LEARNING TO LISTEN: THE JAZZ JOURNEY OF GARY BURTON: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

In Learning to Listen, Gary Burton shares his fifty years of experiences at the top of the jazz scene. A seven-time GRAMMY? Award winner, Burton made his first recordings at age seventeen, has toured and recorded with a who's who of famous jazz names, and is one of only a few openly gay musicians in jazz. Burton is a true innovator, both as a performer and an educator. His autobiography is one of the most personal and insightful jazz books ever written.

"Great musicians are no respecters of borders, they cross them at will, and in doing so define their own territory. Gary Burton's career has spanned that porous borderland between jazz and rock music, between the strictures of academia and the spontaneity of live performance. It has been a fascinating journey through the great plains of music towards the high plateaux of the realized self. Bravo!"

- Sting

"Gary Burton's life and works have paralleled the twists and turns of a wild half-century of cultural upheaval and transition from a vantage point that is singularly fascinating and unique. Always one of the most fluent and articulate communicators of complexity and nuance as a musician, in this captivating autobiography, Gary takes us through a lifetime lived on the front lines of a shifting and evolving world with a clarity and focus that is worthy of his narrative skills as one of the greatest jazz soloists of his time."

- Pat Metheny

"Gary Burton's life story is the finest autobiography of a musician I've read yet. Not only do we get to know Gary Burton, but we are able to realize his deep insight into musicians with whom he has worked, such as Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, and many others."

- George Wein