Something cool and interesting about Walt. I'm having an email discussion with VW member John Keene and we are talking about a few different vibe players.

I listen to there lines and listen to how clear they are. Right? What's the sound? Are they playing the sound. I listen for that. Probably because I'm worried about it when I play. Am I listening to the band? Am I capturing the sound.

This is my solo vibraphone attempt on the well known standard For Heaven's Sake, by Don Meyer (I love this piece). 1 chorus for the theme, 1 chorus for improvising, 1 A section to wrap up the tune. I played in the changes, and tried to play around the theme for my solo.

If you have the time to listen to it, please give me feedback, whatever it is, beacause I don't have a lot of occasions to play the vibraphone publicly!

Thank you!

Victor B.

P.S: recorded past midnight, with few hours of sleep last night... finals rush!

The "vinyl" I had of double Image was worn out in a week! Beautiful music!

Clip of "All The Things You Are" with Tim Ray on piano and myself on vibes. This was from a concert last week at the Sahara Club in Methuen, MA. They have a jazz series named Jocko's Jazz that has been going on every Tuesday night for many years. Great appreciation to Jocko Arcidiacono for supporting jazz and jazz musicians for so many years in this area. Thanks also to Jocko's wife Anne and to Dick for taping the proceedings. Such a great audience. They listen and really appreciate the music. Lastly, thanks to the great pianist Tim Ray. It was such a treat for me.

Check out my chord melody. Can you come up with a different one?

Another study of upper partials based on the tune Minority. Write the chords in and then study the notes and see what they are.

Check out all the triads in the solo that don't relate to the main triad of the chord.

I.E. the chord is F7 and I play a D maj triad. Get it? It looks like a triad. but it's the 13th the b9 and the 5th of the chord.

Remember: One way to tell how experienced a jazz vibe play is is to listen to how far up the chords they go in the solos. How comfortable are they in making melodies out of the upper partials of the chords.

Fill in the chords yourself :-). It will help you study the harmony. Write in all the upper partials. You can do it!

Minority is a study of 9ths and 13ths, the upper parts of the chords. So this is a study in upper partials!

I knew the guitar player here. I talked about knowing someone from Gong in another post, but I couldn't remember who. They were playing in Marlton, NJ and then I remember the guitar player lived in Moorestown, very close by.

This is cool. The vibes seem not to be micd? maybe from underneath. but you can really hear him! pretty cool.
HE IS IN FRONT OF THE BAND AND THE AMPS!!!!

btw - John Keene found this for me! John is our vibes workshop historian. he knows a TON about the history of all this!