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Influential Mallet Players Past and Present

The popularity of mallet instruments in the United States probably began in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Vaudeville was one of the first outlets for xylophone virtuosos. The vibraphone, which was first developed around 1920 or so, quickly found a home in an exciting new music called Jazz. Western European classical music is the original home for the modern chromatic marimba, but in the past 30 years it is also finding a prominent place in Jazz.

Highlighted here are the most well known mallet players who helped establish a permanent home for these instruments in the music of the day. Included with each musician is a link to a full bio and recommended recordings that showcase the best of these great musicians.

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Marimba Players

Leigh Howard Stevens is perhaps today's greatest living marimba player. He has influenced every aspect of playing technique and repertoir... Read More»

Leigh Howard Stevens CDs you can purchase

Gordon Stout is currently a professor of music at Ithaca College in New York. He has written and performed many new pieces for marimba, which have become part of the standard repertoir. He is a popular recitalist at concerts world-wide... Read More»

Nancy Zeltsman resides in Boston and teaches at both Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory. For the past 20 years she has been a powerful force in working to increase the material written for solo marimba and marimba chamber ensembles. She has been a featured performer in concerts across the U.S., as well as in Europe, Japan, and Mexico... Read More»

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Evelyn Glennie is one of the most eclectic and innovative musicians of our time. By combining superb technique, a profound appreciation of the visual and her astonishing musicality, Evelyn creates performances of such vitality that they almost constitute a new type of performance.... Read More»

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Her Greatest Hits

Clair Omar Musser was an early champion of the marimba. Born in 1901, he began studying marimba and xylophone in school. From the 1940s through the 1950s he organized and toured with large marimba ensembles that performed across the United States. In 1948 he created the Musser Marimba Company, which was one of the first to manufacture high quality mallet instruments. Musser eventually joined the Ludwig Drum Company and today the Ludwig/Musser brand continues to build world class Vibraphones, Marimbas, Xylophones, and other mallet percussion instruments.... Read More»

Vibraphone Players

Gary Burton Born in 1943 and raised in Indiana, Gary Burton taught himself to play the vibraphone and, at the age of 17, made his recording debut in Nashville, Tennessee, with guitarists Hank Garland and Chet Atkins. Two years later, Burton left his studies at Berklee College of Music to join George Shearing and subsequently Stan Getz, with whom he worked from 1964-1966..... Read More»

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David Samuels didn't start playing the vibraphone until he was in his 20s. While attending college in Boston, Dave began to study vibes with Gary Burton, who had just arrived to join the faculty at the Berklee College of Music. Gary instantly saw Dave's huge talent and offered him a teaching post at Berklee. After a few years of teaching and playing in the Boston music scene Dave moved to New York.... Read More»

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Bobby Hutcherson has developed one of the most exciting and unique playing styles of any of today's vibraphone artists. He can play impossibly fast and complex lines that seem to float over the music. He possesses an unerringly accurate sense of time that allows him to play with a freedom and ease that very few others can match. He is one of a kind.... Read More»

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Lionel Hampton can be credited as possibly the very first musician to popularize the vibraphone. His recordings with the famous Benny Goodman quartet have stood the test of time and are as fresh and exciting today as they were decades ago. "Hamp", as he was affectionally known, started out as a jazz drummer. He began expanding his skills by learning to play Louis Armstrong trumpet solos on xylophone. One day in a recording session Hamp noticed a brand new vibraphone sitting in a corner of the studio. Hamp was immediately drawn to the new instrument and for the rest of his life his name was synonymous with the vibes.... Read More»

Suggested recordings by Lionel Hampton

Milt Jackson began his career in the Bebop era following World War II. Every night during the late 1940s and early 1950s you could see Milt walking up and down Basin Steet carrying a small portable set of vibes from gig to gig at all the famous jazz clubs. He worked in bands with Charlie Parker, Dizzy, and Miles, to name just a few. Milt's swinging style, inventive lines, and beautiful tone were always in demand. Unlike Hamp, who was a born showman, Milt was soft spoken, but his powerful musicianship and distinct musical style made him instantly recognizable on recordings and in concerts.... Read More»

Buy CDs by Milt Jackson

Xylophone Players

George Hamilton Green began playing xylophone at the age 11, having received plenty of encouragement from his bandleader father. Within two years the youngster was a soloist in his father's outfit, and upon turning 18 he headed into vaudeville where he made an international reputation for himself as a virtuoso, show-stopping xylophonist.... Read More»

Ian Finkel is bringing the xylophone back into popularity. He has carved out a very sucessful career playing an instrument that has not been in the limelight for 80 years. His secret: develop enormous technical and musical skills, hire the best musicians in New York, and write top-notch band arrangements that positively sizzle.... Read More»
Ian's CD Brother Can You Spare a Dime can be purchased here, via Amazon.com.

Teddy Brown was one of the many xylophonists that performed in vaudeville during the 1920s and 1930s. Billed as the "Heavyweight of the Xylophone", he was an exuberant and daring performer; a pioneer who set high standards for all the mallet players who have come since.... Read More»

Red Norvo was born in 1908, and enjoyed a musical career that lasted over half a century. Well ahead of his time, Red was a true innovator who influenced all the mallet players that followed him. It can be said that Red, virtually unaided, was able to elevate the xylophone and vibraphone from their early classification as simple novelty instruments, and give them prestigious positions in classical music and jazz.... Read More»

CDs by Red Norvo