all-levels

"Send In The Clowns" composed by Stephen Sondheim in 1973 for the play A Little Night Music. A beautiful song with deep lyrics sung by many vocalists including Judy Collins, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Betty Buckley. All great versions but my favorite is the one by Dame Judi Dench performing it in 2010 on the BBC program for Sondheim's 80th birthday celebration.

Transcribe my solo.
1st chorus - quarter note solo
2nd chorus - simple solo

Play my solo, then do yours.
Your first chorus needs to be quarter notes
Second chorus, simple and swinging.

I've attached a file with only brushes. You can use the to play along with.

Clip from a practice session playing the classic Joe Henderson song. Playing with a "stream of consciousness" approach. Seeing what develops and working with motives, varied sounds (articulation, dynamics, accents, ghost notes, deadstrokes) and techniques as they come into play. This is one of the ways that I practice. I always enjoy playing songs this way and seeing where the music leads me along with taking some chances. For me, it's not about perfection but more about the process that's important.

Big fun to do this duets.

Before Tony and Leigh developed the awesome Late Night Mallet, there was the Deschler 114. There was a lesson in the studio downstairs, so I was playing with soft mallets up in the living room. Nothing fancy here, just a Zoom recorder and me.

the other day, Chien Chien and I were talking about Crystal Silence. I think it is one of the nicest tunes ever written specifically for the vibes. I like to explore this side of the instrument.

Tony often talks about the use of vibes outside the context of jazz. Well, here is our newest release. It is probably best categorized as "New-Age Ambient", although I don't really like labels. I prefer to just ignore the box. Typically our music is considered too "new-agey" to appeal to jazz listeners and too "Jazzy" (whatever that means... sometimes they call it smooth jazz if they really want to fling what they feel is an insult) by folks in the new-age healing and yoga community.

Nasty Virus Blues - a tribute to all of my musician friends out there. Please keep on playing and sharing your music. I’ve been really enjoying all of the beautiful posts and clips.

“Spring Is Here” - finally, some nice weather in New England. Sorry for the sound, I did a down and dirty clip on the IPad.

"Alice In Wonderland" - The classic song that I listened to so many times from the great Bill Evans recording Live at the Village Vanguard. I remember Gary talking to me in the lessons way back about Bill and his various recordings. He was a big fan and so was I. Great music is timeless. :)