Here is a recording of a rehearsal I had today. I don't know if many people enjoy listening to this, but I have fun playing it. Sorry about the talking at the beginning, I was trying to tell the bass player something but he went ahead and started.

I think Joe Locke talked about creating your masterpiece or chipping away at it in one of his lessons.

I think we should always be creating our masterpieces, that is playing something where we're creating a final product of some sort. If you're not doing that, then I don't know how you're going to grow.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120260191
Christian McBride live tonight 9:00 et. at the vangaurd including Warren Wolf -vibes

Man I listened to some Bud a while back and it got me hooked on the sound of going to the one chord from a half step above. Like Db to C. I love that sound and have been pulling it out all over the place. It's pretty cool. It's sort of like getting to the tri tone sub all the time.

Then I played a little gig with John Ellis (sax) over the weekend. And man he is a line manipulator! Being in that frame of reference and then listening to him was a great experience for me. It gave me so much to think about. It's kind of like being chromatic in a diatonic way. Does that make sense?

A quick lesson to get you thinking about surrounding notes!

This is beautiful. Listen to David's ballad playing. The way he comps and solos.

I love the clarity of the chords, the way he I can hear melodies in his chords. The way his lines move the ballad in his solo. This is great stuff.

Hey Everyone,

We are starting to restructure the Online Books that contain all of the lesson material, performances etc etc. The amount of stuff on the site is really getting so overwhelming that it seemed needed to restructure all the posts in a better way to be able to find stuff easily.

We are now trying to organize content in 5 books. In this way everyone will be able to find stuff.

The 5 books are:

1. The Member Book - check out our members!
- In this book we will archive all performaces by members. So audio and Video.

2. The Good Vibes Lesson Book

Apart from the regular production, last couple of weeks we spent a lot of time on redesigning the electronics for the motorsystem of the LW-series, and finishing the new 3 octaves vibe model.

Both are done now, and the first LW with the new motorsystem goes out this week.
The upgrade is huge!!!

With the previous motor system, the software controlling the motor itself was spread over 2 parts/devices, being the touchpanel taking care of the user interface, and the servo controller taking care of everything involving driving the motor system.

Dick and Jimmy Odgren are two excellent jazz musicians that were part of the Berklee scene in the 1970s. Jimmy did a stint with the Gary Burton Quartet. They are both fine composers and one tune I've always enjoyed is one of Dick's tunes titled "Bossamba". I've included a lead sheet and an mp3 of a piano accompaniment (4 choruses) for you to play along with. The head has a couple of tricky lines, and the whole thing moves along at a nice clip.
I recorded this back in the mid 90s. I can't believe I've been playing this tune for about 35 years! Yikes!

A friend of my Michael Varner is coming to Boston. He wants to meet up with the following. (He teaches down in Texas I think at University of Arlington.)

First, Jazz vibraphone, its teaching and performance skills.
Second, world music, specifically examining performance ensembles and ethnomusicology classes.

Of course I recommended Ed, and then said to check out if Victor has a Latin Ensemble at the school.