I posted this over at www.trumpetworkshop.com.

I think it's great for us to hear as well. John is a master of the line. He had a big influence on how I work at the vibes. I think you first have to be able to make lines that weave through the changes. Once you can do that, playing with four mallets becomes very easy!

So check it out!

By now I'm sure everyone has heard about the passing of Steve Jobs at the age of 56. A few thoughts: I don't have an iPad. I don't even have a MaxiPad. I'm a confirmed PC user, I don't have an iPod, an iPhone or an iChing. However, that being said, I do use iTunes, and it was, and is, a revolutionary way to listen to music, and add to your music library. If this was the only thing Steve Jobs developed, he would still be remembered as an innovator who really changed the way we communicate, acquire information and in that, enable us to further enrich our lives.

Hi everybody !I tried Behn's "riffin' and spellin" approach here, but I didn't emphasize the minor pentatonic enough. Never mind "it will have to do, until the real thing comes along", as the song goes. Cheers Philippe

I buy a lot of music off of Amazon. You know they give every use storage space. I think it's 2 free gigs and then 20 for 20 bucks a year. Something like that.

I just liked at my account and I have unlimited storage for music! So I'm now backing up 19,000 songs. And I have another 30,000 to go. I wonder if it will take it all??

I also signed up for Google's cloud service (free). I have 20 gigs there. I uploaded a ton of stuff there. Mostly music. I'll take the music down and then start storing docs up there.

my all time favorite ballad from my latest gig.

John Swana is a phenomenal musician! He played trumpet but had to stop because of lip problems. But he's an amazing musician none the less, and now he plays the EVI. This is a great lesson!

We covered a lot with our TOTM - the Blues. You guys agree?

I was thinking about a lot of the blues lessons we've been putting up lately. And this thought popped in my head.

We don't always focus directly on technique, but anything well played is an etude, a chop builder and an all around technical exercise in many ways. At least that's what I think. If you can swing and play a blues and do interesting stuff you have technique.

Just thought of that and thought I'd pass it along, see if you guys agree.

Hi everyone,

It's short notice, but I will be playing at Smalls Jazz Club in NYC tonight, and you can watch it through a live stream. Just go to www.smallsjazzclub.com and click on the live feed tab. Starts at 9:30PMest. The group is Gerry Gibbs' Thrasher band (Gerry is the son of the great Terry Gibbs!). Anyway, here's the lineup for tonight:

Gerry Gibbs - drums/compositions
Ravi Coltrane - tenor sax
Mark Feldman - violin
Behn Gillece - vibraphone
Aaron Goldberg - piano
Essiet Essiet - bass