Hi Vibesworkshop--

Just wanted to put it out there that my quartet is playing at Cornelia Street Cafe (http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com) on Friday, Feb 27th at 9pm and 10:30. We'll be playing our unique mixture of Irish jigs, reels, and songs with Brazilian rhythms and jazz sensibilities, as well as some great ones by Monk, Bjork, and myself which incorporate traditional Irish feels and timbres in exciting and questionable ways. (This may sound a bit out there, but I think it actually makes for a fun and balanced night of music that most anyone who wants to can enjoy.)

Check out this young guy Alexander Cruz. I met him at PASIC this year. He was playing with an excellent marimba group from Chiapas Mexico called Narimbo:
http://www.narimbo.com/

We started recording our new Monkadelphia CD the other night. At least I think we'll make a cd. We wanted to go into the studio and record and see what happened. We did one rehearsal, hadn't played together for about 2 years. I dig it.

I'll sneak in a track here. All rough mixes. The studio is called Forge and my buddy Victor Baker is going to Engineer the late shift and do affordable sessions for musicians in the area.

The tune is the Monk tune Humph. It's rhythm changes but the A section chords are

2 beats each ->F#7 B7 E7 A7 D7 G7 C7 F7 then Bb for the rest.

An excerpt from a concert we did at a local community college.

For more info on Trio Montuno visit:
http://www.triomontuno.com

Man, I started messing with Dana's Videos, the Mark Levine book and bam, 3 hours later I'm flipping out cause I wanted to hit the sack early tonight.

I think I'm getting it. It's about the 2 outside lines and then how you harmonize THRU a chord.

First the outside line. If you play closed you usually have thirds in the top. Now you move that second voice and you have 10ths. Instead of seconds you have ninths. It's a beautiful sound. More open and spacious.

Maybe this is what is needed to make vibes/marimba more popular ? Dig the showmanship of the bass player (lol)

Made me smile for about 3 seconds....now for something completely different!

I think we've all fallen in love with Joe's tune, 'Sword of Whispers'. I hope you guys all have Joe's CD 'Sticks and Strings'. It's a beautiful CD. Guitar and Vibes were made for each other, and if you didn't know that, this CD will show you. The playing is phenomenal.

I asked Joe if I could write up an arrangement on his tune 'Sword of Whispers' and post it here for subscribers. Joe graciously agreed. So here it is.

I'm also working up a solo version. This tune is so fun to play!

Whoa!

I couldn't wait for Tony's etude so I started working with the Sword of Whispers lead sheet on Joe's site. This is a demo recording to put down some ideas. I was mainly trying to get the notes and some harmonies. I need major work on my rhythm. I tried playing along with http://www.metronomeonline.com/ but it only can help so much.

Anyway, you know where the Stop button is.

Barry