The Second Annual Steve Weiss Mallet Festival!
This workshop will take place on Zoom.
Vibraphone (Vibe Track 1 - $350)
All participants of Vibe Track 1 get $50 Weiss dollars to spend on the Steve Weiss Online Store!
- As far as the vibes part of the workshop, there will be 2 main classes. One (approximately) from 10am-12pm EDT - 14:00-16:00 UTC
- Then a break for practicing.
- The second class will be from 2pm-4pm EDT - 18:00-20:00 UTC
- We will have online concerts during the week. They will usually take place at around 5:00pm EDT - 22:00 UTC or 12:30pm EDT - 16:30 UTC Concerts will be announced closer to the actual workshop.
ASIA (Vibe Track 2 Asia/Australia - $150)
給亞洲地區學生的課程會在中原標準時間（台灣時間）每天早上9點到11點；13-15 UTC
如果你有任何問題，寫信給我，你可以用中文寫，但記得要用你的正確的信箱喔！
There will be a class for people in Asia, each morning from 9am-11am Chungyuan Standard Time | 13-15 UTC
한국과 아시아 지역에는 하루에 한번씩 한국 시간으로 오전 10시부터 12시까지 열리는 특별한 수업이 있습니다. 이 아시안 트랙 수업의 비용은 $150 입니다.
We will use a Google Classroom to put the material in for each day. Material will be up before the workshop so you can get a head start on everything. We will work on a tune each day, voicings, harmony, lines, technique, dampening, pedalling and on and on trying to cover as much as we can and leave you with lots of study and materials to work with.
Keep an eye out here for more info. I'll add new information here from time to time.
Here is the schedule
Monday, August 3, 2020
ASIA/Australia
9am-11am TST
9:00am-11:00am TST
- Chien Chien Lu first hour
- Exercises and Warm-ups. If you’re not playing all the time, then I feel you need to do some warm-up exercises to keep your hands in shape.
- Chord basics
- Progression of the day is Maj Triads
- Free Improv and ways to make it tonal
U.S. - Europe
10am-12pm EDT / 14:00 UTC - 16:00 UTC
- Tune of the Day is 'So What'
Progression of the day is Maj Triads
Exercises and warm ups
Notes of the Vibes
Basic chords, lead sheets
Improvising tonally and free
2pm - 4pm EDT / 18:00-20:00 UTC
- The Blues
- Dampening and Pedaling
- Open Closed Voicings
- Rootless Voicings
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
ASIA/Australia
9:00am-11:00am TST
- Chien Chien Lu first hour
- Progression of the day - Minor chords
Modes and how to make an improvisation around them.
10am-12pm EDT / 14:00 UTC - 16:00 UTC
- David Friedman
2pm - 4pm EDT / 18:00-20:00 UTC
- David Friedman
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
ASIA/Australia
9:00am-11:00am TST
- Chien Chien Lu first hour
- Tune of the Day is 'Blue Bossa'
- Progression of the day is 2 5's
- Tony - Comping, Choosing Modes and Chords
U.S. - Europe
10am-12pm EDT / 14:00 UTC - 16:00 UTC
Tune of the Day is 'Blue Bossa'
Progression of the day is 2 5's
Modes
Ears - Notes of the Vibes
Transcribing
2pm - 4pm EDT / 18:00-20:00 UTC
Comping
Independence
Lines
Thursday, August 6, 2020
ASIA/Australia
9:00am-11:00am TST
- Chien Chien Lu first hour
- progression of the day diminished and altered progressions
- Shell Voicings
- Diminished Scales
- Altered Scales
U.S. - Europe
10am-12pm EDT / 14:00 UTC - 16:00 UTC
- How to study a tune
- Melody
- Chords
2pm - 4pm EDT / 18:00-20:00 UTC
- Shell Voicings - Learning on the piano
- Diminished Scales
- Altered Scales
Friday, August 7, 2020
ASIA/Australia
9:00am-11:00am TST
- Chien Chien and Tony - talk about the vibraphone, resonators bars etc. and ask questions from the students.
U.S. - Europe
10am-12pm EDT / 14:00 UTC - 16:00 UTC
- Leigh Stevens talks about the vibraphone. Everything you need to know.
2pm - 4pm EDT / 18:00-20:00 UTC
- Your questions and answers and wrap up and/or online concert where students play.
Vibraphone
David Friedman
David Friedman is considered to be one of the most influential vibraphonists in the history of the instrument. Internationally renowned as a vibraphonist, marimbist, composer and jazz educator, he has his own musical message, born of fascinatingly diverse musical influences.
Having worked with such varied musical personalities as Leonard Bernstein, Luciano Berio, Bobby McFerrin, Wayne Shorter and Yoko Ono, few jazz musicians can claim as broad a spectrum of performing and recording experience.
The list doesn't stop there. Friedman has been heard either live or on recordings with, among others, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver, Johnny Griffin, Hubert Laws, Jane Ira Bloom, Ron Carter and John Scofield. Friedman’s vibraphone and compositions are both featured on Chet Baker’s award winning Enja release Peace, with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Joe Chambers.
