Inside the Blue Zone: Phil Meets Grace

In the October issue of Random Riffs I set out the briefest of complexity theory overviews and I talked about the significant managing and organizing differences between the Green (Simple) and Blue (Complex) zones. The former, in musical terms, is the domain of orchestrated music and, in organizational terms, that of Mintzberg's Machine Bureaucracy; the latter, the domain of jazz and Mintzberg's Adhocracy. I thought it might be fun, as a footnote to that, if I were to give you a little taste of what a Blue Zone performance looks/sounds/feels like. To that end, I offer a musical "conversation" between the 75-year old Jazz legend, Phil Woods and the 14-year old (legend-in-the-making?) Grace Kelly. Here's what Woods had to say about the encounter.

“I first met Grace Kelly at the 2006 summer jazz program at Stanford University. I was amazed at her precocity and talent. Recently she sat in with me and the Jazz Ambassadors Jazz Band at the Pittsfield Jazz Fest. and we jammed together through "I'll Remember April." How did she sound? I gave her my hat! That is how good she sounded! She is the first alto player to get one. Hooray for the future of jazz and the alto sax!"

Make yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy.

November
05

Getting in the Groove