all-levels

A little Sunday night fun playing Duke Ellington’s classic composition “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”.

Here's a duo for my student Dan.

I play both parts and then Dan plays to one plays to one part. Lots of times I use a click, but I don't want to any more.

I had a deadline! Listen to it. There's player 1 and player 2. Player one does a good job, player 2 rushes a bit and has to pull back a little bit. Can you hear? Time is so important. However I think the performance is acceptable.

Here is my rendition of number 16!
I appreciate the succession of crescendos that construct the piece dynamically. It has a very logical sense of contour. This also offers some cool way to approach playing chords in inverted arpeggiations. Let me know what you guys think!

“How Deep Is The Ocean” by Irving Berlin. Such a hip song from 1932. Focusing here on playing the melody and lines with only the two inside mallets essentially like a two mallet player. I’m using an open spread fulcrum with the inside mallets. The open spread allows for a high mallet height when needed and the ability to “dig in” with the two inside mallets with strong accents. Notice the motion of the inside mallets are with an up and down motion and the outside mallets are fairly stationary. For more on the “Fulcrum Grip”, please see my clinic videos on my YT channel.

Check this out! 12 years old!

"Turn Out The Stars" by the great Bill Evans. One of my favorite compositions from Bill. I remember seeing him many times at the Jazz Workshop in Boston. First with Eddie Gomez and Marty Morrell or Eliot Zigmund and after with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera. I sat right next to the piano. Talk about inspiration. Besides Berklee, going to the Jazz Workshop almost every week was an important part of my jazz education.