When it rains it pours. All us musicians trying to make a living get so angry when we get 3 calls for the same night. That means we lost 2 gigs!!

Things are slow here in Philly and just last week I got depressed about not having a bunch of gigs. Then it rained and then it poured.

Now I have about 15 tunes to learn, a bunch of site reading, a couple rehearsals, a few gigs and about maybe a thousand miles of driving.

Subscriber John Daly had some questions about Solar, so I answered them and went off on a tangent.

If you haven't studied this lick thoroughly then this is a very valuable lick.

It totally outlines the ii V I progression from the top. If you practice this in all keys and make up many variations of it, when you come out on the other site, you will have grown a lot musically.

I think any great player here has checked this lick and it's implications. It's like striking musical gold, I think.

It's a thorough study and I hope you will study it and post yourself playing through it as an assignment. I also hope you'll post variations on this.

hey everyone .. i decided to record rehearsal last saturday .. thought you all might want to check it out ... only our second time ive played with these folks .. kind of a weekend warrior thing ...

Harry Sheppard is a vibe player from Houston and Formerly New York. He played with Benny and Billie Holiday and everyone else back in the day!

Here he is on the Mallet Kat.

---- Tony Miceli

For Tifoo. This version has no chorus and no acompaniment.

This is to die for. He is smokin' here!

I apologize if this is totally cheezy. But It kicked my ass. Go easy on me.

This tune kicked my ass Bigtime. I still can't believe it. I heard Charlie Haden sing it and fell in love with it. I tried to play, thinking it would be a piece of cake and it was so hard for me. Those sixths in the melody, playing the chords very simply. The dampening. I spent several days on this tune.

I played it at the vibe hang and didn't think I did it justice and tried to do a decent recording.

Can anybody recommend someone or someplace where I can rent or borrow a vibe for Feb 12 and 13, 2009 in, or near the following German cities: Bayreuth, Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, or Munich area?
Thanks, tom beckham
tom@tombeckham.net

All about Nico's instruments are here.