For me it's about my 12th year teaching at the college. Man I think Ed Saindon is going on 20+ something. Maybe even 30!!
It's always fascinating for me to start the year off. I know I have certain stereotypes and I'm always curious to see which ones will hold and if any will break.
You're Practicing Everything.
One of my favorite quotes. My mentor Steve Giordano told me that.
I thought I'd put that out there to see what it means to you guys.
hi all .....
its been a while since ive been on the site. The roots Reggae band that im playing Keyboards in has been travel almost every weekend. We are also goin to be backing " Studio one jamaician reggae legend NORMA FRASER, soon.
Since my wife and i moved down to southern oregon. my musical adventures have been primarily as a keyboardist .. playing B3, clav and other sounds ....also expanding into the use of my laptop on stage via reason 4 for some sampling and LIVE Dubbing....
So I took my usual daily walk, my meager attempt at exercising and a chance to listen to music. Classical music is the most difficult to listen to on the streets of Philly. Those damn trucks. And then the cab drivers and their horns. I wish it was legal to carry and use a shot gun, if only to blow out tires.
The workshop seemed to be a success! Its not everyday that you get to meet guys like Joe Locke, Tony Miceli, Mike Pinto, Dana Sudborough, and Randy Sutin. It was a bit nerve racking to have to follow these performances at the vibe hang. Those guys are real heavy weights. Hopefully next time I'll be able to hold my own.
Joe Locke is THE hippest guy I've ever met. He has now become one of my major role models. Meeting and talking to him was such a blessing. I hope I can meet him again sometime.
I really enjoyed visitng Tony's workshop @ the University of the Arts this past weekend in
Philadelphia. I enjoyed what I heard and it was a pleasure meeting all of the vibists who attended. The atmosphere was casual and relaxed, but I liked the fact that everyone came to work, and were serious about learning.
Tony's making a great contribution to our instrument with www.vibesworkshop.com and now also with events such as the Philadelphia Weekend Workshop, which affords vibists the opportunity to meet and grow in real-time.
I had a great time at the Philly workshop and this was for many reasons. First just hanging with guys and talking about the instrument for 2 days was great. However I also like being an observer and watching Joe, Dana and Mike do their thing, and see people getting excited.
Just to see the participants digging the classes was a thrill, because I know that guys are going home to practice, and I know that they left inspired. That's a huge deal.
Earlier today I was recalling my experiences with French jazz violinist Stephane Grappelly. I made one recording with Stephane and while it is far from earth-shattering, it remains a sentimental favorite of mine. I met Stephane rather serendipitously at a Newport Jazz Festival, and at the time I knew very little about him. I associated his name with the Hot Club of France, a legendary French jazz group led by guitarist Django Reinhardt, a group that came to fame in the 1930's and ended in 1939 because of World War II .
So I've played for a few years and never had a problem breaking strings (although I've only been doing professional gigs for about 8 months). I got a set of Albrights recently and have broken the string on the vibes 3 times in the past month. I had a gig last night where we played 4 sets and I was using a set of med soft albrights. they are pretty soft so I have to hammer the notes out a bit, but not ridiculously. During the second set I realized that the string between my F# and Ab was near failure.
Today I took Bud Powell, NHOP and I forget the drummer on my walk. These walks are great for me because I get to listen to a whole cd and I get exercise both of which I don't do enough of.
One thing I do when I listen is take an instrument and imagine it was being played on the vibes. Would it work? Do I need more mallets? I just imagine.
Bud in a way works out. Those simple voicings in the left hand are perfect. Most are 2 and 3 voicings. We can whittle one note out of that and even 2 if we have to.