[Music]
good morning I want to start by asking
you a question have you ever had a
transformative experience by
transformative I mean something that
fundamentally changes the way you think
about the world around you an epiphany a
profound moment of clarity or even a
sense that you can change something or
impact something that may be a minute
just prior you and your friends thought
was impossible for some this happens in
a religious setting like what happened
to me when I was 12 when I realized that
I had the power to guide me for the rest
of my life just within me for others
it’s an artistic setting like what
happened when I first encountered a
Basquiat and my life changed forever
again
still there are those who need a wider
community context like when we watched
the first human being set foot on the
moon or the tragedy of 9/11 or even the
hope that came with the election of
Barack Obama for some and for others the
fear you know my opinion I don’t think
the problem is that we don’t know how to
trust is that we’ve been socialized to
the material world to such an extent
that we don’t trust our innermost
authentic selves but I believe that it’s
in that moment that we come to trust
ourselves that we become powerful and
that power allows us to connect with
other powerful human beings and then
work together in a community to change
the world around us so I’ve learned that
there are three steps to move from trust
to transformation the first is that
internal self trust the second is
external building a community of trust
and the third is activating that trust
or active trust I’ve experienced all
three through my experiences as a
musician learning to trust yourself is
as much about being open to the
possibility that you are capable of more
than you ever ever thought as it is
accepting the
we may have been socialized to be less
so that others a very few can be more my
first conscious experience with trusting
myself came around the time I was 12
years old a musician in the church I
started playing drums at 2 I began
playing for church choirs at 6 and I
became professional at 12 and what I
learned early in that work in the black
church was that our role as musicians
was to remove ourselves or die to self
remove our ego from the situation so
that we can allow the God of the gospel
to move through us and enact
transformation within the congregation
you know it was one of these moments we
call that energy the anointing it was in
one of those moments that I was filled I
was consumed with this energy that
seemed to emanate from the inside out
and I realized that I was more I could
be more and that I had to then do the
work to build that next level that next
phase of my existence as I began to do
that work of becoming I started to seek
out other musicians like-minded
musicians and look for ways in which
that power was modeled in real time with
other ensembles that search took me
outside the walls of the church and I
learned about the work of John Coltrane
John Coltrane is a jazz musician who
created a work called a Love Supreme and
when I first heard this piece it again
changed my life there’s a great story of
Branford Marsalis asking Elvin Jones the
drummer in this picture how does that
ensemble the John Coltrane quartet get
to the level of passion power and
intensity it did in such a short time
they were only together for a few years
and and the colorful way that Elvin
spoke modified for a family-friendly
audience he said you have to be willing
to die for your ensemble when I heard
these notes I understood that this
should be the opening of a Love Supreme
[Music]
[Music]
so we hear from the opening invocation
of a Love Supreme the first movement
called an acknowledgement the beginnings
of what for many was a transformative
album it changed us from the inside out
and this can be shown that it can be
measured empirically in the field of
science or physics called cymatics
cymatics is a Greek word that means wave
and those of us who study cymatics we
study the way sound waves or frequencies
affect the physical world there’s a
great researcher named dr. Masaru Emoto
and he wrote a book called messages from
water there’s a great video on YouTube
as well where he showed that water from
the tap just sink when seen under a
microscope looks just clear you can see
right through it but when you put it in
the middle of a room and you have people
bless or curse the water that water that
was once clear then develops these
beautiful geometric shapes if it was
blessed or these strange disfigured
shapes if it was cursed
we literally threw Nomo the power of the
word and the intentions behind the word
have the ability to change ourselves
each other and the world around us at
the molecular level in my own work I
searched as I said for like-minded
musicians and I found them and we’ve
been working together for about 20 years
now we were all very confident in our
individual skills super confident it
took us about five years to figure out
how to trust each other in the band and
then the last 10 15 years or so we’ve
learned to activate that trust what
you’re going to see is a short clip of a
recent performance where we’re playing a
rhythm called a Bembe rhythm is European
rhythm and worship of the Orisha
or what we might call angels and the
rhythm is consistent and then it gets
suspended it builds tension and then we
set up a powerful solo by our
saxophonist
[Music]
so what you saw was dr. William
Minnifield on piano bassist Dean Hewlett
and myself set up this rhythm and build
intensity and then let it go and that
kind of unstable rhythm builds more
intensity and our saxophonist Edwin
Beier comes in with pure sound not notes
and we then go to that next level and
many people had to enter that
performance came up and remarked how
they were transformed how that
performance really touched them and even
in some cases healed them so you’ve seen
and we’ve talked about how this works on
the bandstand but I submit to you that
it happens outside of the bandstand
beyond the stage in the work that I’m
doing at the Columbus Foundation I’m
fortunate to work with community
partners who are very very capable they
trust the work that they’re doing in the
communities to engage young people
toward their own success what we’re
doing now is that second phase we’re
building community trust and hope is
that in the years to come we can
activate that trust to ensure that all
young people particularly those who need
us most are able to move from risk to
promise so I’ve learned that the point
at which we trust ourselves and each
other implicitly is that point where we
become powerful now imagine what would
happen if we move from trust to
transformation together thank you
[Applause]
