Jazz and Creativity
Posted by Nick Sieger Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:43:00 GMT
Short bio moment: I am a jazz musician. I have not been actively playing in recent years as my dual life as information economy worker and father have dominated, but the essence of jazz as a form of communication, interaction, problem solving, patterns, repetition, and creativity have remained in the core of who I am. Whenever I’m having a down-cycle in my life, it always seems like it’s because I’ve gotten away from listening to jazz.
So, with that as background, imagine you’re me and go read Garr Reynold’s recent post on Jazz and the art of connecting. Even if you’re not a jazz lover, many of the quotes there resonate so well with any aspect of a creative profession. My favorite (and Garr’s):
“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” -- Charles Mingus
Now, 37 signals may appear to have the recent trademark on “embracing constraints” and its relation to creativity, but it sounds like Charles beat them to the punch! Time to go dig around in some jazz biographies again!
