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Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life | 
 enlarge | Authors: Wynton Marsalis, Geoffrey Ward
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $15.90
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 3642
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 1400060788
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.65117
EAN: 9781400060788
ASIN: 1400060788
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Amazon.com Review
Product Description
"In this book I hope to reach a new audience with the positive message of Americas greatest music, to show how great musicians demonstrate on the bandstand a mutual respect and trust that can alter your outlook on the world and enrich every aspect of your lifefrom individual creativity and personal relationships to conducting business and understanding what it means to be American in the most modern sense."
--Wynton Marsalis
In this beautiful book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician and composer Wynton Marsalis explores jazz and how an understanding of it can lead to deeper, more original ways of being, living, and relatingfor individuals, communities, and nations. Marsalis shows us how to listen to jazz, and through stories about his life and the lessons he has learned from other music greats, he reveals how the central ideas in jazz can influence the way people think and even how they behave with others, changing self, family, and community for the better. At the heart of jazz is the expression of personality and individuality, coupled with an ability to listen to and improvise with others. Jazz as an art--and as a way to move people and nations to higher ground--is at the core of this unique, illuminating, and inspiring book, a master class on jazz and life by a brilliant American artist.
An Interview with Wynton Marsalis
Q: Youre a musician and composer. Why did you write this book, which is about life and lots of other things besides jazz?
A: When I first decided to become a musician, at the age of 12 or 13, I was inspired by my father, and by the New Orleans jazz tradition. I was under the impression that I had only to learn the fundamentals of music--rhythm, melody, harmony, texture--to progress as a musician. What I didnt know then was that over the next three decades, jazz music would teach me many significant things about living. This book grew out of ten years of conversatins with my friend Geoff Ward, and is my attempt to share some of itabout how important it is to be yourself in the world, and at the same time create while respecting the creativity of others.
Q: What does the title of this book, Moving to Higher Ground, mean to you?
A: Too often in life, petty squabbles and small-mindedness keep us from realizing a higher purpose. In jazz, that higher purpose is not theoretical: We want to sound good. And when we do, you can hear what its like when people are really trying to get along. Its purely human: In Jazz, you can mess up and still come together, still move together to higher ground. The title means ascending through engagement.
Q: You suggest that the ideas at the heart of jazz can carry over into everyday life. How so?
A: Lets take two ideas in jazz that are most central: swinging and the blues.
Swinging is the art of negotiation with someone else, under the pressure of time. It shows you how opposites can come together, without compromising who they are. The one who plays the highest-sounding instrument in the rhythm section--the time-keeping cymbal--has to find a way of working with the one who plays the lowest instrument, the bass. And the bass player, who plays the softest instrument, has to find a way of working with the player of the loudest, the drums. To succeed, everybody has to have a very clear idea of the common goal: What exactly are we here to do? In jazz we know: swing. In life, if everyone involved can agree on a primary objective, a group can accomplish almost anything.
The blues is many things--a musical form, a distinctive sound, a universal feeling--but above all, the blues is survival music. Its message is simple: things are never so bad that they cant get any better. Its about crying over something, actually wailing--and its about coming back. The words may be sad but the dancing shuffle (the definitive rhythm of the blues) is always happy or heading toward happiness. The blues is about what is--and what is has demons and angels sitting at the same table. Thats a bitter-sweet and realistic message about life that everybody needs, that everybody can hear and respond to. Ive heard people respond to it, all over the world.
Q: How do jazz principles apply to, say, holding a successful meeting?
A: If you come to a meeting without an agenda its probably not going to be a very good meeting. In jazz improvisation, the agenda is the form of the song. But an agenda alone doesnt guarantee success. If everybody feels free to participate, unexpected things are sure to come up and will have to be dealt with intelligently. Thats true in jazz improvisation, too. Things are bound to come up. Some need to be discarded right away. Others need to be expounded upon. Anyone in the rhythm section playing along behind the soloist can decide, "Hey, we need to investigate this further." And the soloist can respond, "Yeah, lets go into that." Its a system of checks and balances, but what makes it work is the fact that everybody is listening and responding to what the soloist is saying without ever forgetting the agenda. Thats a pretty good model for swinging, and for getting things done.
Q: How do jazz principles apply to a family?
The central relationship on the bandstand is between the bass and the drums. Theyre opposites of volume and register. The drums are the loudest and the swung cymbal is the highest-pitched while the bass is the softest and lowest-pitched. In order to swing, the right-hand stroke on the cymbal must find the right-hand pluck of the bass on every beat. While it is impossible to line those beats up with metronomic perfection it is possible to achieve a perfect intent to be together. Thats what you would like to see with a mama and a daddy. They represent gender opposites. While they try to come together to solve a problem we can go in the direction of a good time. When they dont--when one is too loud or the other is unyielding--it becomes a matter of endurance, not swinging.
