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ANNOUNCEMENT I HAVE BEEN LONGING TO MAKE. -- NOW AN UPDATE

AT LONG LAST I CAN MAKE THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT I HAVE LONGED FOR.

In regards to my cancer situation. I have had the cryotherapy and then had complications. I have had infections and now only have one left to clear up. The additional operation I was expecting to have, has been ruled out because the medication and rest therapy is working and working well.

By February 1st, I plan to begin my regimen of restarting my practice and retraining of my vibraphone skills, hopefully including some vids. In seven months, I hope to have regained most of my abilities in playing the vibes.

"Hammer" technique on vibes - part 1

Here’s a technique I use called “hammers” – it’s a guitar embellishment technique that works nice on the vibe, giving a sort of note bending effect.

Early Gary Burton records such as “country roads” show him using this “sound”- that’s how I learned of it

It’s one of those “sounds” you use sparingly. The audio here is pretty lo-fi but you’ll get the idea

Part 1 shows the technique
Part 2 shows the technique used over Blackbird, and Bluesette

Blues in F (Gary Burton) by Philippe Briand

Hi everybody, I bet you're all familiar with this video of Gary Burton playing F blues. It's on YouTube, as well as on the Vic Firth site. I tried my ear at transcribing the first chorus, and turned it into a Band-Box file. It's great stuff. It shows how Gary approaches every chord in the progression from the 7th chord a half-step (or step) below or above. He does this consistantly thoughout his solo. Perhaps some of would like to take a look at this transcription. Many of you, I am sure, will be able to play it as a kind of etude. For me, it's much too hard.

Duet with Joe Locke & Martial Solal (Umbria 2008)

Hi again,

I'm just back from our hang, and in the middle of it I got a message from Umbria Jazz Festival (Italy) alerting me about a new very very fresh video of Joe!

I knew Joe was to play a duet with amazing french pianist Martial Solal (FYI, MS is 81 years old, and 20 in his fingers!). I had asked and they very nicely sent me an email with weblink!

Here is a sample of that gig, which took place today at 4 p.m. western Europe time... which is... some 5 hours ago!

Don't they both look like kids in a playground?!!

Enjoy! :o)

The Peacock by Joe Locke

Oh man!

I just found the freshest news from one of Joe's very recent performances at Umbria (Italy). This video was just posted today. The gig can only be one or two days old! There's Bob Cranshaw on double bass (!), Joe Labarbera on drums and surely Dado Moroni on piano...

Oh man! Isn't that great! A postcard from Italy! :o)

PS: enjoy, but get ready, the vid is "inhumanly" cut! :o( Never mind! It's beautiful!