In my first video post (3 Ballads) I opened with a solo rendition of Chick Corea’s “Children’s Song.” The tune is a great exercise in building independence between the two hands, with the left hand playing an ostinato and the right playing the melody. As one person pointed out, the piece has a kind of Mbira (African thumb piano) quality to it. I was drawn to the tune for that very reason — to try and bridge the gap between the jazz repertoire and world-music styles.

This is amazing and I actually got a little choked up to come online and 8 other mini concerts! It's a chance for us to perform and us to listen. Mini concerts are when you play 2 or more pieces with out stopping.

So with this mini concert you can sit and listen to about a concerts worth of vibe players performing. It's incredible to me and such a statement of dedication. Preparing for this is as challenging as preparing to play a few tunes on an actual concert. As far as work, there's not much difference.

“On the Sunnyside of the Street” - one of my favorite standards played here with a nod to the great pianist Art Tatum. There was a period when I was heavily into pianists like Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Dave McKenna and Dick Hyman. All masters of the piano and where I got a lot of inspiration.

Well, I didn't spend enough time practicing the "concert" part, but these are the tunes I've been working on:

Falling Grace

Very Early

Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues Are

16 bars of fun with Chromatics, Accents, Scales,
Arpeggios, Stickings, pedaling and Control!

Approximately:
On Green Dolphin Street
My Song
Invitation

When Roy Hardgrove passed, i thought it maybe would be a good idea to play something of him for the mini concert. I founded an Roy's arrangment of Autumn Leaves, I transcribed it quickly and i had a try recording it with Alone Togeher, which i hadn't played since last August. Then i practised hard about 10 days and Yesterday was my final recording, as planned. But the on/off button of my ZOOM Q3 recorder choosed this exact time to quit.... Lot of frustration...

This past summer I recorded some of my favorite standards as individual tracks and strung them together in a number of “mini-concerts.” This second video in the series features three ballads: Everything I Have is Yours (Burton Lane), I Thought About You (Jimmy Van Heusen), and My One and Only Love (Guy Wood).

Here is my December 2018 Mini Concert performed on my Deagan 580 (narrow bar) Vibraharp. I made two versions with different mallets. The posted version is with Tony's soft 46Rs. The attached version is with Mike Balter 23Rs.