The Delaware Workshop last week was great. The instructors were patient, but they pushed us. The playing was (always) enthusiastic and (sometimes) superb, and the opportunity to learn from other students by playing duets, by getting and giving critique, that was priceless. The Afro-Cuban presentation by Gina Ferrara on authentic Ghanaian marimba, and the xylophone show Sat night were awesome showing a wide range of mallet music. So I return home inspired to practice and play gigs.

Practice:

I just attended my first workshop (Jazz improv on the vibes) with Tony Miceli, Benh Gillece and David Friedman in Delaware. As a relative newcomer to the instrument I wasn't quite sure whether the workshop was for me. That doubt was removed within the first few minutes of meeting everyone and working with the group. There was a wide variety of talent and interests, yet it seemed to work for everyone. All of the masters made sure no one gets left behind, and while I can't speak for the very advanced players, I think they also got a lot out of the week.

If you missed this year's Vibes Workshop at the University of Delaware, you missed a lot. This was the third one and in many ways, I think it was the best one yet. Tony gave us some solid playing ideas and techniques while David Freidman took us through solo playing using an exercise he made up on the spot - totally amazing. Behn Gillece dropped in one afternoon to provide some instruction too.

I am currently looking to invest into a pro vibe. Before hand I used a Ross from the school I taught at to play gigs. I am looking for a good vibe to gig and move around alot, but I don't want to compromise sound. I am asking to get info from people who have used top of the line models. I am looking at either the M48 or the M55 from my understanding the M55 is the standard. Yamaha, I have done some research but cannot really narrow it down to some models I can look at. I do not really see many prime artists play with Adams.

As Drew stated, THE master in solo vibes is Gary! Here is the obvious example to show with Chega de Saudade. I added a few other remarkable examples I found on Youtube, to... first listen to the different kind of solo playings! Feel free to add comments... and other examples! (ps: too bad we can't find anymore Mainieri's Lush Life solo beautiful version!)

Hi Vibesworkshop,

Last week, Dimitri and I spontaneously organized a gig in Thessaloniki, as I was there for a few days to give a talk at the ICMPC conference (International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition).

We could luckily put up this gig together, rehearse and play in front of (I think) the nicest audience EVER : people who came from the conference specially to listen to us !

There is one more video (unfortunately incomplete) and a lot of audio that Dimitri will post later.

Enjoy !

All the best,

Nico Farrugia