4:25 p.m. you’ve made it congratulations
everybody stand up yeah now cheer okay
now now stay standing it’s the end of a
long week it’s been a long month it’s
2:00 a.m. you just saw your favorite
musical artist maybe it was DJ cave them
finished a gut wrenching sweat-drenched
epic set of music not only that but they
ended with your favorite song now
everybody cheer like you mean it I want
you I want you all at my shows from now
on that’s good all right sit back down
just pretend like the rest of this is
the Encore to that night has anyone ever
been saved by music I mean I know for a
fact people have been saved by music for
tens of thousands of years I was just
curious of any of you sitting here in
this room today at everyone saved by
music I know that I have so many times
bad days bad decisions bad situations
bad seasons bad years bad presidents
music has carried me through a lot
suicides
overdoses tragic family deaths the
pinnacle of love the depths of heartache
and despair I think of the greatest song
ever written
does anybody know what the greatest song
ever written is I know I was just
curious if any of you guys knew as well
really though that’s knowledge that the
coolest website doesn’t know the
smartest magazine ever written doesn’t
know the most profound teacher would
never claim to know we know it though we
people collectively we know the greatest
music we know that we each have a
different answer we know that no single
one of us really knows that it all works
together coexists co-creates we know a
different song saves each of us and we
respect that about each other because
music allows for other music encourages
other music other opinions other
variations on a theme there’s a growing
movement around the world
that goes by different names music
cities some people call them I like to
turn music ecosystems because music
cities can seem a little exclusive can
make you think only in terms of the
biggest of the most famous places but
ecosystems are everywhere huge urban
centers tiny rural towns historic
neighborhoods new developments the roads
between all of them they’re all around
us and people are trying to figure them
out and nurture them through city
governments nonprofits and education
through private companies and
philanthropies from places outside the
traditional music industry this is
happening in Auckland in Australia in
Amsterdam in Oklahoma City in Toronto in
France in Chicago and Germany Finland
even in LA and so so many other places
whether it’s for economic development
community cohesion or individual quality
of life we’re looking at music now as a
serious public good one worth investing
in the mechanics of how these music hubs
work is fascinating but a topic for
another day I’m more interested today
not in how it’s happening but why why
this global zeitgeist of music cities
music hubs music ecosystems six months
ago I was in a rehearsal room at the
Music District just across Laurel Street
I knew I was lucky to be working in a
place surrounded by musical instruments
people and ideas but it didn’t change
the fact that I was having a really
really rough day as often happens though
music saved that day and I suddenly
heard echoing down the hall his heart
and away
Anthony Maclaurin star of Broadway opera
and Twitter all at once
Anthony moved here from New York this
summer to sing at the Midtown Art Center
like all the rest of us and therefore
like all human music ever
Anthony is of African descent he just
happens to wear it a little more boldly
and beautifully on the surface than some
of the rest of us so within three months
of moving here and our own idyllic but
occasionally flawed Hamlet he was called
the n-word by a man driving down the
street he was refused entry to a bar and
while standing on a corner he was yelled
at all white lives matter you effing
it’s worth noting that the brave
individual shouting terms of endearment
for a small pet cat was doing that while
safely protected in his large coal
burning machine there’s a psychology
joke somewhere in there but I’m here
today to talk about music like so many
great activists and civil rights leaders
before him Anthony didn’t meet anger
with anger he met it with reflection
critical thinking and an appeal to our
City Council which they took him up on
and then ultimately with creativity
music and love in his own words I felt
it was my responsibility to foster the
conversation in an environment that
seemed non-judgmental and affirming as
an artist it seemed right to use music
as the great unifier it didn’t hurt that
he’s been a college professor so he had
the skills to put music in public
education together and the result was
one of the greatest events it was a
community confessional and a town hall
really that we’ve ever had at the Music
District the title my people
african-american composers poets and
social
issues but now it’s common knowledge
that African cultures bless the United
States with three of its most famous and
influential art forms jazz rock and roll
and hip hop how about a round of
applause for three of our greatest
I don’t know about you all but I take
some solace in the fact that generations
from now when they unearth our culture
from the dirt of future civilizations
jazz and rock and roll and hip hop will
have outlasted bad days bad decisions
bad situations bad seasons bad years bad
presidents but what I didn’t fully
realize even as someone who’s lived and
breathed these other great art forms his
whole life was the rich legacy of
African American music before jazz that
was the incredible journey that Anthony
brought all of us on together that night
of course we have traditional songs from
the slave ships spirituals from the
fields gospel from the church these folk
traditions led in the early 20th century
to the blues to Tin Pan Alley Broadway
