A quick & dirty video of a tune I haven't played for a long time. A couple friends were killing on this last night at the local jazz club so I wanted to relearn it!
This 4-mallet balafon improvisation, from my CD “The Turning,” marks my first attempt to use 4 heavy balafon mallets to fire up groove and energy in 4/4. The 4-mallet approach on the more ancient instrument inspired the idea to incorporate other mallets on vibes, beginning my experimentation with leather-headed mallets custom made in India (my “3 ballads” post tells more of the leather mallet story). To build the Woodwork arrangement, I layered wood-related percussion including cajon, cascara (sticks), clave and seed pods.
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" by Felix Mendelssohn - A solo vibraphone rendition of this classic for the holidays. Here's my take on it with some "off the cuff" theme and variations as well as a little counterpoint. Hope you enjoy it. Happy Holidays!
hey, sorry i'm late...
i did:
folks on the hill
lulu swing
and xmas time is here
except with folks on the hill, i tried to play songs that i've never played live in a solo version so i have nothing arrangend. that makes it more challening to me.
critic meeee... ;)
In my first video post (3 Ballads) I opened with a solo rendition of Chick Corea’s “Children’s Song.” The tune is a great exercise in building independence between the two hands, with the left hand playing an ostinato and the right playing the melody. As one person pointed out, the piece has a kind of Mbira (African thumb piano) quality to it. I was drawn to the tune for that very reason — to try and bridge the gap between the jazz repertoire and world-music styles.
“On the Sunnyside of the Street” - one of my favorite standards played here with a nod to the great pianist Art Tatum. There was a period when I was heavily into pianists like Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Dave McKenna and Dick Hyman. All masters of the piano and where I got a lot of inspiration.
Well, I didn't spend enough time practicing the "concert" part, but these are the tunes I've been working on:
Falling Grace
Very Early
Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues Are
Approximately:
On Green Dolphin Street
My Song
Invitation
When Roy Hardgrove passed, i thought it maybe would be a good idea to play something of him for the mini concert. I founded an Roy's arrangment of Autumn Leaves, I transcribed it quickly and i had a try recording it with Alone Togeher, which i hadn't played since last August. Then i practised hard about 10 days and Yesterday was my final recording, as planned. But the on/off button of my ZOOM Q3 recorder choosed this exact time to quit.... Lot of frustration...
This past summer I recorded some of my favorite standards as individual tracks and strung them together in a number of “mini-concerts.” This second video in the series features three ballads: Everything I Have is Yours (Burton Lane), I Thought About You (Jimmy Van Heusen), and My One and Only Love (Guy Wood).