Here is the new submission of Ralph Towner tune "Summer's End". 4 choruses: Melody / Chords / Solo / Final Melody. In the solo I tried to make some variations of the beautiful melody, although I'm not entirely satisfied with the result. In the end I lose the thread a bit and the tempo. The next step would be to do shell voicings instead of chords. And maybe try to do a chord melody, mixing melody and shell voicings, so that there is more variation. This, while I'm practicing Shiny (Glabraith) which is really hard for me.

I'm continuing to work on There Will Never Be Another You. This is a chord melody from a Kenny Burrell recording that includes a nice intro to the tune. This is normally played as a more upbeat tune for jazz but it has a very pretty melody that comes across nicely as a ballad.

Here is a first attempt with Shiny (from Galbraith), only the first 16 bars, at 125 bpm (I lowered the bpm with Amazing Slow Downer). Difficult to follow the tempo. Added problem: these days my ring finger nail broke, a tragedy after practicing fingerstyle! With the pick, it was almost like learning it all over again. 😮‍💨 I will go on with the following bars. Very nice exercise! Your indications and corrections will be welcome (specialy from the Galbraith connaisseur, Mentor Bob Kinney).

Today I was in NYC on business and was invited to dinner with my dear friend, Dr. Philippe Moullier, and his his son, Simon. Simon happens to be one of the best jazz vibraphone players on the planet, Grammy award winning, etc. But to my surprise his good friend, Massimo, join us! https://youtu.be/sBkn5NhrzFQ?is=cwgyPfHVhf8c8hvF Description below: Massimo Biolcati is the founder, inventor, and lead developer of iReal Pro. He's a jazz bassist based in New York City who taught himself to code for the original iPhone so he could build the app he wanted for his own practice needs. He originally released the app in 2008 under the name iReal Book (an homage to the classic bootleg jazz "Real Books"), later renaming it iReal b and then iReal Pro after a copyright dispute over the "Real Book" name. In 2010 he founded Technimo LLC, the small company (still just a handful of musicians) that builds and maintains the app. iReal Pro combines two things: a huge, crowd-sourced library of chord charts for jazz, pop, and other genres, and a virtual backing band (piano/guitar, bass, drums) that plays along in any key or tempo — making it a staple practice tool for musicians and a fixture in schools like Berklee College of Music. It was even named one of TIME Magazine's 50 best inventions. Since the app took off, Biolcati has continued to code and play music daily, running Technimo out of New York City for over 15 years. About Simon: Simon Moullier, and he's a French-born, New York-based jazz vibraphonist, composer, and producer widely regarded as one of the leading voices of his generation on the instrument. Background and training: Born in 1994 in Nantes, France, Moullier started on drums and classical percussion as a child and picked up the vibraphone in high school, at age 17, drawn to it because he wanted the more immediate, note-based expression of a horn but had already invested a decade in percussion (DownBeat, France Musique). He studied at Berklee College of Music under trumpeter Darren Barrett, then earned a master's degree at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz (now the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz) in Los Angeles, where he was mentored by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Jimmy Heath.

I'm starting to work these days with volume 3 of Barry Galbraith (with Marc's videos, they are fantastic!), very difficult and very useful at the same time. To relax a little, I wanted to start playing a piece by Ralph Towner that I've always liked: Summer's End, a beautiful ballad. I've made the chord sequence with iReal Pro (I attach an image). It's the second tribute that I dedicate to my beloved Ralph Towner (who I've been listening to since I was sixteen) and who passed away this past January. I'll also try to make a chord melody, let's see if I can manage it.