Hi Everyone!

I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I'd throw something up here from my end of semester recital in June this year.

Basically the deal with it was you choose 3 tunes walk in and play with a staff rhythm section, so its kind of like a fill in gig simulation.

Would love to hear some feedback :)

James

Check out 13 year old guitarist Andreas Varady. He's amazing.

Hang for the whole vid if you can, because the second tune we do is Giant Steps and he tears it up!

Earlier this year my wife decided that it was time to get a master's degree so we sat down and looked at a few places. We visited the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The faculty that evaluated her audition were gracious enough to admit her into the program. She is a great player!

Last week we made the epic road trip from Muncie, IN to Vancouver, BC. I've been emailing people in the area about finding a job, playing gigs, and teaching gigs.

A deal is a deal. John sent me this great Premier t-shirt... I was to post a picture of me with it on the site... But I couldn't take it without Tony's mallets!! (sorry for the silly pose! Oh jeez... this is ridiculous haha!! ;-)

Hmm... btw, aren't we waiting for some guys with cool Tie-dye tee-shirts on and Tony's mallets too? Huh?

"Parole, parole parole!"... pff...

- M

PS: Johnny? I owe you a kiss next time we meet! ;-)

I talk a little about the Bird blues changes. I always thought of them as a rebellion to the blues. It's harder to play the blues over them and it forces you to really play through the changes.

Man about what we did this summer. We got 7 vibe players to come to Ireland and work on the vibes. We have 17 (19? I forget) vibe players coming to the University of Delaware and we're rounding up about 15 sets of vibes and a bunch of marimbas. Oh man!!!

I figured when I started this that if we could all come together and work hard together that we could really make some cool things happen. I always think that the better we get the better it is for the instrument. It's a cool instrument to start with and when we play it well it's cooler!

Mike Balter has generously donated about 50 pair of mallets to the workshop. So we'll have some give aways!!

Mike is such a great and generous guy! Thank you SO MUCH MIKE!!

Hello everyone! Here is something for the odd meter addicts! From my point of view the "Gently Disturbed" album by Avishai Cohen is one of the best JazzTrio albums from the past decade! I hope you liked what we made of it by adding the vibes. If you have the feeling that I am always playing the same - fast forward to 3:45 where I am soloing over those crazy meter changes...Have fun with the 9/16, 9/16, 9/16, 5/16 feel within a 4/4 meter!
I attached the score . for the "better" understanding : )

Hey guys,

Here's a clip of an old classic tune called "Sweet Lorraine" which has been recorded by such pianists Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson and Nat King Cole as well as sung by Frank Sinatra and many other vocalists.

The tune has quite a bit of changes including many extended dominants. There's some nice guide tone lines throughout the changes. I try to bring those out either in the left hand comping on in the line.

Here's a video of what we brought in after the first wave of vibe moving.
This is for the Delaware workshop 2010.