Yo, european cats,

There has been some talk about getting vibes in Europe lately.

We talk a lot about American manufacturers. For European cats it's expensive to get those instruments over.

But there are some great instruments over there for you guys as well.

I dig Premiere, although I can't believe they stopped making their portable instrument. WTF!!
I don't know a lot about adams but I'm sure they have good stuff. Do they make instruments for pros? The ones I've played on were tanks for a marching band. But if they had a good portable model that's cool?

Here's Ed Saindon and Joe Locke doing a great rendition of Stella!

Tony's description (and playing) of the "Batman Blues" finally got the idea of F7|F7|F7|F7|Bb7| etc. across to me. However, now everything I try to play in FBlues mode sounds like Batman, and absolutely nothing sounds like folks in the video listing of blues gods. Anyway, first Blog audio post.

Recorded (shared) headphone output from the Ketron SD2 Midi box attached to the MalletKat into Audacity running on the PC.

I've been getting up and playing a Parker tune or 2 to get my center. Joe Magnarelli does this and I've been trying to adopt it. Rhythmically Parker is pretty heavy IMHO.

Then I'm rehearsing for a string of gigs this week with the same group. It's with Tony Marino on bass and Todd Isler on drums and led by Diane Monroe. So it's going to be a heavy week I think. Marino is such an amazing bass player.

I'm trying to find what year my Musser m75 was manufactured. Does anyone know who to contact? The serial number for the instrument is 0476.

Thanks!
Ted.

This is a performance of a composition from a great friend of mine from Germany Matthias Schmitt.
While not vibes, it is a mallet piece with choir which in our idiom (jazz) seldom to hear.

I hope you enjoy it.
-Todd

I need to confess! I bought a pair of those Sefon Harris Mallets. Big balls, short staff (lol). You know what.... I pick up just 2 mallets every now and then and just play and it is SO MUCH FUN. I get why there are 2 mallet players (and 3 [Mike]). Playing with 2 mallets makes the instrument feel more like a set of drums, more percussion. Anyway that's my take. Any 2 mallet players or 'Bi'-mallet players out there who have anything to add?? 2 mallets seem very very sexy.

Here's a stunning solo on the blues. 12 bars from Charlie Parker (April 1941) on Hootie Blues. No wonder the guys who heard that in 1941 were dumbfounded !
I have learnt this solo note for note, and I play it as a tune.

As i've mentioned in my previous blog entry that we had removed an annoying bug in the gigVibes midi, I liked the change so much, we decided to finally offer the midi system as an add-on to other brands vibes.

The system consists of a nice control case with an embedded mixer and touchpanel for operating the system, and ofcourse the two blue collector rails. Range is up to 64 notes. Nice is that the control case can be mounted on a mike stand.

I'm listening to Stefon Harris' new album that he did with some guys down in Cuba. It's a cool album, called Ninety Miles. But, I think I need a lot more history behind latin music to appreciate it.
Can anybody suggest some guys who were a real part of the history of latin music. some of the really early guys would be great. thanks