Kenny Werner - "Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within"
Just ordered another copy of this book. Loaned it out a few years back and the student is still "AWOL." Not much I can say about this book except...GREAT!!!!! This book isn't only for "players." It's for anyone on the path to "mastery" in their life. Can really unlock some creative doors....
Music/Video
One of the great creators and individual voices on saxophone and in music, Stan Getz, playing with a couple my favorite musicians, pianist Kenny Barron and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington:
Creativity/Video
"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original."
Ken Robinson
Tai Chi
Until now, I've been studying chi kung (qigong), yoga and bagua. My chi kung practice has been a long "intro" to tai chi. I'm interested in these arts for the "energy work", health benefits, and being able to use the relaxation techniques used in fighting while playing the horn. One of my favorite musicians, Woody Shaw, was known to actually stop playing in the middle of a solo if he felt too much tension in his body and break into a tai chi pose for immediate relaxation. I think the tension he felt was a distraction from his creative process.
Tai chi is a martial art, a fighting art. I think a lot of people completely overlook that fact and look at tai chi as some kind of a dance. For me, the deeper meaning of tai chi is generating chi (ki) in and around the body. But as I watch the tai chi form being done on this video, I'm once again reminded of the importance of SLOW practice. This is what I'm trying daily to incorporate into my trumpet practice. I've found 3 great schools in Tokyo to study tai chi and am excited to get started.
Tai chi on wiki
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