Jazz as an Economic Development Metaphor
When Miles Davis stepped on the bandstand in 1970 at the Fillmore East, he wasn’t getting up there to play or sound anything like he did before. He was seeking out meaning, searching for a new voice, angularly (or maybe angrily) melding layers together, and innovating by being different than himself.
Today, Avantgarde jazz bands are still trying to sound like Miles’ band from more than a half century ago. If he were alive, he’d probably tell them that the moment the sound left his horn was the only time that sound was leading edge and meaningful.
A Metaphorical New Sound
Economic and community development as a metaphorical jazz band often sounds the same. When economic development — whether strategies or services — has not changed in 50 years or even five years or two years, we get the same notes in the same combination. By doing so, it stands still instead of stretching out and truly going for it.
Steadfast City was formed from the ashes of being tired of standing still, of doing things the same way they have always been done. Rather, we meld together sector layers like government, business, real estate, social, community, philanthropy, and non-profit — just like Miles striving for a new sound. The result is leading-edge economic and community development strategies, services and outcomes.
Economic Insanity
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over to find comfort in an indifferent result. As economic and community developers, we must be unafraid to abandon convention for innovation. Just as Pharaoh Sanders, who at the age of 80, cut a revolutionary new record with the London Symphony Orchestra, we must continually compose a new sound with new instruments, new voices and new ways of doing things.
As economic and community developers, we must be unafraid to abandon convention for innovation.
Sanders is a “jazz lion” musician; he has a deep back catalogue, yet he refuses to stand still or rest on his past work even if people want him to. He continues to blow up his own mold. While jazz lions are aged and respected, they are often unchanging. Sanders, on the other hand, is more tiger-like, always on the on the hunt and hungry for his next meal--the next new sound.
Standing Still is Costly
Communities that refuse to stand still become places where health and wealth have equal footing on the local economic development scorecard. They are places where social impact emanates from economic impact. And they are comprised of thriving neighborhoods where people come together.
…true art never stays still; and neither do truly vibrant communities.
Miles kept moving and creating until he died. That’s because true art never stays still; and neither do truly vibrant communities. They change their sound and instrumentation constantly, trying new things while the other bands on tour remain stuck in formula and in the comfort of what once worked.
