Here’s a brief clip of a dampening etude for the vibraphone titled “Spring” that I just finished composing. The piece features chordal playing along with the dampened stepwise movement of one of the four voices. This will be included in a new book that I began working on a few weeks ago. The book will focus on dampening and pedaling for the vibraphone. I have also been working on a book for solo vibraphone playing. Both topics definitely go hand in hand but I wanted to cover in depth the dampening/pedaling aspect of playing the vibraphone.

“Here’s that Rainy Day” by James Van Heusen and Johnny Burke written in 1953. Still on a semester break and keeping busy with two vibe book projects along with some shedding. Working here in this clip with a few improv concepts including the Symmetrical Diminished scale and the Pentatonic b2 scale. Both concepts are covered in depth in my four volume improv series The Complete Guide to Improvisation. The Table of Contents for all of the books are on the FB page The Complete Guide To Improvisation.

In this short improvisation from a CD called “The Turning,” I use Burton mallets, predating my switch to leather-headed mallets that have shaped my current style.

"Forevermore" - a new composition for solo vibraphone with a focus on various dampening techniques. The lead sheet can be viewed and downloaded here via googledocs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lEszbF7igVuCHd6TMqaOalnldIvBqB9j/view?…

Here’s the Days of Wine and Roses chord melody.

I’ll give my new solo cd to the first 2 people who do the following.

1. Play my chord melody
2. Take a solo
3. Play my chord melody or your melody for the head out

The deadline is February first 2019

You have to have good time, keep the time. I don’t care how simple the solo is! Just play it well

Old (VHS) rehearsal of "More Than You'll Ever Know," sans Sax! Believe me it got better! :)

Composed by Duke Ellington.

Milt Jackson along with Cedar Walton, Ray Brown and Mickey Roker from 1984 performance at JazzFest Hamburg. The excellent rhythm section provides solid support for Milt on both tunes. This is one of my favorite versions of It Don't Mean A Thing, done at a slower tempo with a strong blues feeling. By the way Milt Jackson's birthday was January 1.

Michael