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Now that I have reentered the world of being a musician who is uninterrupted by a day gig, I have been thinking about what I could offer this site. In the recent post about 4 vs. 2 mallet playing, something surfaced. It occurred to me that much of what is presented here focuses on technical aspects of playing the vibes such as grips, stickings, or composing for the vibes (such as the lines or harmonies we create while we improvise). I would like to focus on the aesthetic elements.

Big shout out to Joe's Shoe and Luggage repair on Huntington Pike right outside Philly.

He went above and beyond to help fix up my old (1977) cases for my M55. He put on new handles, fixed up the straps, patched some holes up, and best of all... He did it at a tiny fraction of the cost of new cases.

He says he is game to work on anything. He does zipper work on soft cases and can order handles for anything we got. He is a local, private businessman and very accommodating.

"You Are My Sunshine" - I love the piano trios with pianists like Oscar Peterson, Gene Harris and Monty Alexander. Straight ahead jazz with an easy and swingin' time feel. Also of course in this category would be the Ray Brown trios with Gene Harris, Geoffrey Keezer and Benny Green. Here's a clip with that style in mind.

Check out the Beginning and also check it out at about 42 minutes.

I figured I'd try and record this from memory, despite only starting to memorize it a few days ago. Lots of little technical errors but the goal was to put up something displaying my level of technical competence at this point. My apologies to David for the misplaced notes and errors. I decided to learn this a couple of weeks ago for a concert gig I did last week with a harpist. I needed a little solo piece to include and I found this, and liked it. Anyway, the first video is loaded. Just beginning this journey so lots to learn.

Recorded this on the fly yesterday with the phone for Fourth of July 2018. With some reharm here and there. A beautiful and timeless song.

Way too hot to work in the yard today so I'm in the house playing some vibes. I was running through an Astor Piazzolla book featuring his compositions and came across this song titled "Tango Choc". I'm basically sight reading through this. The song plays itself. Beautiful melody and harmony. I love Astor Piazzolla's music.

Hi Everyone,
July's program is coming up on the 1st (rebroadcast on the 4th) with two new players, John Cocuzzi and Lennie Cuje. Cuje plays on "In Walked Bud," from Ron Holloway's CD Slanted. Cocuzzi plays the ever so wistful "What'll I Do," on his album Groove Merchant.
Dee Dee Bridgewater vocalizes with Milt Jackson, Paul Jost with Tony (the one and only), and Helen Humes with Red Norvo. Severi Pyysalo plays with the Vilka Wahl Quintet, Warren Wolf with the SF Jazz Collective and Tony has an encore on my son Nicholas' original "Big Pharma."

A new song I just finished composing titled "Cinematic Scene". I'm using a new set of my signature mallets (Vic Firth M39) that just arrived in the mail. Very happy how these mallets sound in terms of fullness, color and clarity. The lead sheet can be viewed and downloaded via Google Docs: Here's the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_earYPvM3TsS0DU5OmqsFe5UcSDYSKxh/view