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dweemeister · 4 years

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2020 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (preliminary round)

Yup, it’s back (bullet indentations are not working, so this post will look very ugly on your dashboards)!

Tagging a few folks who have participated before in this annual tradition/folks who I would like to extend an open invitation to (please contact me if you’re interested so I can sort you in a group ASAP... you will also be tagged for the final unless you tell me you are not interested): @birdsongvelvet, @bitch-genius, @dog-of-ulthar, @idontknowmuchaboutmovies, @loveless422, @lvl9gay, @neverwasastoryofmorewhoa, @phendranaedge, @poncho-honcho, @sayaf, @shadesofhappy, @thethirdman8, @uncoolforelimb, and @wehadfacesthen.

Hello everybody. For my fellow Americans, I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one. For the non-Americans reading things, I hope you are doing well, as always! Many things have fallen to the wayside in this unforgettable year. So in hopes of providing some sense of continuity and normalcy, here - as you have agreed to - is the Preliminary Round for 2020's Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (MOABOS). This is the eighth time it has been contested and the seventh consecutive year it has been open to involvement from family, friends, and tumblr followers.

For those new to this, my classic movie blog traditionally ends the year by honoring some of the best achievements from movies that I saw for the first time this calendar year (the "Movie Odyssey") with an Oscar-like ceremony. I choose all the nominees and winners from each category, save one: Best Original Song. It is the only category I can think of that does not require you to watch several movies in their entirety. I consider MOABOS as a sort of cinematic-musical thank-you for your moral support in various ways.

An unspecified number of songs have already advanced to the final round. 24 songs will contest this prelim in two groups - Group A and Group B. In a year when COVID-19 has closed theaters (and which I refused to go to an indoor theater even when they reopened), a year that I did not feel compelled to watch the newest releases on streaming services, there is not a single 2020 entry for 2020's MOABOS. That is, obviously, a MOABOS first - no other MOABOS edition has lacked a shortlisted song from a film released that same calendar year. And as of writing this sentence, I have not seen a single film released in 2020. Despite the lack of 1930s songs, this year's shortlisted songs might be the oldest on average. In other news, this year's field is a modest improvement from the record monolingual field of last year's (which contained only English and two Vietnamese-language entries). 2019's preliminary was the most chaotic we had ever seen, with shocking last-day stumbles and surges from certain songs ("I Dug a Ditch" from Thousands Cheer) that riled up a lot of participants. It's 2020 - will there be a repeat or even more drama at this stage?

INSTRUCTIONS Please rank (#1-12) at least six of your group's songs. Please consider to the best of your ability: how musically interesting the song is (incl. and not limited to musical phrasing and orchestration); its lyrics; context within the film (contextual blurbs provided for every entry for those who haven't seen the films); choreography/dance direction (if applicable); and the song's cultural impact/life outside the film (if applicable, and, in my opinion, least important factor). Imperfections in audio and video quality may not be used against any song. I encourage you to send in comments and reactions with your rankings - it makes the process more enjoyable for you and myself! The top five songs in each group automatically advance to the final round. I reserve the right to pick 0-2 songs from one or both groups that finished outside the top five in their respective groups to contest the final round.

The deadline for submission is Saturday, December 12 at 11 PM Pacific Time. That is 9 PM Hawaii/Aleutian Time. That deadline is also Sunday, December 13 at 1 AM Central Time / 2 AM Eastern Time / 7 AM GMT / 8 AM CET / 9 AM EET. This deadline - as we have seen in the last few years - may be pushed back if there are a large number of people who have not submitted in time. However, I very much do not wish to extend the deadline because the final round is more intensive and usually involves more participants. Tabulation details are in the “read more” below.

Please participate in the group you have been sorted into, if you have not yet been sorted into a group and would like to participate, please contact me. You can access most, not all, of your group’s songs in these YouTube playlists: (Group A) / (Group B). Again, please note that not all of your group's songs are in the playlist for various reasons.

Happy listening. Feel free to listen as many times as you need, and I hope you discover music and movies that strike your interest. The following is formatted... ("Song title", composer and lyricist, film title):

GROUP A

“Blue Shadows on the Trail”, music and lyrics by Eliot Daniel and Johnny Lange, Melody Time (1948)

Performed by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers

This is the introductory song to the final segment of Melody Time. That segment is dedicated to the legend of Pecos Bill, and this atmospheric song leads into the telling of that story.

