The Nearness of You - listening to the great and one of a kind pianist Art Tatum today on the drive into Boston. Still unbelievable every time I listen to him. Working on the left hand and the straight four to the bar feel on this classic Hoagy Carmichael song.

Does anyone have recommendations for 4-mallet pieces of grad school level? Anything that's common in auditions or that's just good music? I'm working on a Bach cello suite that's nice for 2 mallets, but I'd like something that necessitates 4. Could be stuff written for vibes or anything else; I have no complaints with transposing, I'm actually playing the G cello suite in C to make better use of the vibes low range.

Thanks to Mark Cochran

Inspired last week from the beautiful melody and harmony of this piece written (for organ) by Bach for the church and performed in 1792. I was especially inspired by the brilliant 1976 interpretation of the great pianist Alfred Brendel. I sketched out a lead sheet with melody and chords based upon the music. This is my interpretation from the lead sheet.

My first vibe was an M55 that I played up until I built the first Piper Vibe. Here's the receipt from Manny's from 1974. The instrument was delivered to me at Berklee where I was a second year student. Gary was my teacher and it seems like yesterday. I customized that instrument with pedal spurs, MBraces and bladder-filled damper pad and then sold it around 1994 somewhere in Nebraska. Here's the receipt just for fun. Brand new, $850.00

Yeah, they got my name wrong.