Get up on your feet, y'all!
IABC's 2007 conference in New Orleans is off to a fine start with an opening general session that had us literally dancing in the aisles. Who could blame us when the keynote address was delivered by Tom Sancton, a New Orleans native with an impressive resume. Tom has worked as a Time magazine journalist, most recently serving as its Paris Bureau Chief, and in 2006 published a book called Song for My Fathers about his childhood in New Orleans in the 50s and 60s and the musical experiences that have influenced him ever since. He's also a professional jazz clarinetist.
Tom spoke about how jazz can be viewed as a metaphor for communication and he cleverly weaved a number of pertinent themes into his presentation, such as leadership – one person has to lead the band, team work – jazz is the most "democratic music there is", creativity – great musicians interpret the music in their own way and take risks, and problem solving – jazz is all about improvisation.
These were all good points and well articulated, but the highlight was the Clive Wilson Quartet, which joined Tom on stage to bring these points to life through the medium of live jazz. Fantastic. We even got to hear our own improvised blues number, appropriately called the "IABC Blues".
Hats off to IABC for kicking off this year's event with such an entertaining, relaxed and appropriately themed opening session.
The Jambalaya served at the welcoming reception was pretty darn good too...
Mandy,
That sounds excellent, looking forward to reading more as the events unfold..!
Posted by: Sona Hathi | June 25, 2007 at 02:48 PM
yes, it's all going very well. The kick-off at Mardi Gras World last night was a hoot - the local high school's brass band being a particular highlight. Met lots of great people, seen some inspirational presentations. All good. More info to come soon...
Posted by: Annie Waite | June 25, 2007 at 07:31 PM