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I spent a week here in Ireland and we had a great time. I worked with some hard working players and we really dug into the vibes. I learned a lot from hanging and working with these guys!

So off the Delaware. Another 21 players studying acoustic and electronic vibes! It's always pretty amazing to me to see all these players who love this instrument and want to work so hard on it.

Ireland was incredible! We worked 5 days, from morning until night on the instrument. All the players Played the vibe hang and did a concert last night. So this was a great week!

Just a little advanced notice that we'll have an open house on thursday August 2nd, at the University of Delaware during our vibesworkshop workshop.

So if you're around plan on coming down and meeting everyone and hanging with us. Dave Friedman will be there, as will Bob Becker and some other players. Maybe some guys like Randy Sutin, Or Behn will show. All are welcome!!

(@Bruce Wells - the date i'm pretty sure is correct! I didn't screw this on up)

Any ideas on what to study next? What to study?

I was thinking of spending some time on solo playing. Really working out chord melody stuff, lines, but from the aspect of playing solo.

I really believe that great players can all play solo. They can play something with no accompaniment, even if playing solo is not their forte. That means they know how it all works and how to work it on the instrument.

So that's one idea. Any others??

I have been working my butt off. Lots of work which is good. You know I've made a transition over the last few years. I used to do tons of corporate stuff $$$$, but that has died. There are a bunch of good lookin' guys (like Behn) around who are hustling. Not just vibe players but also piano players and guitar players.

That's cool with me, I do think there's enough work to go around for all who are actively seeking it and all that know how to play their instruments. That's way it should be and I think that's the way it is.

yea, in SC, where I came from... it is 113
also I have a question for you, if you have a second to spare

wow, that's crazy. sure, fire away.

10:00am
so I was listening to the version of ATTYA you posted on vibesworkshop
the one that has a lot of "out" colors to it
the more I listen to it, the more I see it's brilliance

yes, the one that sounds like I'm playing the wrong changes. Ha!Ha!

it is a work of art, Ed
it really is

thanks

and what really drives everything home, I feel like, is the feel
it feels so good
and that is where my question lies
feel

I'm sitting here listening to Clifford Brown practicing over Cherokee. He's working out his s***. I did this because I was working out my stuff on cherokee this morning since I'll have to play it in Korea in August! I'm going to start practicing it now. While in Ireland doing a tribute to MJQ, I'm going to play it on the gigs. Just throw it in (John Daly start working on you FAST tempos). So I'll be working on this for the next 60 days.

Happy Birthday Tony!!

I haven't been around but I think I still managed to be the first to congratulate you... haha pretty funny. Anyway out here is your birthday for already an hour or so.

Hope you all are having a blast out here while I'm changing diapers!

Cu all some more soon!

TJ

i can bring over a malletKat if anyone is interested. you won't get one cheaper than this across the pond there. so if you're interested, let me know! you will save a LOT of money.

Margie Hyams, 91, a vibraphonist who played with bandleaders Woody Herman and George Shearing as well as with her own jazz trio in the 1940s, died Thursday of renal failure at Arcadia Methodist Hospital, said her daughter Lisa Ericsson. Born Aug. 9, 1920, in New York, Hyams played the vibes with Herman's First Herd in 1944 and '45, then formed a trio and also appeared with Mary Lou Williams and Charlie Ventura until 1949, when she was invited to join Shearing, the blind piano virtuoso.

...just thinking out loud and letting ya'll know what I'm up to at the moment.

I've been sight reading every day for the last month or so. I just print 6 or 8 pages of a solo or something I find online, turn on a metronome and go.