Vibraphone

Just restored a couple of instruments.
I think, they turned out pretty well.

One of them is a Deagan 594, once owned by Mike Mainieri. When we got it in, it was painted white.
We did the following:
- cleaned the bars
- replaced the terrible casters by new, bigger, and better ones
- removed the experimental midi-electronics (didn't work anymore, impossible to repair)
- filled up the space in the endblocks where the midi was placed.
- coated the keybed
- powdercoated the supporting frame and the coverplates for the rails in black

From the Real Book, the chords are:

___|_Em7b5_______|_A7b9________|_Cm7_________|_F7__________|, etc., with melody:
Bb |_A___________|____G__A__Bb_|_F___________|_F___________|


When I play it, it sounds like the 1st and 3rd chords are suspended versions of the subsequent chords. I play the Em7b5 as Bb D E A, then dampen the D (the sus 4 of the subsequent chord) and hit a C#, to turn it into the A7b9. Similarly, I play the Cm7 as Bb C Eb F, then dampen the Bb (the sus 4 of the subsequent chord) and hit an A, to turn it into an F7 (no root).

So, this was the scene. The old Hershey Hotel in downtown Philly. Milt Jackson was playing there with his quartet (Bob Cranshaw on electric bass, Mike LeDonne on piano and Mickey Roker playing drums.) There were two sets, and I had a ticket for the first one. I got there early to see if I could get to talk to Milt Jackson a bit. Turns out their sound man never showed up for the gig. I am an amatuer audio engineer, so I volunteered... it was perfect. I got to sit right next to him while he was playing and I got to stay for the second show for free.

Great camera shot of gary playing.

Check out how locked in the time he is and how clean all his phrases are.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/arts/music/21guru.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cwjkn4VSqU&feature=related

Check out Milt's solo. It's so laid back, beautiful and swinging!

Check out this cat towards the end. I posted Glen Verez a minute ago and then found this.

Oh my god, this cat is so bad it's not even funny!!!!

I think this is so f-n incredible.

We're putting up a hand drum site now, so I'm getting to see some really cool hand drum video as well as recording Todd Isler who's a great percussionist.

This vid is mesmerizing!

We have a ton of lessons up here!!!

Some of you have really looked through all of them. What do you think is missing?? Give us some ideas.

Hi All-

It's been awhile; lots of exciting things going on around here! I have some fairly exciting news of my own: I'll be appearing at the Melbourne Jazz Festival this May with my band, Nós Novo on the 1st @ Bennett's Lane, and on the 4th with Jo Lawry's quintet. We'd of course love to see any Melbourne/Aussie vibeworkshoppers in attendance... I mean, all are welcome of course, but it's kind of a schlepp for the rest of you!