Q: What can jazz teach us about our feelings and ourselves as individuals?
A: Were all given the gift of creativity. It comes out in all kinds of ways--the way we talk or dress or cook or whistle. I remember when I was a kid my friends and I used to see who could cut grass in the most creative way. But many times young people are put down for having a gift or skill that doesnt fit with somebody elses idea of what he or she should do with their lives. Jazz is the opposite of that. It tells you, "Thats you! Take pride in this thing. Express yourself. Your sound is unique. Work on it. Understand it." Often it teaches you to celebrate yourself.
When we talk about expressing feelings in jazz, we mean spiritual feelings, empathetic feelings, feelings that are beyond thought. In jazz, musical ideas move too quickly for you to stop and analyze or to formulate a lie. By the time you think about it, that moment of music is long gone. Jazz teaches you to cherish how you feel in the moment. It puts a premium on having faith in the people youre playing with. Because the second you lose that faith and start to question what theyre doing, the distraction takes your mind off the music and onto bad decisions that you will surely begin to make. The combination of emotional honesty and mutual trust that jazz demands can help you if applied to almost any field.
Q: How can jazz help you understand your own friends and family better?
A: At first it may seem like a paradox, but jazz helps you understand other people by teaching you that you never really know anybody. When you play music with someone--even someone you think you know really well--theyll play things you dont expect and cant anticipate. Youll go in one direction, based on what you think is going to happen and theyll take a completely different path. Jazz lets people be free, and to surprise you--and them. It doesnt let you mail in your response or let you lump people into categories that turn out to be meaningless.
It also shows you that people, even geniuses, evolve over time. The Duke Ellington who played in 1931 was very different from the Duke of 1961. So you learn to be patient with other people and respect the progress theyve made and are still capable of making. One of the biggest challenges in dealing with friends and family is communication and more communication. Jazz forces us to communicate with people while recognizing their objectives, and over objectives, and where we can come together.
Q: How is jazz related to America, the country that created it?
A: This art form was created to explain who we are. We have rights and responsibilities in the music just as we do as citizens. The Constitution can be amended and songs can always be added to or changes. In jazz we place a premium on the individuals right to self-expression but we also insist on checks and balances between one persons rights infringing on another--the soloists and the rhythm section have to work things out together. Otherwise the piece is a mess.
Jazz allows us to improvise, to negotiate with one another. Its the sound of many people coming together in one thing. You might be from Chicago and be Jewish but you can stand on this bandstand with a Creole from New Orleans and when both of yall play, youll agree on what sounds good, and youll agree on it because you both can hear it. Its democracy in action and it allows us, for all our faults, to see the success of our history. It tells us who we have been, who we are now, and who we can be in the future.
Q: Why is jazz especially relevant today?
A: This country is looking for change. Just look at whats going on: An African American and a woman were leading contenders for the presidency; Big questions of race and identity; millions of brand-new voters turning out. Barack Obama carrying southern states in the primaries with a charismatic message of coming together. Its a different time in our country and I think its the perfect time for this music.
Now, jazz has always been timely because it deals with the timeless issues of people, and of our democracy. Louis Armstrong dealt with them. So did Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. But if you listen to political candidates today, they almost never talk about culture. Its never really been part of our national dialogue and it should be, because its the best was for us actually to come together. We talk a lot about having national conversations and weve tried legislating unity. But we need to understand that art can bring people who are different together. Jazz provides a context for all the experiences we as human beings share.
The direction of our culture is ascendant. Jazz is a perfect embodiment of that. Jazz is ascendant. If we take a long view of the past 150 years, we wont come to the conclusion that things are getting worse. We still have problems of corruption and greed. Jazz can provide a good antidote for them, too. To maintain their integrity, musicians have had to make many decisions that placed substance over commercial success. Jazz musicians have always aspired to an almost Utopian vision of a country in which everybody would come together and swing.
The contemporary excitement around empowering people is not new to jazz. Jazz is empowerment. Its first great achievement was to empower individual musicians to take part in the creative process through improvisation. Participation is essential to a healthy American democracy, and its essential to Americas greatest music, too. Everybody has to participate to make it sound good. Whether youre playing or listening, you have to be active. If youre just sitting there and waiting for something to happen, nothing will. I hope this book will empower as many people as possible to take part by showing how an understanding of jazz and its principles can change your life, and our lives together.
