Blog

I won't be writing stuff out. We're going to use our ears. I know already that that's very difficult with 15 vibe players in the room, but the alternative of writing stuff out just doesn't work for me.

You might want to get into the swing of things by transcribing a little bit each day. Take a solo and just go 1 bar a day.

We're going to sing also, so you might want to put on Aebersold and start singing solos and getting into the swing of things.

More to come!

I've posted two links to the workshop forums on the front of the site for convenience. Workshop people should check there for news and also post any questions they have. I'm going to start the ball rolling, with things, just to get to know you guys and get you working on things. So check in often, and put questions there.

I'm thinking of how to celebrate our 2 years anniversary.
Here's what I'm thinking. Let me know what you think:

How about a 20 minute concert from Monday to Saturday, by different members. You could video it or do it live. I'd rather you did it live! It's better for all of us, knowing it's really happening in the moment, (or a moment behind).

Then Saturday, have a Day of the vibraphone. That is from 12 unitil 5 on Saturday we'll have have 40 minute concerts every hour. Until 5.

Hey everyone,

I put all the birthday posts in it's own book section. Let me know if there is any missing.

http://www.vibesworkshop.com/book/tonys-50th-birthday-all-posts-relatio…

TJ

Check out some old pictures of Tony in this gallery:

http://www.vibesworkshop.com/category/image-galleries/vibe-players/tony…

TJ

On this post all you guys and gals out there can add your birthday wishes for our great host(for almost two years now!).

I'm here working on some forms I have to fill out and have Pandora playing a John Adams Station I made. All of sudden this marimba comes on and it's beautiful and articulate and stops me dead in my tracks. It's Evelyn Glennie and I just go WTF.

She plays great. How does she do it? What is she hearing? I hear her talk about it, but sometimes I go yeah right. But man she can play.

I posted about transcribing some MJQ and hearing mistakes in the recording and feeling a little funny about it. This is one of my favorite groups, but I was complaining a little bit!

My punishment was that the video - 'Modern Jazz Quartet, Django. True Jazz Inovators in Their Best Filmed Performances' came today. I'm in the middle of it now, all black and white so far. Between that and the looks of them this must be early on. They sound SO good. Milt sounds beautiful! Thanks for putting me in my place Almighty Amazon.com!

So tell me how you found the vibraphone?

Here's my abridged version.

I played classical guitar growing up and was very serious about it. I also played drums and then picked up piano as a teen.

I almost went to school for piano, but some weird stuff happened with piano lessons and I quit on a dime as they say.

So I'm transcribing some MJQ. I remember (I think) Gary Burton talked about them not being good readers. Ok. I'm taking down the tune 'Don't Stop This Train'. It's a sort of fugue. Well I've found 2 mistakes and I think they cut out a John Lewis bad note. I don't know, maybe I'm totally wrong here.

But I'm thinking what happened on this recording? Didn't they want to fix the mistakes? Was it late in the band's career and they didn't care? Were they fighting? Did they have only one hour left of studio time and they had to get this down. Didn't they practice the tune at home.