“Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.” – Miles Davis
I don’t throw around this word lightly, but I firmly believe it here.
Miles Davis’ 1959 album Kind of Blue is…dare I say it…it’s perfect.
You want a big life. I mean, you’re probably not reading this piece if you don’t.
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For a recording that’s almost 60 years old, the fidelity of the audio is astounding. If you listen to it on a quality stereo system, it’ll blow your mind even if you don’t like jazz.
Go and find it on your favorite streaming music service and press play. From track one, you can feel the richness of Paul Chambers’ bass and “Cannonball” Adderley’s piano.
And that’s even before Miles puts his horn to his lips.
My belief is that even if you don’t like jazz, you can appreciate the mastery of Kind of Blue.
I firmly believe it’s a perfect album.
As a music connoisseur, I can appreciate the mastery of bands like Fourplay and artists like Stanley Clarke, the late Wayman Tisdale, and the soul and power of Richard Elliot.
It doesn’t hurt matters that Elliot was a long-time mainstay of Tower of Power – aka, my favorite band of all time.
But the difference between so-called smooth jazz and the modal jazz from Miles Davis is stark.
Smooth jazz is tightly arranged and orchestrated primarily instrumental music.
Modal jazz songs have a structure, but what you hear is probably 90% or more improvised.
For example, the first song on Kind of Blue is called So What. The rhythm section provides the backbone for Miles’ horn line. But I can guarantee you that the take that is used on the album sounds different than the previous takes that were recorded in the spring of 1959.
In college, I took an African-American literature class. In that class, I was first exposed to such artists as Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou.
In that course, we watched a documentary on Thelonious Monk – the piano maestro.
And during that documentary, we went behind the scenes of a Monk recording session. Monk and his band were really feeling this upbeat number. Monk’s right hand was flying up and down the keys.
After they were done, the guys in the band were happy. They were slapping high fives, hugging each other, and generally happy.
But the engineer comes into the studio and says that he failed to roll tape on the song.
After they came back down to earth and went back into recording mode, Monk said he wasn’t nearly as happy with the take that wound up on his album than the take when the tape wasn’t rolling.
Let me lay something out here. Understand I’m not talking about jazz.
I’m not even talking about Miles or Monk here.
Late one night, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were watching The Tonight Show. And coming back from a commercial, Doc Severinsen’s legendary band featured a solo from a tenor sax player named Pete Christlieb. Fagen and Becker were taken by that solo.
There’s a line in the chorus of Steely Dan’s song Deacon Blues:
“Learn to work the saxophone. I play just what I feel.” And they needed a tenor sax solo for that particular song.
They called Pete. And their instructions to him was “play just what you feel.” They gave him the key and they played a click track for him, I’m sure. But that was the only instruction they gave him.
And the solo is legendary.
As is their name check of the Alabama Crimson Tide, but I digress.
What do Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, and Pete Christlieb (and, y’know, millions of others) have in common? Y’know, other than being musicians…
They trusted themselves. They trusted the people in their circles. And they trusted their own greatness.
And they created gold!
You want a big life. I mean, you’re probably not reading this piece if you don’t.
To create that life at 10, you need to have trust:
- Trust in yourself.
- Trust in your greatness.
- Trust in the greatness of those in your circles.
Let’s look at some of the great basketball teams of history. While the legendary teams have great players, they also trust each other and work as a single unit.
For example…
- Magic and James.
- Michael and Scottie.
- Larry and Robert.
I just named six NBA Hall of Famers. But they were also parts of legendary teams who trusted each other. And who worked as one.
Let’s look at baseball. The great double play combinations are able to pull off spectacular double plays because they know each other so well. They trust each other. And they become one.
To the outsider, Nick Saban has the reputation of being a stern taskmaster. But few coaches I’ve seen in recent memory engender the loyalty among his players and coaching staffs than Nick Saban at the University of Alabama.
Even Lane Kiffin – in his Kiffin-y way – was loyal to Saban.
Look at the greatness Saban and those coaches and players have created over the last decade.
Look no further than Saban and his longtime defensive coordinator Kirby Smart. Those two know each other like the back of their hands. And that’s why they were so successful together.
And that’s one of the reasons why the 2018 National Championship game was such a classic. Smart – now the Georgia head coach – and Saban know each other so well that they were able to play one helluva chess match.
And that’s one of the reasons why this past January was only the first matchup between those two head coaches in that stadium in Atlanta.
When you get out of your own way, trust yourself, trust your circles, and trust your greatness – there’s no limit to what you can create in your life.
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I have to shout out my dear friend Emily on this. During our Accomplishment Coaching program year, her nickname for me became The Maestro. She was always able to see me on a level that I couldn’t see in myself.
She saw that if I just got out of my own way, I could create magic with my life.
By the way, I miss the Magic Time Podcast…wait…did I write that out loud?
Anyhoo…
When you get out of your own way, trust yourself, trust your circles, and trust your greatness – there’s no limit to what you can create in your life.
You too can be The Maestro of your own life.
Want some support at getting out of your own way and creating magic in your life? I’m available.
I’ve got three slots left in Royal Hearts Coaching, and they’re going fast! Grab your crown today!
Shoot me an email at [email protected] to schedule a free sample session to see if this is a good fit for you.
Let’s get back to Kind of Blue. I call it a perfect album, but is it really?
Some of the songs drag a little bit. To the uneducated ear, Miles’ playing may sound uninspired in places compared to the Dizzying (pun intended) heights of Miles’ contemporary Dizzy Gillespie.
But everybody who played on that album, the producers, and everybody who worked on that album put their blood, sweat, and tears on the line.
And they created gold.
While they didn’t know the exact path, they trusted they could create gold.
Trust yourself. Trust your circles. And trust your greatness.
If you do, you too can be the maestro of your own life.
Photo by Amika San