Arts and science do go together

Have a look at this piece in nature.com entitled 'How the arts can help you to craft a successful research career.' One passage within the general discussion in particular is illuminating: ''[Music] hones the ability to focus,'' says Elaine …

Published: 9 Feb 2021. Updated: 3 years.

Have a look at this piece in nature.com entitled 'How the arts can help you to craft a successful research career.'

One passage within the general discussion in particular is illuminating:

''[Music] hones the ability to focus,'' says Elaine Bearer, a neuroscientist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque who is also an accomplished composer. “When you’re doing music, you’re doing that one thing, and you do it with your full brain,” says Bearer, who plays several instruments. “And when you do science that way, you do it really well.”

And another sends you even deeper:

'''Bravery, too, can be honed in the arts','' says Stephon Alexander, a cosmologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He’s been playing jazz saxophone since he was 11, moonlights in a jazz duo called God Particle and considered a career in music before deciding that science was more stable.

''Improvisation is a key element of jazz, and if Alexander hits a wrong note, he has to recover quickly and keep playing. He says that this principle works in science, too. 'In doing theoretical physics research, my practice and my performance in improvisation allow me to take bigger risks with ideas, and not be too attached to the outcomes'.”

Read: the full article

Tags:

Evan Parker quartet album All Knavery & Collusion to be released in the spring

There is no more influential or significant free-improviser originating from the UK jazz scene down the decades than Evan Parker. 'A Well Staring at the Sky' introduces studio recording All Knavery & Collusion new on a resurgent Cadillac Records …

Published: 9 Feb 2021. Updated: 3 years.

Next post

There is no more influential or significant free-improviser originating from the UK jazz scene down the decades than Evan Parker. 'A Well Staring at the Sky' introduces studio recording All Knavery & Collusion new on a resurgent Cadillac Records for April. Pianist Alexander Hawkins, double bassist John Edwards and drummer Paul Lytton join the sax titan. To drill down what happens on the track? Signature overblowing and the gull-like indentations of sound that Parker has made part of his signature method are heard early on. A small cluster of notes do all the work to operate like a pendulum, Edwards' arco bass enters like a Greek chorus behind him, then the surprise hit of a cymbal and brief cascade from Hawkins transforms the mood. The short piece reaches an overlapping crescendo when Lytton ups the drama, a tumble of toms part of his contribution. Parker finds a way to respond as a low register moan takes his sound deep and into the darkness.