“Born Free”, music by John Barry, lyrics by Don Black, Born Free (1966)

Performed by Matt Munro

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Song

This version with lyrics appears in the end credits. The main theme in the song is introduced in the opening credits and is incorporated extensively in John Barry's score across the film. Born Free, based on the non-fiction book of the same name is about two white Kenyan conservationists who raise an orphaned lion cub and eventually release her into the wild.

“But the World Goes 'Round”, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, New York, New York (1977)

Performed by Liza Minnelli

In this musical, USO singer Francine Evans (Minnelli) has been performing in New York City nightclubs, hoping to someday become a major recording star. This song appears as she is recording that very hit that will propel her to stardom.

“Exsultate Justi”, music and lyrics by John Williams, Empire of the Sun (1987)

Performed by orchestra and chorus under the direction of Williams

Lyrics in Latin

In this historical epic, affluent British school boy Jamie Graham (a young Christian Bale) is living with his parents in Shanghai when the Japanese invade. Jamie is separated from his parents and placed in an internment camp. Soon before the end of WWII, the prisoners are moved elsewhere, but Jamie hides and stays put. This song plays as Jamie bikes around the empty camp and continues to play as he encounters liberating U.S. troops. Jamie is dirty and malnourished when found; one can argue that this song is used ironically. It plays once more over the end credits. "Exsultate Justi" is a variation on a theme John Williams develops over the course of the film and harkens back to Jamie's past, attending Anglican services with parents.

"Farewell to Storyville", music by Louis Alter, lyrics by Edgar De Lange, New Orleans (1947)

Performed by Louis Armstrong and his band, Billie Holiday, and company

In New Orleans, the Storyville district was a den of drinking, gambling, jazz, and prostitution. The district was the home to a heavily black populace. The U.S. military, about to establish a Naval base nearby, forces the city to close the district for good. This song is a jazzy dirge to a center of jazz - a musical genre looked down upon by many of the city's upper-class whites due to its ties (real and imagined) to crime.

"Hawaiian Sunset", music and lyrics by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett, Blue Hawaii (1961)

Performed by Elvis Presley

In a musical packed end-to-end with songs, Chadwick "Chad" Gates (Elvis) has taken a job with a tour guide agency - and this includes performing during a luau for tourists. "Hawaiian Sunset" appears as one of the dinner show's numbers.

"Is There Still Anything That Love Can Do?", music and lyrics by Yôjirô Noda, Weathering with You (2019, Japan)

Performed by RADWIMPS

Lyrics in Japanese (translation)

Weathering with You is a romantic fantasy anime about a high school boy who runs away from his rural home to Tokyo, where he meets a girl who can manipulate the weather. It has been inexplicably raining for weeks without interruption in Tokyo, so they form a business to help clear the inclement weather for special events. The melody of this song is heard throughout the film's score. It does not appear with lyrics until late in the film. The song is played under the boy's seemingly impossible attempt to save her from an unwilling human sacrifice.

There is so much plot in this damn film (it's all Makoto Shinkai's fault) - I can't explain the context of the song or this movie in a reasonable amount of space.

“Mad Monster Party”, music by Maury Laws, lyrics by Jules Bass, Mad Monster Party? (1967)

Performed by Ethel Ennis

(opening credits version) / (soundtrack version with no sound effects)

In this Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated film, Baron Boris von Frankenstein (Boris Karloff in his final Frankenstein-related role) has discovered a formula that can destroy matter. Dispatching his bats to send the news, he summons the various members of the Worldwide Organization of Monsters to inform them of his discovery. This song is performed over the film's opening credits and the various introductions for the monsters as they receive their summons.

“My Dream Is Yours”, music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Ralph Blane, My Dream Is Yours (1949)

Initially performed by Doris Day; later reprised by Hal Derwin

Singer Martha Gibson (Day) has abruptly left New York City for Los Angeles to become a star on the radio. In a film where personal sacrifice is central, she stresses over how to bring her son out west with her, the direction of her career, and her tumultuous love life. "My Dream Is Yours" is the song that makes Martha a star, laying out the film's themes in its lyrics. I was unable to find Derwin's reprise, but no matter as the reprise is rather inconsequential.

“Ride the Wild Surf”, music and lyrics by Jan Berry, Brian Wilson, and Roger Christian, Ride the Wild Surf (1964)

Performed by Jan and Dean

Ride the Wild Surf is a surfing film that, unlike most surfing films of this time, is a drama. It follows three surfers (Fabian, Tab Hunter, Peter Brown) who have come to Oahu at the end of December to ride the large waves of Waimea Bay (made famous internationally by this song, this movie, and the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA"). This song appears in the film's closing credits. The video provided is a montage of surfing footage that appears in the film.

