Tony Miceli with The John Toomey Trio at the Attucks

Tony Miceli playfully warned the sold-out audience at the Attucks Jazz Club that if they did not want to be hit in the head with a mallet to not tell a vibraphonist he or she is playing the xylophone. Mallets were flying during Miceli's Saturday night gig but the only thing getting hit was his vibe.

Miceli is an internationally sought-after vibraphonist playing gigs all over the world. Based in Philadelphia Miceli, in addition to performing, teaches at Temple's Boyer College of Music, is a guest lecturer at the Curtis Institute of Music, and is an adjunct associate professor at The University of the Arts. Miceli has over 4,000 students scattered throughout the world he teaches through Zoom. One of his students lives locally and was able to perform a number with her teacher to the delight of the crowd, especially her parents! He is also a member of Team Omega along with Stefon Harris, David Friedman, Warren Wolf and Joe Locke. These five vibraphonists present workshops throughout the year to aspiring musicians.

Miceli pulled many tunes from his 2018 album Invitation as well as rock tunes from 2013's Can't Find My Way Home. Between songs, he told hilarious anecdotes, one, in particular, dealing with how he holds two mallets in each hand. Accompanied by John Toomey on the piano, Jimmy Masters on bass and Tony Martucci on drums the quartet swung from beginning to end.

The following are photos from the evening.