Hey everyone!

I've landed quite a few gigs this year, and the fact that they keep coming made me realize there's a lesson here for newish vibes players. When I joined VWS I wasn't brave enough to do what I am now, so I'm writing this for anyone who is like I was. Here's my timeline:

-Two years ago, I didn't play out much. The Albany jazz scene is small but it exists, I just didn't think I was "good enough" to hang. It seemed like an impenetrable wall I could only break through if I memorized 50 tunes, learned modes, altered chords, tritone subs, etc.

I was fooling around with a major montuno and put a melody to it while keeping the pattern going. I went to the piano to work some things out and my daughter rushes in saying, "What's that"? All proud of myself I said it was a song I wrote. Then she realized what it was and said, that's "Bring Him Home" from "Les Mis". Doh! :-( Well, I thought I wrote it. I played an octave, then a couple of notes after that, then answered with a few other notes, etc. Simple stuff. Anyway, I think I wrote the bridge myself...let me know otherwise.

Check out the audio. It's the solo from Sibelius with a click. You should put in the chords and analyze the notes a little bit. You'll notice in the first chorus, no flat nines or altered anything. I saved it for the second chorus.

Also use a metronome but put it on 2 and four!

Here's a great video about a vibe player I knew nothing about. However he plays great and is a great guy.

But I'll let John Keene tell the story, it's a bit tragic. John turned me onto the video.

Dedicated to the great Charlie Haden

This jpg is a manuscript of an exercise I have been doing daily for a while now. I think its kinda cool they way the shape of the scale wraps around which in turn really twist the scale into other ideas ...

Hi,
this is my 4th song of my new studio project.
i had fun doing the audio but not the video...but i think it´s important.

Warning! This Video contains shocking images against animals, which happens everday all over the world. don´t close your eyes...don´t be to blind to see...stop eating meat !

for those of you who want to close your eyes i will also upload just the audio...

tarik