Warren Wolf Teaches "Generation Vibes" at Spivey Hall

Just shy of 40, Warren Wolf already looks back over 30 years' playing vibraphone. In his program "Generation Vibes," presented Saturday at Spivey Hall near Atlanta, Wolf paid homage to great vibraphonists he's met. It was, he said, a history lesson.

First, though, he had to explain that the instrument center stage was not a xylophone. He demonstrated the sustaining pedal and the tremolo effect.

"Air Mail Special" at breakneck speed was the first music, a swing tune of vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's big band days. Wolf told how, at six years of age, he played near a venue where the much older master Hampton was doing a concert. Little Warren introduced himself. "Mr. Hampton, you ought to come across the street when I play and check me out!"

Watching Warren Wolf play was a lesson in improvisation, because we could see as well as hear the patterns he found in the music. He's a weightlifter, and this looked like a workout. After working the treble end of his keyboard, mallets moving too fast to see, he'd hurry down to the bass end; after a wide - ranging run across the bars, he would hover over the center to play a tricky pattern.

Wolf and crew displayed a more pensive side on Milt Jackson's "Django." A set of three songs written by Gary Burton with pianist Chick Corea included music for vibes and piano alone. Wolf explained that Burton was Vice - President at Berklee College of Music when Wolf studied there, but they didn't speak much: "You don't talk to the Vice President of your school." But when Burton retired, "he became way cooler."

Wolf often looked back to his bandmates with a broad smile, evidently surprised by something they'd done.

When Wolf checked his watch a couple of times, I thought we must be getting ready for a recess. I was shocked to learn that our history lesson had already lasted nearly two hours. He skipped ahead to "one of the most brilliant vibraphonists of today" to play his own freshly composed tune, "Come Dance with Me," dedicated to his wife in the audience, a ballerina. For a finale, Wolf played a piece by Roy Ayers, "Sunshine," inviting the audience to sing the hook with him. For an encore, of course, the blues.

Class over, my friend Susan and I ordered Wolf's CD "Convergence."

Warren Wolf, vibraphone
Carroll Dashiell, III, drums
Allyn Johnson, piano
Jeff Reed, bass