“That’ll Do”, music and lyrics by Randy Newman, Babe: Pig in the City (1998)

Performed by Peter Gabriel

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song

This song begins at the end (and through the end credits) of Babe: Pig in the City, the second and last film in this series about a sheep-herding pig who perseveres amidst other animals and humans with ulterior agendas. The title is derived from the famous quote said by Arthur Hoggett (James Cromwell) to reassure Babe: "That'll do, pig. That'll do."

“Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Hassen Sitam”, music and lyrics by S.D. Burman, Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959, India)

Performed by Geeta Dutt (dubbing Waheeda Rehman)

Lyrics in Hindi - roughly, "Time Has Inflicted Such Sweet Cruelty On Us"

Song begins at 1:03:31 and ends at 1:07:51

Make sure to turn on the video’s English captions

In this romantic tragedy told in flashback, Suresh Sinha (Guru Dutt) is a director looking back on his life. Suresh is unhappily married to a woman whose in-laws look down on him because, to them, working in films is contemptible to their social class. Suresh meets a woman, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman), on accident and she is soon cast as the lead for his next film. They fall in love, but it is never consummated for various reasons. This song is the most explicit statement of that love in this film. How much of the scene's set-up is observable by the characters is up to the viewer's interpretation.

Group A participants include: @addaellis, @introspectivemeltdown, @memetoilet, @myluckyerror, @plus-low-overthrow, @shootingstarvenator, @themusicmoviesportsguy, @theybecomestories, @umgeschrieben, @underblackwings, @yellanimal. Seven others - including myself and my sister - are currently slated to be voting in Group A.

GROUP B

“Angela”, music and lyrics by José Feliciano and Janna Merlyn Feliciano, Aaron Loves Angela (1975)

Performed by José Feliciano

(English-language version) / (Spanish single version)

Played over the opening credits to this teenage drama that is partly a blaxploitation film, partly an interracial coming-of-age romance. The movie wasn't a hit, but the Spanish-language version of this song was received well in Latin America.

“Aren’t You Kind of Glad We Did?”, music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947)

Originally performed by Betty Grable and Dick Haymes

(soundtrack version with Judy Garland and Haymes) / (modern arrangement far more faithful to how song sounds in the film)

Cynthia Pilgrim (Grable) is the top typewriting student from a business college in this period piece where the typewriter is the newest invention to sweep the business world. This song appears as Pilgrim and her boss, John Pritchard (Haymes), are about to go out on a date for dinner after talking about how society looks down on women in public without a chaperone.

“The Blues are Brewin’”, music by Louis Alter, lyrics by Edgar De Lange, New Orleans (1947)

Performed by Louis Armstrong and his band and Billie Holiday

(in-film version) / (Billie Holiday single)

After being evicted by the U.S. military from the historic Storyville district of New Orleans (the Navy had just opened a base in the area, and would not tolerate places of gambling, jazz, and prostitution nearby), the characters played by Armstrong and Holiday tour the country with a jazz band in tow. This song appears within a montage showing the passage of time.

“Dekhi Zamaane Ki Yaari / Bichhde Sabhi Baari Baari”, music by S.D. Burman, lyrics by Kaifi Azmi, Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959, India)

Performed by Mohammad Rafi (dubbing Guru Dutt)

Lyrics in Hindi - roughly, "I Have Seen How Deeply Friendship Lies / I Have Seen People Abandon Me One by One"

Part 1 (3:44-8:27) / Part 2 (2:16:29-2:20:42)

Make sure to turn on the video’s English captions

In this romantic tragedy, Suresh Sinha (Dutt) is a washed-up director looking back on his life. In the first part, the song leads into the rest of the film - which is almost entirely a flashback. In brief, Suresh is unhappily married to a woman whose in-laws look down on him because, to them, working in films is contemptible to their social class. Suresh meets a woman, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman), on accident and she is soon cast as the lead for his next film. They fall in love, but it is never consummated for various reasons. Eventually, his career crashes after a box office bomb and her career is ascendant. Leading into the second part of the song, Suresh is penniless and working as an extra at the movie studio. Shanti recognizes him, wants to help, but he refuses to revive his career on the back of her success. Kaagaz Ke Phool has elements of autobiography, and Suresh's fate has parallels with what happened to Dutt after this film was released.

