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Triste by Tom Phelan

Here's "Triste" from my trio gig last Friday night with Mike Ball on bass and Jack Morash on drums. It's a little noisy -- I had the record levels too low and so I had to boost it. Sounds OK on earbuds but it seemed a little distorted on my car CD player. Hope it works. Enjoy :-).

Tom P.

More On Lines IMHO

My final this year in improv class is simple. Students will play Have You Met Miss Jones in 4 keys. Head, Solo, Head. Sounds like it could be simple. But for them it proves to be very difficult.

They have to play in time, and they play solo and they have to make the changes. Those three things in combination are apparently difficult. Well no apparently. Those are difficult things to pull off. Keeping everything in time, and making your line sound like the tune and doing it all yourself with no help.

Lines Festival - Vince Lardear Playing Over Rhythm Changes

Vince plays great bebop lines. Think about this in terms of 4 mallet playing. If your lines are as full as Vinces, this would change your four mallet playing. You wouldn't have to add as much accompaniment. You could if you wanted, the point being the choice would be yours. you wouldn't be relying on it.

The Art of the Line

Ok, so we studied chords and harmony. I sure hope some of you guys got some stuff out of all that. There was a ton to learn and study!

So I figured before we had back to tunes we should officially study the other side of all this and that's the line... the solo, the melody.

I still believe that for all of us, the line should be first thing. The most important thing.