This is the power of us all working together. I'm checking out all these videos on the blues. I'm listening to the blues in the car and the blues is coming out all over the place for me!

You guys are influencing me big time. This is the way I hoped it would be!

Well, I'm all over the blues these days! Right now listen to Ray Charles and Milt Jackson. Those cats can play the blues.

Here is a tune I started composing. I don't know if I heard it somewhere before, or if it is original. With the descending bass line, it could be a million tunes!

Please let me know if it sounds like something familiar, and I'll work on that instead.

Barry

Says panting and out of breath:

Drummers dad dies last night.
Got him on a bus to NY at 2:40. He's got to get to Cleveland.

What about the gig today?? We need someone. Well got Arturo Stable, so that's COOL!!

No time to practice anything today and only slept a few hours!!!

Gigs all through the weekend. Man I have not had an august this busy in a long time!!

Ok, what are you guys up to this weekend? Any cool gigs? You gonna practice?

BTW - More blues lessons coming!! I asked Behn to do one also!

It has been a frustrating ten days of working on chords to use as a left hand accompaniment to a melody line in the right hand. Six weeks till the sing-a-long at the Rehab Hospital. Working with a FAKE book "Ragtime and Early Jazz", I have a few songs memorized. But my pace is too slow. Tried sight-reading from the book today, and that seems to be coming along a little, but pace there is even slower. The new eyeglasses do help a lot.

I thought I'd share a pretty funny story from a gig last night:

I AM PRACTISING USING THE LEFT HAND. THIS LESSON IS BASED ON A PREVIOUS TOTM SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME. I THINK VIBRAPHONISTS WHEN WE PLAY MELODICALLY WE ARE MORE HORN PLAYERS. I WOULD LIKE TO STUDY HOW THE PIANO PLAYERS COMP WITH THEIR LEFT HAND...SO I CAME UP IN SOME IDEAS. THOSE IDEAS MABY HELPS YOU BE MORE CREATIVE ABOUT COMPING. I CAME UP WITH THESE RYTHMICALLY AND MELODICALLY MODELS AND POSSIBILITIES AND I HOPE YOU LIKE IT.

THANS

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.