Hi again,

I'm just back from our hang, and in the middle of it I got a message from Umbria Jazz Festival (Italy) alerting me about a new very very fresh video of Joe!

I knew Joe was to play a duet with amazing french pianist Martial Solal (FYI, MS is 81 years old, and 20 in his fingers!). I had asked and they very nicely sent me an email with weblink!

Here is a sample of that gig, which took place today at 4 p.m. western Europe time... which is... some 5 hours ago!

Don't they both look like kids in a playground?!!

Enjoy! :o)

Hi everyone,
I plan to use the vibraphone especially for classical music. I'll be happy to listen any comments about my first record:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZG1NXKsePY

Ok, I've always had a problem understanding modes. I'm doing some self study using Mark Harrison's "Contemporary Music Theroy" level one. From this I've derived the following:

Ionian - starting in the 1st degree of the scale
Dorian - starting on the 2nd degree of the scale
Phygrian - starting on the 3rd degree of the scale
Lydian - starting on the 4th degree of the scale
Mixolydian - starting on the 5th degree of the scale
Aeolian - starting on the 6th degree of the scale
Locrian - starting on the 7th degree of the scale

Oh man!

I just found the freshest news from one of Joe's very recent performances at Umbria (Italy). This video was just posted today. The gig can only be one or two days old! There's Bob Cranshaw on double bass (!), Joe Labarbera on drums and surely Dado Moroni on piano...

Oh man! Isn't that great! A postcard from Italy! :o)

PS: enjoy, but get ready, the vid is "inhumanly" cut! :o( Never mind! It's beautiful!

So here's where I'm at:

Buy Charlie Haden CD. All folk songs. It blows me away. I can't stop listening to it. No #9s, no series of ii V's in a row. I'm dying it's so beautiful.

I think about Gary Burton growing up in the midwest. He must have checked all this out. He WAS into country music. He must know this tune Shenandoah. Oh man it's so beautiful.

Ok, I should try it. I bet Gary and Pat Methany have played this tune. It's American music, it's Aaron Copland. Methany is the Jazz Aaron Copland. So is Gary I think.

Who knows anything about Lynn Blessing? We were talking about him in the shout box. Thought I'd move everything to here!

Check out these links:
http://playitagainmax.blogspot.com/2006/10/lynn-blessing-sunset-painter…
http://music.msn.com/music/album-review/lynn-blessing/sunset-painter/

Here's my accompaniment to "Have You Met Miss Jones". Play along and post if you want! If you can put the files together then upload the duet.

Here's me playing Bluesette to go along with the bluesette lesson.

Check out the other subscribers versions of Bluesette as well!

I had a great talk with Ed via email. We talked about whether the vibraphone was on it's last leg or not.

I won't go into our conversation yet, because I'd like to hear what you guys have to say first.

I waited for New Years day to post this. What's the future of the instrument? How do we save it? Can it be saved? Is it fine and I'm just trying to create hype? Is it truly a babe magnet???