Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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HUTCHERSON, Bobby

(b 27 January 1941, Los Angeles CA; d of emphysema 15 August 2016, Montara CA) Vibraphone, marimba. Inspired by Milt Jackson at age 15; studied with Dave Pike (b 23 March 1938, Detroit); before long sounded less like Jackson than most vibists; won a down beat poll '64 and began making his own albums on Blue Note '65, playing marimba as well. He has a fresh, personal, swinging style, often using four mallets; played on Out To Lunch (Eric Dolphy), Idle Moments (Grant Green), Life Time (Tony Williams), all on Blue Note. His own LPs (mostly quintets) included Dialogue '65 with Sam Rivers and Andrew Hill; Components, Happenings and Stick Up! '66; Total Eclipse '67 with Harold Land and Chick Corea were all made on the East Coast; then an LP on Cadet made in Hollywood late '67/early '68 with Land was followed by Patterns '68; then Land and Hutcherson co-led a group through '71: Spiral '68, Now and Medina '69, San Francisco and Head On '71 were all by this group, plus a track from the Ljubliana Jazz Festival '70 which appeared on Enja.

Hutcherson continued on Blue Note with Natural Illusions '72 (quintet plus flutes and strings), Live At Montreux '73, Cirrus '74 with Land and six others; Linger Lane '74 (with backup vocals), Montara '75 (with extra percussion), Waiting and The View From Inside '76, Knucklebean '77, For Bobby Hutcherson/Blue Note Meets The LA Philharmonic, made at the Hollywood Bowl '77. By this time Blue Note had ceased to be the label we all knew and loved and Hutcherson switched to Columbia: Highway One '78, big-band Concretion: The Gift Of Love and quintet Un Poco Loco '79 all featured George Cables on keyboards (b 14 November 1944, Brooklyn; also recorded with Freddie Hubbard on CTI, with Woody Shaw on Columbia, Joe Henderson on Milestone, etc). Dance Of The Sun '77 (with drummer Eddie Marshall*, Cables, two others) and the later Four Seasons were on Timeless. Hutcherson's Solo/Quartet '81-2 appeared on Contemporary; Good Bait '84 (with Branford Marsalis, Cables, Philly Joe Jones and Ray Drummond), Colour Schemes '86 (quintet with Mulgrew Miller, Airto, Billy Higgins, John Heard on bass), In The Vanguard '87, Cruisin' The Bird '88, Ambos Mundos '89 (sextet with three percussionists) and Mirage '91 were all on Fantasy's Landmark label.

Hutcherson appeared in Bertrand Tavernier's film Round Midnight '86 with Dexter Gordon and Herbie Hancock. He toured with the repertory ensemble SFJazz Collective 2004-07, was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2010, and returned to Blue Note for his last album, Enjoy The View 2014, with sidemen including David Sanborn.

*Eddie Marshall (b 13 April 1938, d 7 September 2011) was a legendary mainstay of the San Francisco scene, who played with everybody over the years from the Pointer Sisters to the Kronos Quartet.