A dedicated and renowned educator, David Friedman founded the jazz program at Berlin’s University of the Arts, and served as its head for sixteen years. He continues to perform masterclasses throughout Europe, North America and Japan. His book, Vibraphone Technique, Dampening and Pedaling, is considered to be the Bible of mallet instruction books.
In 1977, Friedman co-founded the unique vibe-marimba quartet Double Image, with Dave Samuels. Their first recording, Double Image, was nominated for a German “Grammy”, and has just been re-released as a special edition by Enja Records. Friedman’s Enja release Shades of Change, with pianist Geri Allen, bassist Anthony Cox and drummer Ronnie Burrage, was voted by Downbeat magazine as “One of the year’s best 20 CD’s”.
Friedman’s trio playing with star drummer Daniel Humair and bassist J.F. Jenny-Clarke, documented on their 1992 live release Ternaire, showcases modern, interactive jazz improvisation, ranging from an agressive driving swing to tender lyricism.
Friedman’s project with bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi, Astor Piazzola’s heir to modern tango, is a synthesis of American jazz and ethnic improvisation. The gifted bassist Anthony Coxcompletes the trio. Their 1996 CD release, Rios, on Intuition Records, has been called “a true work of art” by the Chicago Tribune.
One of Friedman’s unique accomplishments is his solo mallet recording, which utilizes multiple vibe and marimba overdubs to create richly textured soundscapes. The first recording of its kind ever done by a mallet performer, it is aptly entitled Air Sculpture (Traumton Records). Jazz Friends Review writes: “This music is made of the same fabric dreams are made of. This daring recording is riveting.” Germany’s Die Woche callsAir Sculpture, “a humble masterpiece!”
Friedman’s project Other Worlds is a trio with an instrumentation and sound all its own. Featuring the exciting French accordianist Jean-Louis Matinier and the brilliant American bass virtuoso Anthony Cox, their CD, Other Worlds, was recorded in November 1996 for Intuition Records and released in December 1997. It’s a spellbinding musical journey, featuring original compositions and improvisational dialogues of incredible depth and beauty. Jazzthetik remarks: “You feel your ears being drawn to the speakers as if by magic! Other Worlds is a true musical adventure”.
In addition, Friedman still finds time for special projects. He has been the featured guest soloist with the NDR Big Band in a program of his original compositions. He continues to tour and record regularly with Dave Samuels in the ground breaking mallet duo Double Image – a partnership that has endured for more than 35 years. Sponsored by Yamaha, the duo is often featured at Percussive Arts Society international events, and colleges and universities throughout the world.
In the summer of 2002, Friedman invited vocal virtuoso Bobby McFerrin to help celebrate the official 10th anniversary of the jazz department of the University of the Arts. One of the most exciting moments of this sold-out concert event was a spontaneous duo with Friedman and McFerrin.
In 2003 Friedman formed his new trio, Tambour, with star German saxophonist Peter Weniger, and bassist Pepe Berns. Their CD, Earfood, on Skip records, was released in January 2004 to rave reviews.
Just after the release of Earfood Friedman was asked by RBB (Radio Berlin Brandenburg) television to moderate the 2004 Berlin Jazz Festival.
2005 saw David touring with Tambour and performing as a duo with Hungarian guitarist Férenc Snetberger, as well as with Double Image.
In 2006 Friedman began a collaboration with the Norwegian publisher Norsk Musikforlag, and celebrated this new partnership by composing a series of solo marimba pieces and several vibraphone solo pieces, as well as compositions for mallet ensemble.
In August 2007 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the art of vibraphone playing and education at the KOSA International Percussion Festival, while in 2008 he was recognized for his life’s work at the Ludwig Albert Marimba Festival in Belgium.
David’s CD with Tambour, Rodney’s Parallel Universe, for Skip Records, was released to critical acclaim in March of 2007.
Retro, the stunning new CD collaboration with duo partner, saxophonist Peter Weniger, was released in October of 2010 on Skip Records to rave reviews. It was immediately voted “CD of the month” by Germany’s Jazz Podium magazine. Since then, Friedman and Weniger have been touring internationally under the name Duo Élegance, introducing audiences to their uniquely intimate, and very personal approach to improvised, ensemble jazz.
In Sept. 2014 David premiered Leah Muir’s concerto for improvised vibraphone and orchestra, ‘By the Reflecting Pool’ with the Bruckner Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies. The performance was the highlight of the ‘Ars Electronica’ festival in Linz, Austria. This work for completely improvised vibraphone is the first of its’ kind in the history of solo performance with orchestra.
In 2016 David premiered Leah Muir’s new composition for solo vibraphone, string orchestra and percussion, ‘The Quanta of Sublimity’, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
That same year David was commissioned by the Landesmusikrat of Nordreinwestfalen to compose a piece for 5 percussionists, to be premiered at the “Slash” crossover festival on Oct. 22nd 2017, in Essen Germany.
