I was realizing that I passed my 1 year "anniversary" of participation in the Vibes Workshop. Looking at some early posts made me realize that a lot of stuff has happened in that year and this site has evolved enormously.

In the Christmas spirit, I thought I would re-post my "Carol of the Bells" from last year. I played all the parts on marimba, mexican marimba and vibes. Enjoy!

Hi All,

The recent discussion around Tony's post about Jason "Mallet Man" Taylor has me wondering what people here really think about the balance between letting the music speak for itself and showmanship.

In "check this out" I've put three performances with contrasting levels of showmanship and art. Two are way on the showy side -- Jason Taylor and the Ian Finkel performance on "History of Mallet Instruments". The third, Elio Villafanca, is what I would consider to be the standard "here's the music" style.

This is my ensemble at the University of the Arts. They're playing the Ornette Blues 'When Will the Blues Leave'.

They're a very talented bunch. Andrew Nitolli is the only freshman in the group and he's doing a great job keeping up with the older students.

Andrew is kicking ass here at the school. He's blowing through a couple transcribed solos and playing them in all the keys, and working out voicings and chords, etc.

He's a former student of Joe Locke and I know Joe is pretty proud of Andrew!

Man I've been working on the tune Beautiful Friendship and it's kicking my ass. The melody, and the phrasing feel really unique to me. And I'm trying to play the tune right down the middle and it's really really hard.

I'm finding I have to kind of study all the spaces in the tune so I can play the melody right. Next the tune's second A doesn't resolve which is a little unusual. And sometimes I want to resolve it just like the last A!

Great video of Hutch!

Here's another lick for January. It's in 2 parts. The lick is attached to each part as a pdf and I play it. I would advise transcribing the lick yourself first and then checking the music.

I usually don't even put the music up but this lick is a little more involved.

I wrote this as an etude to study chords and comping with roots. This etude goes through the chords of Blue Bossa in a way that uses lots of up partials and scale tones. The pedal is down for most of every bar. Use common sense with the pedal. I think you can learn a lot about comping and about chords with this etude.

Here is my simple arrangement to "My One and Only Love". At some point I will study Tony's Etudes (links above), but I wanted to start on my own.

I played an octave higher than written. Do you think it sounds too high or piercing?

What do you think of the tempo?

Do you think there is too much ringing?

Suggestions appreciated.

Barry

Hey Everyone,

I was just browsing through some old practice tapes and found this file. I actually thought this was a nice one to share. It's an idea of a simple latin groove over some basic changes. I think I play just I-VI-II-V and then move to IV-IVmin and move down chromatic to the one chord.

This is just a basic idea of getting a latin feel playing 4 mallets.

I hope you like it and get some ideas out of this.

Oh, and don't pay attention to the end....

TJ

This is the first of 3 improvisation, which were conducted in a Melbourne city park in the rotunda at midnight in the midst of a ferocious summer storm.
It is the first of many different improvisations i have recorded in different contexual settings around the city of Melbourne, Australia.
The duet contains trombone and vibraphone, and all music is original.
I look forward to any comments,
Rob