Greg Thomas

CEO: Jazz Leadership Project; Co-Director: Omni-American Future Project; Host: Straight Ahead: The Omni-American Podcast

[Ten Thutty @thenotoryousone]

The last survivor from the famous A Great Day in Harlem picture 🙏🏾

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

Sonny Rollins, gone at 95.

I once asked him how he improvises. He said: learn every rudiment, then get on stage and forget it. Let the spiritual take over.

"When I play my horn, the music plays me."

Master the craft. Then trust it enough to let go.

Here's my interview from 2010, republished four years ago: https://t.co/3DnANyKhGl

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

18 years married to my love and partner in life, Jewel, yesterday.

Years before the wedding, I thought I'd lost her. So I made her a special cassette tape and put a love song performed by Cannonball Adderley on my answering machine.

She came back.

The leadership on which our work is built started there.
Ever make someone a mixtape? 👇 https://t.co/k9I3JdhtMZ

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

Thanks to my partner Aryeh Tepper for highlighting my essay in the latest edition of The Omni-American Review on how the thought of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray grounds my deracialization efforts.

[The Omni-American Project @Omni_American_]

https://t.co/nNXhqMMjFL

Turning to the work of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray, @gregthomas22 confronts “the scourge of... racialization” that has “poisoned American life from before the nation’s… founding." In Vol. II of The Omni-American Review...

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

Miles to Coltrane, who couldn't stop once a solo got going:

"You don't have to play everything you know in every solo."

He also reportedly told 'Trane to take the horn out of his mouth.

We learned this the hard way, pitching our JLP business.
We were not over-prepared. We were overplaying.
https://t.co/I9iNyb13Qx
#JazzLeadership

[The Omni-American Project @Omni_American_]

https://t.co/fcrcK3BLZx

Composer Dan Asia explores connections between Abraham Heschel and classical music, Cage's 4'33", his new opera, "The Tin Angel," Moses as the greatest listener in history, and more

In Vol. 2 of The Omni-American Review...

@JamesRHarrigan

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

"I want to create something beautiful."

That single phrase from our bassist, Corcoran Holt, stopped a room full of Google leaders. 🎵

Because beauty and good aren’t soft ideas. They’re north stars.

• Beauty invites aspiration
• Good anchors purpose
• Together, they transform how teams create

What would shift if your next project brief started with: “Let’s make something beautiful”?
https://t.co/hcIbhvq1os
#EnsembleMindset #Leadership #PurposeDriven

[The Omni-American Project @Omni_American_]

https://t.co/rSGbqQPIn7

[The Omni-American Project @Omni_American_]

Issue #2 of The Omni-American Review is LIVE

With Wynton Marsalis, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, @gregthomas22, @AmsterdamLost and more

Link to the journal & @omni_american's "The Omni-American Tradition: An Affirmative Alternative to Resentment" can be found in the comment, below

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

Drucker said the modern organization should sound like a jazz combo, not a symphony.

Bennis said the leader has to give up the "omniscient and omnipotent fantasy."

MIT's David Autor now says AI itself is the jazz soloist.

If the machine can solo, what are humans for?
https://t.co/LzwbWWwl2j
#AI #Leadership

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

When the Machine and AI Agents Solo - https://t.co/GMiyR9Qe0X

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

@donharmusi laid down his saxophone, sat at the piano, and played the exact phrasing he wanted to hear from his pianist.

Encouraging and challenging at once. That's the architecture of development.

My partner Jewel's new piece on being invited, coaxed, or pulled into self-discovery: https://t.co/BqaKeIig6o

#JazzLeadership #Leadership #AIEthics #BigEars #TuneInToLeadership

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

Being Invited or Pulled into Self-Discovery - https://t.co/vJsE5okYhb

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

74 years ago today, Ralph Ellison published Invisible Man. It won the National Book Award, has never gone out of print, and the vast majority of his critics still haven't written anything comparable.

Ellison's standard: craftsmanship IS morality. If you claim to speak truth but won't master your craft, you're being dishonest.

"Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?"

Perhaps the most provocative closing line in American fiction. Still unanswered.
https://t.co/1WhbbXjrzX

[Greg Thomas @gregthomas22]

America turns 250. Common ground isn't enough anymore. We need higher ground.

Albert Murray called it Omni-American, an identity that exists because of our African, European, Indigenous & immigrant convergences. Not unanimity. Ensemble.

That's a democratic ideal. And it's ours to claim.

What holds us together? 🔗 https://t.co/PXYeRhwNPp

#America250 #OmniAmerican #Jazz #AmericanIdentity #AlbertMurray