Well...it's been a busy start of the month, and Afro Blue took a seat on the backburner when I had to learn new music for jazz ensemble very quickly (concert coming this Friday already!). Over the past week and half I've listened to Afro Blue and played the intro. and head almost every day, but I didn't start tackling the solo until yesterday (but on a marimba, so today was the first time playing on correctly spaced bars!).

Here's my approach to the solo:

Hey everyone,
Here's some info on the December Good Vibes radio program, the first and only broadcast program totally dedicated to the vibraphone (marimba and xylophone included). I've got a minor holiday thing going on for December with Stefon Harris, Christos Rafalides, Randy Sutin, Johnny Lytle, Arturo Serra ("Peace" by Horace Silver and Chick Corea's "Children's Song #9) and two Romanian carols by Alexandru Anastasiu.

Forgive the mistakes at the end of the video. I don't talk about phrasing much near the end, and I meant to... All of these neighbor tones can lead to "1". But, they can also be placed anywhere to disguise the arpeggio by not having the start of the arpeggio (C in the example) start on the downbeat, or a strong beat. The latter being which is how I hear them used more often.

One side of technique seems to be about faster harder and louder. On most gigs I do there's at least one tunes per set, usually that require fast loud and hard. People talk about these tempos and volumes as being unmusical, but I don't think they are. Especially when incorporated in a set of music, they seem to fit well. It's when the whole set becomes fast loud and hard that things get to be a drag. If my wife is in the audience, when I get through the set she usually says to me, that was a lot of testosterone being thrown around that stage.

Here's a funny out take from the video session Christos did at my house. He's not only a great player but he's a funny guy also!

Hi All-

This is a new one for me; in an iso booth recording, and it seems as though my highest G natural is somehow dead. I thought it was the resonator, but it seems to have less than 1/3rd of the sustain of the bars around it, whether the resonator flaps are open, closed, or in motion.

I've been playing these bars for 15+ years and this is the first I've noticed it. Seems like a new problem, but nothing looks different about the bar, at least on the playing side. Anyone else have this happen? What could I do about it?

Thanks-

JAmes

Here's an exercise I used to do. Play it fast, hard and loud. That's the key. Sounds a little like a Steve Reich piece. Build up speed, play each pattern longer, etc. etc. etc. Stamina.

A lot of percussionists showed up last night to see Gary and Chick and the string quartet.

There were about 60 of them from 2 different schools. University of Delaware and Temple.

A few stuck around for a photo.

Me with the man himself.