I just thought I'd pass this on. A quick story.

I gave finals today. Each student had to perform Donna Lee in 3 keys and solo.

Anyway let's make it short. All but one student is left in the room. He plays Donna Lee in 3 keys. It was the best performance of the whole class.

When he got done he looked up at me and he was shaking. He said, 'I'm sorry, I tried'. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe the demons that were just in his head while playing this. If his head would have been cleared he would have got done and said, "wow". Instead he thought he failed.

I went through the lessons and books last night and I was floored. There's so much knowledge here I can't believe it. I was blown away.

I just hope you guys are combing through all the lessons and pulling stuff out and working through things one at a time. That's important ONE AT A TIME. (ok maybe 2)

And finally a standard/ballad. Thank you very much for listening!

Another one of my original tunes. Same gig. It was towards the end of the night so things got a bit freer.

These are all from the same gig. This was written by our drummer Kevin Laskey.

Hey guys, I'm putting this up for a look at one of my recent compositions as well as vibe playing. My apologies for the length and the sound quality, but really the first chorus of the melody and first two solos should do. This is a group of all freshman at school performing on campus and we mostly play original material. I wrote this piece earlier this semester. Enjoy!

I just got back from Chris' and checked out Tom Beckham playing music from his new cd. He had Chris Cheeks on sax. I went with Patty (who's a faculty member of the site).

It was great music and great playing. Tom studied with Ed back in the day and me and patty saw some of his influence still resonating. Tom is a great vibe player and interesting approach and really interesting lines.

His new CD is called 'Rebound' which I bought and will check out. I hope he puts up a link to where you guys can buy the CD.

Mike here you go. Some tunes I wrote.

Here's a tune I wrote for the Philly 5.