Skip to main content

Blue Bossa by Stefan Vdb

Hey all,
I haven't been around here for a while. I know I know, no dessert for me.

I worked on a chapter in Jon Metzger's book called digital riffs.

At the end of each chapter there is a list of some tunes where you can aply the technique. I tried it on Blue Bossa.
I got the playalong track from www.learnjazzstandards.com.

I'm not really happy with the result. You can hear I'm not used to playing with others (even if it is on tape)

Great new mallet prototypes by Balter

Hey VW,

Wanted to share a video with some fantastic new mallet prototypes made for me by Mike Balter... these have been inspiring me to play!

Mike & I have been talking about this over the years, but recently he came up with something that really hit it out of the park. Nobody is really making anything like it, as far as I know.

Sorry the audio on here could be better, but you can still hear how good they sound. They are designed to work well with the pickups.

Cheers,
Steve

Questions by John Keene: Odyseey of Iska by Wayne Shorter, In pursuit of the 27th man by Horace Silver, Laura Nyro.

'Odyssey of Iska' came about when Wayne called me personally to play on new album. I was, of course, thrilled beyond belief to asked to play on such a project with those great musicians. Wayne wanted to try electric vibes, which I had been experimenting a bit with with Hubert Law's band. Maybe Wayne heard the recording I did with Hubert and was intrigued. Although I used the vibe pickups occasionally, I wasn't confident with the set up, amp, etc. So, my friend guitarist Steve Khan, came to the session with me and helped me set up, adjust the amp, etc..

Jacques A Dit - French ballad (guitar/voice)

Dear all,

It seems to me like ages... life has kept me soooo busy, that I couldn't follow up all the great posts, efforts, music pieces, comments, encouragements, actions to promote our dear instrument. It feels no good inside, but "that's life".

This year again I finally could play at "Music Day" June 21st in my father's church, with my guitarist friend Bernard, and for one tune my son Florian joining... but no vibes this year... only my voice was "available" to bring the emotions.

TOTM - Chi Chi - Etude No. 1 "Extracting Parts From The Melody"

In this etude, I have played the melody first. In the next chorus, the etude portion is a series of lines for soloing that I've taken from the melody. Compare the second chorus to the first.

When you learn bebop tunes, try to change around the lines as much as you can to create your own lines. Also, check for spots where you can start a line on a different beat; that really helps to find new rhythmic momentum. Enjoy!