This is an extended range vibraphone that I co-designed with Sonor in 1994. It was important to me that this instrument go down to Low E, so much easier to work in guitar keys which is almost everything in groove/reggae/rock type musics. Since we were at it I extended the upper range to G, for similar reasons, easier to work in guitar keys.
http://www.edmann.info/Sonor325_Vibraphone.html

Deagan 592 1978 Ed Mann, see http://www.edmann.info/Deagan594.html

Here’s a clip of Philippe and me playing Bronislau Kaper’s composition Invitation. It’s an unusual standard in terms of the melody, harmony and form. The A section has long durations of minor 6th chords which allow for some nice, open type of playing. The bridge has more conventional II-7 V7s resolving to minor 6th chords. The melody is quite angular and filled with rich tension over the underlying harmony. That’s what makes it such a great tune to play. Nice melody and harmony. Not to mention the ABA form with a tag ending.

Here’s a version of Philippe and me playing Henry Mancini’s The Days of Wine and Roses. It’s a fun tune to solo on since the changes are so interesting to maneuver through. We play the first part of the tune in F and then modulate in the second half to Ab which gives the tune a lift. The great pianist Bill Evans played it this way. Also, Joe plays it this way on his tribute album to Mancini which by the way is a fantastic recording and one of my favorite recordings of Joe.

So I'm heading out this week to do workshops in Ireland and Holland.

This is great and I'm psyched. In Ireland I'll have a very small group of vibe players, maybe 2 or 3. However I'm also doing an improv workshop which will have about 8 or 9 students after the vibesworkshop. We'll work for a few days and then do a concert. I'm excited and love teaching improv workshops.

Then I head to the Vanderplas factory and we should have about 5 or 6 vibe students there.

Here are a few lessons on Triad Pairs. Pretty cool stuff.

This piece can be done solo (both parts) or as a duet. Because the melody is mostly arpeggios you can leave the pedal down a lot and get a nice full sound. There isn't much mallet dampening you need to do, again, because of all the arpeggios that make up the 2 parts. The tempo marking can be adjusted up or down as you need. The piece sounds pretty good either slower or faster, which makes it a great piece for players at all skill levels.

August 1st vibes workshop will be 1 year old. It's been a very hard and fun year. I've mad so many friends from all over the world and we have this instrument in common. That's totally cool.

The site is slowly growing and things are starting to happen. I think next year will be an even better year. It's great that many of you are willing to support the site as you do. I think we're going to build something great.

Check out David Friedman's CDs

Since we've been talking about Tango and authenticity in other genres of improvised music, I thought I'd contribute these three pieces from an album I did with Bandoneonist, Dino Saluzzi called "Rios" on Intuition records, with Anthony Cox on bass and myself on marimba. This is actually the piece that demonstrates floating time, not "Fulano de Tal", which is an improvised tango over a set of chord changes. Also, on Fulano de Tal" I overdubbed percussion.