“End Theme from Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades”, music by Eiken Sakurai, lyrics by Kazuko Koike, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972, Japan)

Performed by Tomisaburo Wakayama

Lyrics in Japanese (translation)

Video provided is not safe for work (NSFW) due to stylized violence

Ogami Ittô (Wakayama) is a former, disgraced executioner for the Tokugawa shogunate who wanders the land with his young son. He is intent on exacting revenge on the clan that murdered his wife. This song is played non-diegetically after Ittô has slain dozens of a corrupt governor's bodyguards and walks onward, pushing his son in a babycart, away from the dead left in his wake. This is the third of six films in the Lone Wolf and Cub series.

"Happy Endings", music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, New York, New York (1977)

Performed by Liza Minnelli and company (that's Jack Haley - who played the Tin Man and was, at the time, Minnelli's father-in-law - roughly seven minutes in)

(use in film) / (soundtrack version)

It is highly recommended one sees how this song is used in the film. Bear with me: this song is part of a movie within a movie. Within that movie within a movie, there is another movie. "Happy Endings" is the title end song to a film called Happy Endings within New York, New York. Singer Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli) has made it big as a recording artist and caps off her hit film, Happy Endings, with this song. We see Francine's ex, played by Robert De Niro, in the audience as the film ends. "Happy Endings" is a homage/deconstruction to midcentury Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) musicals. It serves the film as "The Broadway Melody" does to Singin' in the Rain (1952) or the 17-minute ballet does to conclude An American in Paris (1951).

"Here They Come (From All Over the World)", music and lyrics by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

Performed by Jan and Dean

The link above provides the entire film. You only need to watch from 0:00-4:11. If you like music from this era or want to hear more, this film is highly, highly recommended.

This is the opening credits song to a concert film recorded over two days in Santa Monica, California on October 28 and 29, 1964. The Teenage Awards Music International (T.A.M.I. - yes, I know it's an awkward name) Show included many of the most popular musical stars of that time - almost all of them name-dropped in this song. Jan and Dean, a surf music duo, served as hosts (and performed during) the show. You folks are lucky that this is the only original song from this film!

“Moonlight Swim”, music by Ben Weisman, lyrics by Sylvia Dee, Blue Hawaii (1961)

Performed by Elvis Presley

In a musical packed end-to-end with songs, Chadwick "Chad" Gates (Elvis) has taken a job with a tour guide agency. On his first day, he drives his first clients - a school teacher (who not so secretly is attracted to Chad) and four teenagers (one of whom becomes smitten) - to their destination.

“On the Boardwalk (in Atlantic City)”, music by Josef Myrow, lyrics by Mack Gordon, Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)

Performed by Carol Stewart (dubbing for Vera-Ellen), June Haver, and Vivian Blaine

(original soundtrack) / (Dick Haymes single)

In this rarely-seen musical (20th Century Fox wasn't very good at promoting its back catalogue compared to some other studios, and the situation is worse now that they are owned by Disney), three chicken farmer sisters (Vera-Ellen, Haver, and Blaine) decide to travel to Atlantic City in hopes of marrying a rich husband after learning their aunt's inheritance is not nearly as much as they want. They sing this song as they arrive and check into their hotel suite - which they apparently have not looked up the rate for.

Those who listened to the soundtrack version... FYI, $9.25 in 1902 is $280 in 2020.

“Personality”, music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Burke, Road to Utopia (1946)

Performed by Dorothy Lamour

(in-film performance) / (live radio performance)

In the fourth film of the Road to... comedy series, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's characters have just overpowered two Alaskan thugs with a history of murderous violence. As they enter a saloon dressed up as those two thugs, all of the patrons - in a town that only knows the thugs by reputation - shut up in terror. They are treated to a performance by Sal (Lamour), who is trying to find a map of a gold mine that the real outlaws supposedly have. A visual narrator (Robert Benchley) interrupts the scene before the song briefly.

“Please Don’t Stop Loving Me”, music and lyrics by Joy Byers, Frankie and Johnny (1966)

Performed by Elvis Presley

(in-film performance) / (single version)

Johnny (Elvis) and girlfriend Frankie (Donna Douglas) work on a Mississippi River riverboat as performers. Johnny is addicted to gambling and believes that another woman is spurring on his recent run of good luck. During a fit of jealousy-as-acting, Frankie accidentally shoots Johnny during a bit of musical theater (someone switched out the blanks for real bullets). This song occurs after Johnny has recovered from the accident.

