I had this blog ready to publish today, but just noticed Seth Godin’s Blog today on how you don’t find inspiration in windowless meeting rooms. Having said that, I think you can find inspiration just living life.. or in music, as this blog illustrates….now to it.
As I’ve posted before (in this blog), Oscar Peterson is my favourite pianist of all time.
Now I’ve learned how to embed YouTube posts into WordPress blogs (thanks to the Smart Youtube plugin), let me start this with a video of the great man. This one is regarded as one of the greatest jazz solos ever, and is only a minute long.
If you like more, I’ve put a medley in to the end of this blog… so many classic songs melded together… wonderful
Now, along the lines of some of the general themes of my blogs, what lessons and inspiration can we take from Oscar Peterson ?
First, Jazz music is an improvised art form, where the artists “take whatever comes in to their heads and instinctively play it, taking their natural creativity and talent and turning inspiration into a work of art”.
Sure…and creative directors rely purely on instinctive talent… and top quality business advisors and consultants just “wing it”, working purely from the gut…. and Michael Jordan didn’t have to practice.
No, in reality, Oscar Peterson was absolutely legendary for how much work he put into his art. Yes, he was a genius, and without his undoubtedly astonishing talent he could not have achieved what he did.
But.. and here is the “but”.. even for a genius like Oscar… it took an immense amount of perspiration to turn his inspiration into world class results.
Now, whatever your field is, do remember.. it often takes lots of hard work and preparation before inspiration comes….. and, at the other side, once inspiration has struck, the very best always “work their face off” (to quote Gary Vaynerchuk) to make sure inspiration doesn’t just give good results, but great ones !
Now for the 9:42 medley… enjoy :
