sooo... like many folks on the east coast of the US, I spent the night awake wrestling with water that was determined to enter my house. Good news. I won. Through the night, people with dark senses of humor kept playing this song, so it was in my head. I have now put my music room back together and had to plug everything in to make sure it was working, so I made this silly recording. ...oh yeah, for those who know me, this is the first time I have played my vibes since I had the surgery, so it was cool that way too. I am fine. yay. :)

A clip of Joe and I playing the standard (1931) Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams. A fun tune to play stride and 4 beats to bar time feel as in Freddie Green w/Basie, Dave McKenna, Errol Garner, George Shearing, etc. These changes are what McKenna plays. Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans play something a bit different on the A section. Here's a copy of the lead sheet: http://www.scribd.com/doc/63417220/Wrap-Your-Troubles-in-Dreams-Lead-Sh…

My MalletKat came back on Wednesday with the KS v7 upgrade.

I am now officially a super MalletKat Fan.
Having the internal sounds really helps very much.
Especially these PC3 sounds.

A few things I want to mention.
1. I still have to get used to the rubber pad feel.
2. The pads are much wider than the bars on my M44 making playing in general much easier.
3. The vibe and marimba sounds are really very good. Keep in mind I'm not a purest by any means.
4. The head phone output volume needs to be louder so you don't hear yourself hitting pads.

Hello all,
I'm trying to find out if it is better for vibraphones to travel assembled or to be broken down every night for transportation?
For the past 3 1/2 years my vibes have been traveling fully assembled in a custom case, in the back of an 18 wheeler. Well, now my frame is bent and I'm having huge issues with the rails and the dampener as well as the motor and other things.
The vibes fit snug in the case which is totally foam lined. I'm not really sure what caused the frame to bend along with many of the posts. Is it because the vibes were traveling fully assembled?

I hope you stay safe and dry. Thinking about our NYC members and those who live up and down the Atlantic coast. You're all in my thoughts and prayers.

Tony Fontana

It's funny to see this talk about learning tunes. I have 3 tunes to learn. 2 I have never played and one I've forgotten.

Jubilation (new)
Que-Tee (new)
Conception (forgot)

I spent the last 2 hours on Jubilation. I learned the melody first and then the chords. Just playing along with Cannonball (one version) and Art Farmer (the other). Two different versions. Then I checked the harmony.

with aebersold in the background.

with aebersold in the background.

My homework is late!
Here is last month's totm in a different key.

I love this tune! Let's see how bad I can F@#k it up.