UK Edition
Bobby Hutcherson, jazz vibraphonist – obituary
Bobby Hutcherson, who has died aged 75, was one of the finest players of the vibraphone in jazz; his distinctive style combined brilliant technique with a bold imagination and great delicacy of expression.
Arriving on the jazz scene at a moment of change and confusion, he seemed equally at home among exponents of established styles and the avant garde. There was an all-inclusive warmth in his music matched by his own captivating personality.
The son of a bricklayer, Robert Hutcherson was born in Los Angeles on January 17 1941, and brought up in Pasadena. His older sister, Peggy, was a singer who became one of Ray Charles’s backing group, the Raelettes. He took little interest in music as a child but, at the age of 12, as he was passing a local record shop, he heard the sound of a vibraphone, played by Milt Jackson. This affected him deeply and he began saving up to buy one.
He eventually succeeded and, since there was no one to teach him, devised his own system. This involved writing symbols in marking-pen on the chime-bars of the instrument. Unfortunately, before his first public appearance, with a band from his junior high school, his mother polished them off, with disastrous results. His parents were in the audience and his father was heard to remark that his son had better become a bricklayer after all.
Despite this, he made rapid progress. He was playing with professional bands in his late teens and made his recording debut at the age of 20, on the saxophonist Curtis Amy’s album, Groovin’ Blue. Moving to New York shortly afterwards, he was quickly absorbed into the rising group of young musicians associated with the Blue Note record label.
Almost immediately Bobby Hutcherson’s name began appearing on the company’s striking album sleeves. The first was Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond (1963), followed by Tony Williams’s Lifetime (1964). The stylistic contrast between these demonstrates the breadth of Hutcherson’s talents – the first being a combination of fervent bebop and free jazz, and the second a collection of restrained, almost entirely abstract, pieces. Hutcherson’s playing here, especially on Barb’s Song To The Wizard, is engaging and startlingly original.
There followed a stream of superb albums, many regarded as classics, such as Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch (1964) and his own Stick Up (1966), with McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson.
In 1967, Hutcherson was arrested in Central Park, charged with possession of marijuana. Although this was a fairly minor charge, it had serious repercussions, because it meant the loss of his New York City “Cabaret Card”, the licence to work in premises where liquor was sold – in his case, jazz clubs. Between engagements, he had been driving a taxi, and he lost his licence for that, too.
He returned to California, where he formed a working partnership with the tenor saxophonist Harold Land. Together, they recorded seven albums for Blue Note. One of them yielded a single, titled Ummh, which became a crossover hit in 1970. The following year Hutcherson was named “World’s Best Vibist” in the International Jazz Critics’ Poll.
In the 1970s, with the death of its original proprietors, the Blue Note label gradually lost its distinctive character. From 1977 Hutcherson recorded for a series of other labels, including Landmark and the Dutch company, Timeless, with whose house band, the Timeless All-Stars, he toured widely in the early 1980s.
He was also a founder member of the San Francisco-based SF Jazz Collective, formed in 2004. This was a truly all-star outfit, including saxophonist Joshua Redman, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and pianist Renee Rosnes, which received rave notices when it appeared at the Barbican in 2006.
In 2007, Hutcherson began to suffer from emphysema. This developed to the point where he was obliged to carry an oxygen supply with him wherever he went. Despite this, he was able to travel abroad for several years.
His last appearance in Britain was at Ronnie Scott’s in 2010. For his final album, Enjoy The View, he returned to Blue Note.
He appears in two notable films: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They (Sydney Pollack, 1969), in which he played a dance-hall bandleader, and Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier, 1986), in which he played a musician friend of the star, Dexter Gordon.
Bobby Hutcherson was married twice and is survived by two sons, one from each marriage.
Bobby Hutcherson, born January 17 1941, died August 15 2016