all-levels

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Solo Vibraphone on "Angel Eyes" - I worked on solo playing a lot with Gary Burton when I was a studying with him in the 70s at Berklee. The lessons with Gary were mind opening and very challenging. I was very fortunate to be there at the school in the 70s studying with Gary and as well as so many other great teachers including Alan Dawson. Entering as a drummer and then switching to vibes (and piano) was a very good move for me. The lessons with Gary were split with vibes and piano. I'm still working at it after all these years and still love it.

"Come Rain or Come Shine" by Harold Arlen - Trying to get in some shedding after a little hiatus away from the vibes. Getting back into it with a classic standard by Arlen who wrote so many great songs from the early 30's through the 50s.

Alternate solo vibraphone version of the classic "Angel Eyes" using some improv and voicing concepts from The Complete Guide to Improvisation and Voicing Concepts for the Jazz Vibist. Fun and challenging for me to work on these concepts. It's one thing writing about the concepts and it's another to get them down where they are fluid, spontaneous and natural.

I had a good lesson with David Friedman at the Philadelphia workshop. We focused entirely on pedaling. David pointed out that my sound was very 'dry'. I had never really noticed it, but now I hear it every time I listen to a recording of myself.

I've attached two different practice tapes working on pedaling over "How Deep is the Ocean?" and "You Don't Know What Love Is". I'm playing with the metronome and playing mostly single notes rather than chords.

Critical feedback welcome.

“A Time for Love” composed by Johnny Mandel – one of the great ballads by a wonderful composer. Legendary pianist Bill Evans plays a superb version of this song.

A few thoughts on solo playing as featured on this clip:

“I’ll Remember April” - played this song this past Saturday night on the gig with Mark. One of the classic standards and always fun to play. Playing here in the early morning at Berklee before a class. The building used to be a hotel many years ago. The Percussion department is in the basement and the school renovated the entire floor years ago. They left the granite stone exposed which looks great.

“Sous le ciel de Paris” (Under the Sky of Paris) - one of my favorite classic songs from France. This superbly crafted composition was written for the 1951 film of the same name. Paris has to be one of our favorite cities in Europe for my wife and I.

here´s some more music i wrote for the detective novel...this time a simple 7/8 bass vamp with various themes played by the malletkat and sax.

this will be during a chase in the story...you get the picture?