"Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Art Blakey are widely recognised as three of the greatest jazz band leaders of the 20th century. But did you ever consider they might be role models for entrepreneurs? In fact, each one of them has lessons to offer on how to inspire creativity and innovation within an established structure, according to Deniz Ucbasaran, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Warwick Business School."
Historic moment alert: It was exactly fifty years ago today to the minute that the first member of the general public tried to use Miles Davis' jazz classic Kind of Blue to get laid. "It was right as 'Freddie Freeloader' segued into 'Blue In Green' that I made my move," says Arnold Woltz, currently residing in Boca Raton, FL, but a broker in Chicago at the time. "She was an artsy broad, I figured she'd be into it." How did he do? "A gentleman never tells," he responds politely, before tilting his head and making the universal symbol for handjob. Anyway, Happy Anniversary, Kind of Blue! Here's to another [...]
The video for this song from Duck Down Records' indie-rap supergroup Random Axe is good looking but sort of confusing. It takes place in a hotel, where, in one room, rapper Guilty Simpson keeps a man tied to a bed while he builds a Rube Goldberg machine with which to kill him (kind of like if OK Go were James Bond villains.) Next door, Sean Price makes anthrax powder to send to record label offices and, for some reason, decides to taste some (!) as he's concocting it. And in another room, Black Milk, who produced the track, plays poker. The coolest thing about all of [...]
Dear visiting music professor who taught History of Jazz at Connecticut College spring semester 1990:
I'm sorry for comparing Miles Davis' Kind of Blue to Bob Seger's "Turn the Page."
