Jazz Musician. Born Robert Hutcherson, he was one of the most admired and accomplished vibraphonists in jazz. He was first exposed to jazz music through his brother Teddy who would listen to Art Blakey records. His older sister Peggy was a singer in Gerald Wilson's orchestra. He was inspired to take up the vibraphone when he heard Milt Jackson play "Bemsha Swing" on the Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants album at the age of 12. Still in his teens, he began his professional career in the late fifties working with tenor saxophonist Curtis Amy and trumpeter Carmell Jones, as well as with Eric Dolphy and tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd at Pandora's Box on the Sunset Strip. His career took flight in the early 1960s, as jazz was changing. He was fluent in bebop, but he was also one of the first to adapt his instrument to a freer postbop language, often playing chords with a pair of mallets in each hand. He released more than 40 albums and appeared on many more, including some regarded as classics, like “Out to Lunch,” by Dolphy, and “Mode for Joe,” by the tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson. Both of those albums were a byproduct of his close affiliation with Blue Note Records from 1963 to 1977. After his tenure on Blue Note, he released albums on Columbia, Landmark and other labels, working with McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins and onscreen, in the 1986 Bertrand Tavernier film “Round Midnight” with Dexter Gordon and the pianist Herbie Hancock. From 2004 to 2007, he toured with the first edition of the SFJazz Collective, an ensemble devoted equally to jazz repertory and the creation of new music. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2010. After releasing a series of albums on the European label Kind of Blue, he returned to Blue Note in 2014 to release a soul-jazz effort, “Enjoy the View,” with the alto saxophonist David Sanborn and other collaborators.