Product Description
“In this book I hope to reach a new audience with the positive message of America’s greatest music, to show how great musicians demonstrate on the bandstand a mutual respect and trust that can alter your outlook on the world and enrich every aspect of your life–from individual creativity and personal relationships to conducting business and understanding what it means to be American in the most modern sense.”
–Wynton Marsalis
In this beautiful book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician and composer Wynton Marsalis explores jazz and how an understanding of it can lead to deeper, more original ways of being, living, and relating–for individuals, communities, and nations. Marsalis shows us how to listen to jazz, and through stories about his life and the lessons he has learned from other music greats, he reveals how the central ideas in jazz can influence the way people think and even how they behave with others, changing self, family, and community for the better. At the heart of jazz is the expression of personality and individuality, coupled with an ability to listen to and improvise with others. Jazz as an art–and as a way to move people and nations to higher ground–is at the core of this unique, illuminating, and inspiring book, a master class on jazz and life by a brilliant American artist.
Advance praise for Moving to Higher Ground
“An absolute joy to read. Intimate, knowledgeable, supremely worthy of its subject. In addition to demolishing mediocre, uniformed critics, Moving to Higher Ground is a meaningful contribution to music scholarship.”
–Toni Morrison
“I think it should be in every bookstore, music store, and school in the country.”
–Tony Bennett
“Jazz, for Wynton Marsalis, is nothing less than a search for wisdom. He thinks as forcefully, and as elegantly, as he swings. When he reflects on improvisation, his subject is freedom. When he reflects on harmony, his subject is diversity and conflict and peace. When he reflects on the blues, his subject is sorrow and the mastery of it–how to be happy without being blind. There is philosophy in Marsalis’s trumpet, and in this book. Here is the lucid and probing voice of an uncommonly soulful man.”
–Leon Wieseltier, literary editor, The New Republic
“Wynton Marsalis is absolutely the person who should write this book. Here he is, as young as morning, as fresh as dew, and already called one of the jazz greats. He is not only a seer and an exemplary musician, but a poet as well. He informs us that jazz was created, among other things, to expose the hypocrisy and absurdity of racism and other ignorances in our country. Poetry was given to human beings for the same reason. This book could be called “How Love Can Change Your Life,” for there could be no jazz without love. By love, of course, I do not mean mush, or sentimentality. Love can only exist with courage, and this book could not be written without Wynton Marsalis’s courage. He has the courage to make powerful music and to love the music so, that he willingly shares its riches with the entire human family. We are indebted to him.”
–Maya Angelou
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A great read December 1, 2008
A great read for anyone who wants to understand jazz better. Also great for any musician. It gently nudged me out of a little rut I barely knew I was in and put a fresh spin on my playing.
 Not Moved October 23, 2008
I read it with great interest because i'm a longtime follower and fan of jazz from Buddy Bolden to the present day, but I cannot say that the book illustrated how jazz can change anyone's life. I just don't get it. He's a bright guy and a pretty fair writer, but it struck me as no more than a laundry list of observations about jazz and life. He's also very opinionated, which some will like and as many will not. One positive-This book caused me to go back a listen to all of my Wynton, and that's a good thing.
Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life October 6, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
For the listener or musician being introduced to Jazz this book can be valuable guide. Marsalis provides reasons why you would want to be introduced and some excellent recordings to hear. For a long-time fan of this great American art form and a participant in performance of it, Marsalis verbalizes as well as anyone can the inner drive, the hunger and the joy of playing jazz.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Moving to Higher Ground" and highly recommend it.
Jazz uncovered September 19, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a well written and profound book on how jazz really can teach you lessons you bring to life. Everyone knows that listening to music elevates us as humans. But why? Jazz music has developed a reputation for either being esoteric and inaccessible, or cool background to the scene. In this book, Wynton Marsalis breaks down actual lessons that come from either the structure of the music, the interplay between the musicians, the expression of the individual and the arc of the musical lives of some of the greatest jazz musicians we know (Monk, Ellington, Trane, John Lewis to name a few). Threading in his own experiences as a child in New Orleans, and as a young musician who played with and talked with so many that have come before, Marsalis illustrates how jazz teaches us how to be creative, express ourselves, deal with others, achieve our own potential, and so much more. This book offers up lessons on the music itself that gave me a greater appreciation and desire to listen more, but more importantly, it considers how to craft a life based on the teachings of this truly American music.
Remarkable insight and lucidity September 8, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I was surprised how much insight and depth was presented in this book. It was enlightening to read what a genius has to say about his art/craft. He was surprisingly clear about what jazz means to him and to everyone. The broad-scope of this book was terrific. And it was beautifully written.... I really enjoyed this book.
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