Tony Miceli
Internationally renowned jazz vibraphonist Tony Miceli has established himself as one of the primary voices on the mallet instrument, winning hearts and minds wherever he plays. His achievements, however, go much further beyond. A sought-after recording artist, Miceli is an inspired educator who delivers vibraphone master classes the world over, enriching the students of Ireland, Germany, South Korea, Italy, for example, with an accompanying concert finale. Miceli promotes the instrument through his brainchild, vibesworkshop.com, a virtual meeting place and teaching tool for some 4000 student and professional members. He is also the co-creator of the World Vibes Congress, a formal gathering of players who share the desire to bring public awareness to the vibraphone. It is worth noting that Miceli is part of Team Omega, an elite group of vibes players that includes only three others, headliners David Friedman, Joe Locke, and Stefon Harris. At All About Jazz, Victor Schermer describes him as
“... a vibraphonist of astonishing virtuosity, musical resilience, and inventiveness. His vibes playing is nothing short of phenomenal.”
Miceli was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1960 and grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey. He began to play classical guitar in his youth before later turning to piano, trumpet and drums. It was in college that he and the vibraphone cemented an unbreakable bond of mutual give and take. Philadelphia now claims him as its own as he settled there in 1978 while attending the University of the Arts, where he is now an adjunct associate professor. He also teaches at Temple’s Boyer College of Music and is a guest lecturer at the Curtis Institute of Music. Miceli connects with a growing group of musicians living in the Germantown neighborhood who are revitalizing its jazz scene with local performances, jams and a new recording studio.
2018 saw Miceli issue his latest CD, Invitation, an album of solos that expresses warmth and clarity. Standards like Jimmy Van Heusen’s “But Beautiful” sound so effortless they float. Gloria Krolak, host of Good Vibes, the only radio program dedicated to the vibraphone, noted recently
“Miceli’s compass points to tunes with no end of nuance and subtlety. He gives the phrase ‘soft touch’ a whole new meaning.”
As the originator of The Jōst Project, with vocalist Paul Jōst, Miceli racked up two more wins with albums that plug into new generations for jazz by playing the classic rock they grew up with. The first, Peace and Love, was released in 2017, then Can’t Find My Way Home in 2013. Miceli also appears on Jōst’s 2014 Breaking Through. A champion of rock-inspired repertory, Miceli moves easily from one genre to another. Also in 2014, violinist Diane Monroe and Miceli collaborated on a duo album, Alone Together. Wrote Victor Schermer on the All About Jazz website,
“Monroe and Miceli are adept and resilient musicians of the highest caliber, so they are able to weave their combined sounds into many expressive variations that create ‘tone poems’ and tell stories.”
In 2009 Miceli’s group Monkadelphia released Crepuscle, a follow-up to Monkadelphia, both devoted to the revolutionary jazz pianist himself, performing his music in an innovative, contemporary way.
Miceli has performed at jazz festivals and clubs too numerous to list. A partial roll call starts at Hilton Head Island’s Jazz Vibes Showcase in 2019 with Team Omega, then to the Daegu Festival in Daegu, Korea; the International Percussion Festival in Lima, Peru; the Limerick Jazz Festival in Ireland; and the Montreal Jazz Festival. Closer to home he has played at the Jazz Bridge Concert Series, Peace Day Kickoff, the Rhythm Festival, Please Touch Museum Jazz Festival, all in Philadelphia, as well as those in Media, Reading and Dauphin County, PA, and the Longwood Gardens Festivals. The Exit Zero Jazz Festival in Cape May, NJ and the Somers Point Jazz Festival in Somers Point, NJ; the Rehoboth Beach Festival in Delaware, and the Vail Colorado Jazz Festival have all hosted Miceli.
Miceli plays with the highest caliber musicians. As a group leader, sideman, and recording artist, he has performed with numerous top musicians including David Liebman, Jimmy Bruno, Ken Peplowski, John Blake, Diane Monroe, John Swana, Joe Magnarelli, Steve Slagle, Larry McKenna, Gerald Veasley and many others. Chris’s Jazz Café, Philadelphia’s premier jazz club, is a frequent gig for Miceli and friends, and he performs annually at the Percussive Arts Society convention in Indianapolis.
Internationally known on the web, Miceli provides online instruction, information, and video interactive classes. He is proprietor of Miceli Music, LLC., incorporating the website: www.studymusiconline.com, which currently offers www.vibesworkshop.com
He enjoys endorsements with: Malletech; Applied Microphone Technologies and Beiner Bags. Miceli plays with the highest caliber musicians. As a group leader, sideman, and recording artist, he has performed with numerous top musicians including David Liebman, Jimmy Bruno, Ken Peplowski, John Blake, Diane Monroe, John Swana, Joe Magnarelli, Steve Slagle, Larry McKenna, Gerald Veasley and many others. Chris’s Jazz Café, Philadelphia’s premier jazz club, is a frequent gig for Miceli and friends.