Man we had a great time this week. Nico was a great host, hanging with us, playing organ (he's a great organ player) with us, and talking instruments with us. Tarik said it was his best vacation ever. That's pretty cool.

We're chilling after a hard morning.

I thought we'd quickly post some of what we're working on. We went through this sheet of voicings. David gave a great talk on them and everyone had to learn them and play part of this. The jpg's are attached. We shot them with his camera.

This is from our 2011 vanderPlas Baileo workshop.

Phillipe Mace gave a great workshop on Improvising over bach. That is learning Bach and analyzing the harmony and then improvising on the chords in that style. It was great and really informative.

He had students come up and play a bit of the piece and then improvise on it. It was great to try and improvise with a different language and there is a ton to learn from this and to then take to jazz.

We were working on singing solos and all of a sudden this came out!

This is a great group this year at vanderPlas Baileo.

I get to play with David Friedman

Vid is 17 and is on his way to being a great vibe player. He sounds great now, is serious and dedicated to the instrument. We will all be hearing a lot from Vid soon enough.