General

So, I played a gig with a new band this weekend and afterwards and during I got a million comments to the effective of, "wow, the vibes sound cool! You add some great color behind the soloists. I didn't know you could do that with vibes" -- from the musicians as well as the audience.

Now all of this was very gratifying but of course, I KNOW that vibes sound cool already -- that's why I play it! It's amazing how many people have no idea what a vibraphone can do, even other musicians. And especially what a 4-mallet, chord-oriented vibist can do.

Thank you Mike Balter for making this years workshop a big success!!!

Hey everyone, To reaffirm my belief in the value of composing alternate melodies, I'd like to offer up a Free CD of mine to the first two people to post an alternate melody to any of the Tunes of the Month that we have gone over on the site! Post a lead sheet and an audio recording of you playing the melody if possible!

Life has gotten in the way of my music interests but I still try to get to my music room a couple of times a week.

This is a long read but intriguing, would love to hear comments on this

http://www.theirishstory.com/2011/07/01/the-anti-jazz-campaign/#.TiLskl…

John

This is a complete version, with the first part (kind of verse for american people), by Yves Montand, one of the best french singers, who created the song (not exactly, there was another version before, but which didn't do the tremendous hit of Montand's one).
Since the lyrics are a poem of Jacques Prévert, if you sing the song in french, it's a nonsense not to sing both parts.
I felt anyone would know all that. Enjoy !
(Oh ! I don't have any idea who is the vibist...)

In the past year, it's been a project of mine to get to a place where I can play as effortlessly over odd meters (11, 13, 15 and 17) as in 4, 3, 5 and 7. This is the result of having checked it out for a few months. So this vid dates back to about March of 2010. Since then, it has become like second nature. In fact I enjoy playing over those extended odd meters more than anything else. I have my good friend Katisse to thank for getting me involved with this stuff. If you have any questions as to how to practice this or some thoughts of your own, please feel free to post.

Here is a link to a youtube video of a Hal Galper master class about inner hearing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_7DgCrziI8

Man am I excited! First Joe Locke then Terry Gibbs, NOW GARY! Detroit doesn't get many big name vibists coming to town so every chance I get to see one of the greats I don't pass it up.

I had the opportunity to meet Joe when he played with his Milt Jackson tribute band. Unfortunately I didn't meet Terry but I sure hope I can meet Gary just to say hi and maybe get a pic with him.

http://www.detroitjazzfest.com/11lineup.html