One of my favorite bands that I am fortunate to play in is the Sybaritic String Band (see our website by clicking here). The band features Brian Hayden on fiddle, Rich Sobel (fiddle, mandolin, percussion), Barry Cole (mandolin, guitar, banjo, harmonica) and myself (Geoff Peters) on piano.

From our web site:

The Sybaritic String Band is famous for their high energy renditions of fiddle tunes from North American and Celtic traditions.

We recently spent a day doing some self-produced recordings, and had a great time. I wanted to share with you, my friends of the Interwebs, a little preview of the recording that is to come. Please enjoy, and note that the track is just a work in progress.

> Camel’s Hump, Elzic’s Farewell, and Hunting the Buffalo – MP3 time 6:59 (Sybaritic String Band)

If you like what you hear, imagine a room full of happy people dancing together in Contradance style (with a caller and moves such as “swing your partner” and “long lines forward and back”).

We have a dance series in Vancouver the first Saturday of every month at St. James Hall in Kitsilano, and everyone is welcome (there is a lesson for beginners starting at 7:45pm and the dance starts at 8pm).

More info is on our web site.

NPR has made available a free online recording of jazz pianist Brad Mehldau performing with mezzo-soprano Renee Fleming in the Creators at Carnegie series.
Click here to view the concert details, and then click the “Listen to the Concert” link that appears below the title on that page. It’s wonderful that NPR has made this music available for free. Here is the concert playlist:

Creators at Carnegie
Brad Mehldau with Renee Fleming

In Concert at Zankel Hall

“Lithium” (Cobain)

“Things Behind the Sun” (Drake)

“River Man” (Drake)

WORLD PREMIERE: Songs from The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (Mehldau/Words by Rainer Maria Rilke)

Excerpts:

III. “I Love the Dark Hours of My Being” (Mehldau/Words by Rilke)

IV. “I Love You, Gentlest of Ways” (Mehldau/Words by Rilke)

VII. “Extinguish My Eyes, I’ll Go on Seeing You” (Mehldau/Words by Rilke)

Break: Intro (Mehldau) from the album Live in Tokyo

In Concert at Zankel Hall

“How Long Has This Been Going On?” (Gershwin)

“But Beautiful” (Burke/Van Heusen)

After receiving some “fan mail” from a girl in Japan, I decided to make an update to my Piano Practice page, where I post recordings of my piano practices.

Listening to some of them, I came across a “killer” practice (well, as practices go anyways), where I developed many cool ideas and worked on lots of originals. Listen to it by clicking here (file in Midi format). I suggest you use Winamp to listen to it rather than Windows Media Player because the Synth in Winamp sounds much better.

I should emphasize that it is a practice after all, and how “killer” can a practice really be? While there are some good ideas in the practice recording, by no means is it representative of how I play when I am performing!

Here’s a lick I transcribed off a Keith Jarrett recording:

4,5,#5,Maj7,9,5,4,b3.

It leads very nicely into a minor chord. (I’ll post the music notes when I have time!)