with Chick Corea “Crystal Silence”, both released on the ECM label. But the most masterful and beautiful performance for me is Milt Jackson’s live version of “Round Midnight”, recorded in Japan in 1990, together with Mike LeDonne, Ira Coleman, and Mickey Roker. It is a performance of an old master, still playing and acting “cool”, doing a number he had done thousands of times in his life, but still plays it with passion, love, and devotion.
