{"id":2445847,"date":"2019-06-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=308678"},"modified":"2019-07-01T07:50:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T13:50:05","slug":"aspen-ideas-ends-on-a-high-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-ideas-ends-on-a-high-note\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Ideas ends on a high note"},"content":{"rendered":"
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June 20, 2019 – Aspen, Colorado, USA: The Aspen Institute 2019 Ideas Festival Spotlight Health: Campus and Spotlight Health opener\\rPhoto by Ian Wagreich<\/strong>
Ian Wagreich | Ian Wagreich<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A week that started Sunday with former House Speaker Paul Ryan remarking that America is \u201cextremely polarized\u201d ended Saturday with musician Jon Batiste and CBS newsman John Dickerson sitting down for a jam session.<\/p>\n

Another Aspen Ideas Festival is in the books \u2014 seven days, or 10 counting the event\u2019s health component. Over those days attendees got a glimpse into the mind-sets of some the globe\u2019s most intelligent, creative and innovative people.<\/p>\n

That was the case Saturday at the Greenwald Pavilion. There, Batiste, band leader for \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert,\u201d treated the audience to an inside look at his creative process, as well as the challenges that come with fusing different musical styles for a live performance. In this instance, Batiste was accompanied by a collection of 20 students from the Aspen Music Festival & School, who, while Batiste sat at the piano, gave a maiden performance of Batiste\u2019s \u201cAmerican Symphony.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her introduction to Batiste, Boone noted the recently arrived students \u201chad not a lot of time\u201d to rehearse the piece, to which Batiste replied, \u201cNone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group acquitted themselves quite nicely, though, weaving together bits and pieces of American influences \u2014 blues, jazz, Appalachia \u2014 as well as music of the African diaspora.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really have to figure out how to make everybody play nice in the sandbox,\u201d the classically trained Batiste said of the composition. \u201cBut that\u2019s really what America is. \u2026 I wanted that struggle of negotiating things to be inherently part of the piece and ensemble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickerson interjected, \u201cBecause this is just not for you about music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Batiste said, almost incredulously. \u201cWhen should it ever be just about music? I mean, music is great, but I feel like music and any art best reflects life. And that\u2019s what the greatest artists do. It\u2019s not about notes. I mean, everybody can figure how to play to a certain degree of notes, or figure out how to create something, but if it doesn\u2019t have a resonance, it\u2019s like, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any point to it besides it can be a hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Batiste, 32, is a New Orleanian with a bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degree from the Juilliard School. A frequent guest of Aspen Ideas, he praised the musical, and enduring, genius of such 20th century musicians Louis Armstrong and Big Mama Thornton.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to learn to edit yourself, but in real time,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when you\u2019re playing jazz, the thing that makes someone great, when you hear a great improviser, it\u2019s not how fast they play, how much they play, or even if they\u2019re always playing the correct note. It\u2019s more about, does it feel right. And that\u2019s based on your taste, and only you can gauge when it feels right. Sometimes that might feel right to you, but the audience might feel another way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Batiste and Dickerson, a correspondent for \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d capped off the night with a blues jam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in the presence of Jon Batiste, sometimes you do career-ending things,\u201d Dickerson said.<\/p>\n

The journalist, however, held his own on guitar, while Batiste made the difficult look easy, as most of the top of their field do \u2014 all to the audience\u2019s delight.<\/p>\n

The next high-profile, local event on tap for The Aspen Institute is the Aspen Security Forum, scheduled July 17 to 20.<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 20, 2019 – Aspen, Colorado, USA: The Aspen Institute 2019 Ideas Festival Spotlight Health: Campus and Spotlight Health opener\\rPhoto by Ian WagreichIan Wagreich | Ian Wagreich A week that started Sunday with former House Speaker Paul Ryan remarking that America is \u201cextremely polarized\u201d ended Saturday with musician Jon Batiste and CBS newsman John Dickerson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 14:16:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2445878,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445847\/revisions\/2445878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}