Skip to main content

I'm Your Pal (Steve Swallow) - Vibes/Piano Duo

I had a gig in April at a local jazz club and the promoter of the club asked for me if I could get a pianist for a vibes/duo concert. He also wanted to know if we could do some Gary and Chick songs which was great. We did Desert Air, Crystal Silence, Windows and few others. Here's one of my favorite Steve Swallow tunes called I'm Your Pal which Gary and Chick recorded for the Crystal Silence album. Still one of my most favorite recordings. I remember working on all of these songs when I was a student of Gary's at Berklee.

Sight Reading

Many people probably already know about the "18 Exercises for Flute but I'm currently trying to get my reading to a very proficient level and I ran across the 18 Exercises for Flute by B.T. Berbiguier. What a gold mine! Here's the sight where they are free and in my opinion some of the best reading material available for vibe players is right on that site and it's endless so I thought I'd share.

https://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?q=18+exercises

The Motor

I'm thinking of all this stuff because the site has become very active. Which is GREAT!

I don't like the musser motor. I don't like disc's inside the bar. But that's not the point I guess.

I've been playing with the Omega wings and using the motor. Mainly on gigs with bass and drums. It really makes me play very differently. Like Milt said, the vibes are like a voice. I think he's talking about the tremolo.

If I play with bass and vibes, or just vibes, then I don't like the motor in any capacity. It interferes with the sound.