These, and other great albums, are available for sale on iTunes!
-
Michael HayesI VibeHistory of a Vibe, Pt. 1History of a Vibe, Pt. 2History of a Vibe, Pt. 3 (Live)History of a Vibe, Pt. 4History of a Vibe, Pt. 5
History of a Vibe, Pt. 6, 1st Set
History of a Vibe, Pt. 6, 2nd SetHistory of a Vibe, Pt. 7 - Live at Nightstage 1992History of a Vibe, Pt. 8 - EP
History of a Vibe, Pt. 9
History of a Vibe, Pt. 10History of a Vibe, Pt. 11History of a Vibe, Pt. 12 - EP
History of a Vibe, Pt. 13 - EP
Michael Hayes was born in Pasadena, Texas, January 7, 1954, an Air Force brat. After his father's completion of duty, the family returned to Massachusetts where both his parents were born and raised, and settled in Framingham, when Michael was five years old.
His first formal musical experience came when he was in the sixth grade. The classes of the Framingham school system had been assigned a project to watch the Young People's Concert television program on "What is a Sonata?" hosted by Leonard Bernstein, and write a paper on it. The music teacher selected Michael's paper to send to Mr. Bernstein who wrote back an encouraging letter.
After this, Michael took an after-school music theory class in the seventh grade and in high school started taking lessons on electric bass, and then switched to drums. After completion of high school he bought a drum set and left home in search of a rock band to join. From 1973 to 1978 Michael was an active rock and jazz drummer based in Boston performing locally, regionally, and nationally.
From 1973 to 1975 he studied drums with Dave Vose and in 1976 with Alan Dawson. In 1978, he started studying vibraphone privately with Ed Saindon, and later that year enrolled at the Berklee College of Music as a full time student for one year as a Performance Major on vibraphone. Michael also studied vibraphone with Ted Woolf (1979), Dave Samuels (1979), and Gary Burton (1982), in addition to his years of study on both piano and vibraphone with Ed Saindon form 1978 to 1985. Michael also studied improvisation with Charles Banacos in 1980.
Since 1981, Michael has led a number of different bands as a vibist and began to feature his own original instrumental compositions and arrangements. In 1987, he was signed to a record contract with the RBI Division of the Moss Music Group for the recording, "I VIBE", which featured ten of his original compositions and himself on all instruments. In 1991, he began experimenting and performing on the Midivibe. This led to a leasing contract for his second national release, "MICHAEL HAYES" in 1994 with the Chase Music Group. This recording featured ten new original compositions by Michael and Michael was accompanied by Randy Roos and Steve Hunt on all the instruments.
In addition to music, Michael has also had a long standing interest in psychology, literature, and history. Consequently, he returned to school to complete his undergraduate degree at UMass Boston from 2000 to 2003 in psychology, and subsequently attended Boston College in 2004 as a PhD candidate in research psychology focusing on the cognitive aspects of the psychology of music. While at Boston College, his interest in playing acoustic vibes was rekindled playing with the BC Bop Big Band under the direction of Sebastian Bonaiuto. Michael withdrew from grad school and returned to music, his first love.
These days, in the warmer weather, he can also often be found at Fenway Park, and in the colder months, at the Agganis Arena, enjoying life.
De La Ruse, Part 1
De La Ruse, Part 2
Check out more videos on You Tube
History of a Vibe
When one reads or writes history, one should keep in mind it is a combination of two words: 'his', and 'story'. Perhaps in the future, in a gender neutral world, a new word will be coined like "hisherstory" or "theirstory", but for now it is "history".
"Vibe", on the other hand, is slang for a feeling surrounding an experience or event, like a mood that permeated the experience and colored it and its outcome in some fashion. It is also a condensation or shortening nickname for a musical instrument, the vibraphone.
Often times, an 's' will be added and the instrument will be called "vibes". This came about since the instrument has tubes extending below the metal bars and the striking of the bars by a mallet or mallets, causes the sound to vibrate down the tube and then back up the tube into the air. Each of these bars and their underlying tubes came to be seen as an individual vibraphone and some early texts even refer to the instrument as "vibraphones". However, it is commonly referred to now in the singular, as "vibraphone", the instrument that encompasses all the collective bars and tubes. But today, often a player of the instrument like myself, when conferring with other musicians and engineers will remark, "I want the vibe to enter here", in reference to the entire instrument in the singular.
This story will be about both "his story" in reference to me, the teller, and my power of recall and selective memory, and the two meanings I have described associated with "vibe". Both the instrument I have played on these recordings and the feeling that surrounded the events of those days and times that caused me to write and play music the way I did from 1980 through 1997. It is intended to be accurate, but not factual. It is not a textbook. It is a story more about the feeling of the events and what they produced than about the events themselves and uncovering evidence of who did what, when, and why.
Michael Hayes
11/14/2006