and to classical composers Anthony led
us through all these different movements
these variations on a theme over time he
tie them in to the poetry and the social
issues of their day and let us draw our
own sonic conclusions even came to some
conclusions of his own I walked out a
different person Anthony said and I
think we all did I wish I could recreate
for you right here right now Anthony’s
talk this song is reading the audience’s
reactions the open conversation the hard
conversation the literal tears and gasps
and heartache and redemption
the poetry song and struggle of my
people and I hope I hope Anthony and all
our black friends would do is the
generous honor of calling it our people
resounded through the room that night
for negative hateful experience he and
they remix their reality co-created a
community this experience with music
transcends an individual event or place
I’m reminded of the gorgeous description
by Israeli conductor eat Italian of a
night at a classical music concert the
important thing he says is this
happiness doesn’t come from only the
conductor’s own story his own joy of
music the joy is about enabling other
people’s stories to be heard at the same
time you have the story of the orchestra
as a professional body you have the
story of the audience as a community you
have the stories of the individuals in
the orchestra and in the audience and
then you have all the other stories
seen people who built this wonderful
concert hall people who made all those
beautiful instruments and all those
stories are being heard at the same time
we have a motto at the Music District
find your place in music find your place
in music music is vast it’s eternal it’s
inside all of us individually but it
hits its highest form of expression
whether in an orchestra or a Broadway
show or a hip-hop cypher when it’s
shared between us what does the music
system
music ecosystem like ours look like
where people share every type of music
every day well a lot of things of course
a lot of people and styles and ideas
it’s a residency a collaboration and
exploration it’s a melody a practice a
legend a newcomer an interview it’s a
meditation a consultation a
documentation a co-write it’s a lesson a
rehearsal a master’s class a forum a
library a library I like that one it’s a
performance
it’s a taping it’s a think piece it’s a
recital it’s a supergroup it’s a holiday
it’s a brainstorm it’s a break it’s a
record
it’s a rumba a cappella get it
it’s a pan drum it’s a barn dance it’s a
ballet
it’s a raga it’s a remix it’s a
community these things all happen every
day across the street in Fort Collins
Colorado but they’re happening all over
the world in all these different music
ecosystems and they’re starting to tie
together across borders oceans and
continents
this October with a program called one
beat will bring 25 musicians from 25
different countries across the globe to
our little music ecosystem
it’ll be part creative residency making
songs and performing new projects and
part public residency engaging with our
citizens in classrooms and jam sessions
field recordings and town halls like the
troubadours of old Europe and the Middle
East the song lines of Aboriginal
Australia the sonic highways of modern
America
the location-based music apps of the
global marketplace one beat rejuvenates
this amazing force that moves through
and between all of us it’s music as
global diplomacy as connective tissue a
civic platform as conflict resolution
music as resistance to xenophobia
bigotry and fear as antidote and
lifeblood as information and inspiration
exchange like the songs of slavery that
literally mapped out the path to freedom
so back to the question not how these
ecosystems work but why why now why
music why have all these hubs started
popping up around the globe attracting
so much attention could it be that we
recognize that like ourselves our world
is in need of a little saving our
communities are in need of a little
saving our communications music in the
many manifestations of it a song a band
a community celebration or mourning a
school a block party these all offer us
a home for discovery music is the most
generous open-minded yet challenging
friend you know a practice without Dogma
a system of organization Without Borders
not exactly a safe space because music
and its creation hurts sometimes they
tear down pieces of the Creator they
cause conflict amongst the group
creating and often between the audience
and performer so more like an open space
a space where it seems that with enough
dialogue and determination anything
might happen and in a world of
increasing top-down intolerance it
really is up to us together from the
ground up to stay open where governments
and structured religions
and economic systems have left us behind
or on the sidelines or even taking
advantage of us
music ecosystems might provide us a new
laboratory for true pluralism the
quality and diversity hope in expression
those are yearnings as old as our own
tongues minds and spirits as both our
campfires and our aspirations for the
stars
music offers us that ancient yet cutting
edge can’t fire and also the deep space
to find ourselves and to find each other
music offers us the places we seek it
also asks something of us to come back
to our world with open ears
music gathers us and in turn we give
receive discover co-create remix our
communal communal reality together the
colors saw the rainbows are pretty in
the sky and so on the faces of people
passing by I see friends shaking hands
saying how do you do but they’re really
saying I love you I hear babies cry I
watch them grow they’ll learn much more
than I’ll ever know and I think to
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[Music]
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