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"But Beautiful"

ed saindon 22 December 2018

Solo version of "But Beautiful" with voicings from my book Voicing Concepts for the Jazz Vibist available on Amazon. The book contains a written out chorus of the melody along with voicings, notated mallet dampening and reharm.

Woodwork (Balafon: African log xylophone)

Jerry Leake 18 December 2018

This 4-mallet balafon improvisation, from my CD “The Turning,” marks my first attempt to use 4 heavy balafon mallets to fire up groove and energy in 4/4. The 4-mallet approach on the more ancient instrument inspired the idea to incorporate other mallets on vibes, beginning my experimentation with leather-headed mallets custom made in India (my “3 ballads” post tells more of the leather mallet story). To build the Woodwork arrangement, I layered wood-related percussion including cajon, cascara (sticks), clave and seed pods.

Children's Song (orchestrated)

Jerry Leake 16 December 2018

In my first video post (3 Ballads) I opened with a solo rendition of Chick Corea’s “Children’s Song.” The tune is a great exercise in building independence between the two hands, with the left hand playing an ostinato and the right playing the melody. As one person pointed out, the piece has a kind of Mbira (African thumb piano) quality to it. I was drawn to the tune for that very reason — to try and bridge the gap between the jazz repertoire and world-music styles.

"On the Sunnyside of the Street" - with a nod to Art Tatum

ed saindon 16 December 2018

“On the Sunnyside of the Street” - one of my favorite standards played here with a nod to the great pianist Art Tatum. There was a period when I was heavily into pianists like Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Dave McKenna and Dick Hyman. All masters of the piano and where I got a lot of inspiration.

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