good morning I want to start by asking
you a question have you ever had a
transformative experience by
transformative I mean something that
fundamentally changes the way you think
about the world around you an epiphany a
profound moment of clarity or even a
sense that you can change something or
impact something that may be a minute
just prior you and your friends thought
was impossible for some this happens in
a religious setting like what happened
to me when I was 12 when I realized that
I had the power to guide me for the rest
of my life just within me for others
it’s an artistic setting like what
happened when I first encountered a
Basquiat and my life changed forever
again
still there are those who need a wider
community context like when we watched
the first human being set foot on the
moon or the tragedy of 9/11 or even the
hope that came with the election of
Barack Obama for some and for others the
fear you know my opinion I don’t think
the problem is that we don’t know how to
trust is that we’ve been socialized to
the material world to such an extent
that we don’t trust our innermost
authentic selves but I believe that it’s
in that moment that we come to trust
ourselves that we become powerful and
that power allows us to connect with
other powerful human beings and then
work together in a community to change
the world around us so I’ve learned that
there are three steps to move from trust
to transformation the first is that
internal self trust the second is
external building a community of trust
and the third is activating that trust
or active trust I’ve experienced all
three through my experiences as a
musician learning to trust yourself is
as much about being open to the
possibility that you are capable of more
than you ever ever thought as it is
accepting the
we may have been socialized to be less
so that others a very few can be more my
first conscious experience with trusting
myself came around the time I was 12
years old a musician in the church I
started playing drums at 2 I began
playing for church choirs at 6 and I
became professional at 12 and what I
learned early in that work in the black
church was that our role as musicians
was to remove ourselves or die to self
remove our ego from the situation so
that we can allow the God of the gospel
to move through us and enact
transformation within the congregation
you know it was one of these moments we
call that energy the anointing it was in
one of those moments that I was filled I
was consumed with this energy that
seemed to emanate from the inside out
and I realized that I was more I could
be more and that I had to then do the
work to build that next level that next
phase of my existence as I began to do
that work of becoming I started to seek
out other musicians like-minded
musicians and look for ways in which
that power was modeled in real time with
other ensembles that search took me
outside the walls of the church and I
learned about the work of John Coltrane
John Coltrane is a jazz musician who
created a work called a Love Supreme and
when I first heard this piece it again
changed my life there’s a great story of
Branford Marsalis asking Elvin Jones the
drummer in this picture how does that
ensemble the John Coltrane quartet get
to the level of passion power and
intensity it did in such a short time
they were only together for a few years
and and the colorful way that Elvin
spoke modified for a family-friendly
audience he said you have to be willing
to die for your ensemble when I heard
these notes I understood that this
should be the opening of a Love Supreme
[Music]
[Music]
so we hear from the opening invocation
of a Love Supreme the first movement
called an acknowledgement the beginnings
of what for many was a transformative
album it changed us from the inside out
and this can be shown that it can be
measured empirically in the field of
science or physics called cymatics
cymatics is a Greek word that means wave
and those of us who study cymatics we
study the way sound waves or frequencies
affect the physical world there’s a
great researcher named dr. Masaru Emoto
and he wrote a book called messages from
water there’s a great video on YouTube
as well where he showed that water from
the tap just sink when seen under a
microscope looks just clear you can see
right through it but when you put it in
the middle of a room and you have people
bless or curse the water that water that
was once clear then develops these
beautiful geometric shapes if it was
blessed or these strange disfigured
shapes if it was cursed
we literally threw Nomo the power of the
word and the intentions behind the word
have the ability to change ourselves
each other and the world around us at
the molecular level in my own work I
searched as I said for like-minded
musicians and I found them and we’ve
been working together for about 20 years
now we were all very confident in our
individual skills super confident it
took us about five years to figure out
how to trust each other in the band and
then the last 10 15 years or so we’ve
learned to activate that trust what
you’re going to see is a short clip of a
recent performance where we’re playing a
rhythm called a Bembe rhythm is European
rhythm and worship of the Orisha
or what we might call angels and the
rhythm is consistent and then it gets
suspended it builds tension and then we
set up a powerful solo by our
saxophonist
[Music]
so what you saw was dr. William
Minnifield on piano bassist Dean Hewlett
and myself set up this rhythm and build
intensity and then let it go and that
kind of unstable rhythm builds more
intensity and our saxophonist Edwin
Beier comes in with pure sound not notes
and we then go to that next level and
many people had to enter that
performance came up and remarked how
they were transformed how that
performance really touched them and even
in some cases healed them so you’ve seen
and we’ve talked about how this works on
the bandstand but I submit to you that
it happens outside of the bandstand
beyond the stage in the work that I’m
doing at the Columbus Foundation I’m
fortunate to work with community
partners who are very very capable they
trust the work that they’re doing in the
communities to engage young people
toward their own success what we’re
doing now is that second phase we’re
building community trust and hope is
that in the years to come we can
activate that trust to ensure that all
young people particularly those who need
us most are able to move from risk to
promise so I’ve learned that the point
at which we trust ourselves and each
other implicitly is that point where we
become powerful now imagine what would
happen if we move from trust to
transformation together thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: