This beautiful song composed by my friend, Gabor Cseke.
Royal Castle of Gödöllő, 2008.

This is a little example of chord-tone tapping I gave by using it in playing over Bill Evans' "Nardis." Please keep in mind that my goal was to show how you could use this technique, not to take the most interesting and tasteful solo over Nardis that I'll ever play!

This is the second lesson on using Irish techniques for vibes- this is the same concept as 'neighbor-tapping,' but this time with chord tones. This technique is not unlike one you'd expect to hear from piano/organ players like Ray Charles, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Smith, Larry Young, Dr. Lonnie Smith etc etc etc. It's not really ground-breaking for the vibes, actually; I've heard Joe Locke and Tony make great use of this technique. What's different here is the emphasis on dampening the upper chord-tone... give it a listen, you'll hear what I mean.

Hi Folks

In honor of Tony's recent journey and my recently recording my Irish-imbued quartet, I wanted to post a few lessons I recorded awhile back about techniques I see used by pipers, fiddlers, accordianists, etc on the NY Irish scene that I've tried to adapt to the vibes. This first one's about what I call 'neighbor tapping.' It's a term I made up that's a combination of what Irish pipers and whistle players call 'tapping' and what some jazz players I know call 'neighbor tones,' that is, notes that are within a whole step of each other.

Think of a G7b9 13. There's another triad in there besides G maj. There's E maj. So if you only play the third the flat 9 and the 13th of the chord and the chord is a G7 it will still function as a G7 but will look like an E maj chord. What's interesting is now you have two things happening here, you have a triad but it's serving as a dominant chord. We're just not playing all the notes in the dominant chord and creating something interesting. I hope that makes sense. This lesson is about that.

Having Dinner and Ice Cream

Dimitri is an up and coming vibe player from Greece! He was complaining about playing in clubs and being heard...... An then he played Nico's Evibe and his problem was solved. Well that problem was solved and then a new one appeared. Now he has to get up the money!

Hi vibists,

Here's me with Gary & Steve Swallow after last night's GB Quartet show in Ridgefield, CT. Had a brief chat with Gary, and he was kind enough to stop for a photo. We were introduced once many years ago, but very inconsequentially, so it was great to speak with him again. And it's always a thrill to see Swallow, who is one of my favorite people anywhere.

06.08.2007. Live recording, Bartok Radio, Hungary