In this section I respond to letters from subscribers on the site.

It was great to see that Mike Mainieri joined the vibesworkshop.com today. Hopefully we'll see him around a lot!!

Here's a video from 1983 of one of my favorite Mainieri tunes.

Mike's an idol of mine. If you don't the early Steps Ahead stuff you DON'T have any idea of what you're missing. He took the vibes in a whole new direction. When I got the Steps Ahead cd, I had never heard anything like it on the vibes. Add to that the all star cast and what a band.

I saw him several times and was blown away each and every time!

Here's a little sample that Phillipe recorded from the last vibe hang. The vibe hang is a feature of the vibesworkshop.com. We come online from all over the world and hang and talk about vibes. I play some tunes and just hang. Others are invited to play as well.

I love playing with Mark Przybylowski on bass who comes over and plays all the time. I love what happened at the end of the tune! It's my favorite part listening back!!

I would love for more of you guys to play at these vibe hangs. YOU CAN EVEN pre record something and send it and i can play it on the 'show'.

Phillipe Briand is subscriber here at vibesworkshop.com. Here we team up to play 'All the Things You Are'. Check out how hard Phillipe swings and his buddy on bass. I had fun playing on this tune.

You can play on it also cause Phillipe recorded the drums and bass track in France and sent it to me. I recorded on top of there track!

So play along and record it and upload it here! The track with no vibes is listed under 'Check it out'.

One great thing about a community is being able to talk about things, good and bad. Sometimes just saying something to someone else is helpful enough to assist you through troubled times. We all love non-judgmental people who are good listeners, right?

Benny Goodman and Red Norvo.
I didn't know Red Norvo until joining the site...
I love the light swing of this tune.

Check the link out right above this. I've been having a discussion with Tony F about some things. Here I read the letter and comment on it. In the link under 'Check This Out' you'll fing the written dialogue.

I kept his name anonymous because I wasn't sure he wanted it known. I see though he published our whole conversation, which I think is cool!

Tony and I had an email exchange regarding the "I Should Care" lesson. He asked me to post my feedback during that lesson. We agreed I would post for the group this exchange, so, here it is.

(me)
Tony,

You did a great job! My level of theroy is very basic. I'm working on that. My level of playing in different keys is ah, non-existent. I have to go reeeeaaaallll slow. Ha! My level of playing is pretty basic who am I kidding, hahaha.

I thought I was done learning Christmas tunes until this one popped into my head.

Enjoy.

Barry