"Wichita", music by Hans Salter, lyrics by Ned Washington, Wichita (1955)

Performed by Tex Ritter

This is the opening title song to this Western. It is one of many Wyatt Earp movies set before the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Earp (Joel McCrea) arrives in an otherwise lawless town of Wichita, Kansas where gunplay is rampant. In a radical move, Earp orders to seize the firearms of anyone living in or entering town - which doesn't sit well with some outlaws. This song is incorporated throughout the film's score.

Group B participants include: @cokwong, @emilylime5, @halfwaythruthedark, @maximiliani, @thewolfofelectricavenue, and @voicetalentbrendan. Twelve others - including me and my sister - are slated to be voting in Group B.

Contact me however you wish if you have questions or comments regarding MOABOS' processes or something specific about a song or a few. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are having difficulty accessing one of the songs (especially if it is region-locked) or if there is an error in the playlist.

I thank you all for your support for the Movie Odyssey, the blog, and for me personally - no matter how long I’ve known you or in what capacity. You will be contacted for the final round regardless of your participation here. If turnout in one group is lagging behind compared to another, I will ask some of the more senior participants to participate in the other group, too. No pressure if you cannot get to this, although I will be checking in as the deadlines get close. Stay safe and socially distanced, everyone.

TABULATION This preliminary round uses a points-based, ranked choice method which has been used since the first time I asked friends, tumblr followers, and family to help out. A respondent’s first choice receives 10 points, the second choice receives 9, the third choice receives 8, etc. The winner is the song that ends up with the most total points. The tabulation method used in this preliminary is used only as a tiebreaker in the final round (more on how the final is tabulated when we get there).

This tiebreaker will look slightly different this year.

Tiebreakers for above: 1) total points earned; 2) total #1 votes; 3) average placement on my and my sister's ballots; 4) tie declared

#2020 Movie Odyssey Awards

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sfjazz · 7 years

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SFJAZZ Collective Miles Davis CD review - All About Jazz

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/live-sfjazz-center-2016-music-of-miles-davis-and-original-compositions-review-by-john-kelman.php

By JOHN KELMAN

June 13, 2017

710 Views

In the thirteen years since the SFJAZZ Collective first came together in February 2004, this revolving door octet of "cream of the crop" US-based jazz musicians has, most years, followed a consistent modus operandi: select a well-known jazz (and, in two cases, beyond jazz) musician and pay tribute through innovative arrangements of his/her music, alongside a set of new original compositions—in almost every case, one each contributed by every member of the Collective.

In the ensuing years since its 2004 debut, which set an initial high bar by paying tribute to free jazz progenitor Ornette Coleman, the Collective has delivered additional homages to everyone from John Coltrane,Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter and McCoy Tyner toHorace Silver, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Stevie Wonder andMichael Jackson.

While there are more than enough artists to keep the Collective going in perpetuity, the above list of largely iconic jazz artists is missing one obvious entry: Miles Davis. It's curious, in fact, that it took the Collective so long to get to the late trumpeter, bandleader and stylistic redefiner; but perhaps it's the particularly broad scope of Davis' career that led to the Collective holding off until it could figure out how to best cover the farthest reaches of a musician who moved effortlessly—and in just four decades, from the 1950s through early '90s—from bebop to cool jazz, from modal jazz to free bop, and from the densely electrified fusion of the 1970s through a more eminently accessible and star power-driven final chapter of pop-informed jazz.

Thirteen years may have been a long time to wait for an SFJAZZ Collective tour and album dedicated to the music of Davis, along with a host of new original compositions from the current octet, but with Live: SFJAZZ Center 2016—Music of Miles Davis & Original Compositions, it's clearly been worth the wait.

A two-disc set, with one dedicated to the Davis arrangements and the other featuring the original compositions, Music of Miles Davis manages to cover considerable Davis territory with a compelling and creative blend of reverence and reinvention. Bassist Matt Penman contributes a reshuffled look at the title track to Milestones (Columbia, 1958), while trumpeter Sean Jones creates a semi-faithful reconstruction of "So What" and pianist Edward Simon metrically rejigs "All Blues," both from Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959). Alto saxophonistMiguel Zenon refracts "Nardis"—a composition written, but never actually performed, by Davis for then-Davis sextet altoistJulian "Cannonball" Adderley's Portrait of Cannonball (Riverside, 1958)—through a folkloric and Eastern European-tinged prism, while vibraphonistWarren Wolf contributes a hard-swinging "Joshua," first heard on the transitional Seven Steps to Heaven (Columbia, 1963), and tenor saxophonistDavid Sanchez presents a more outré yet still rhythmically propulsive look at "Teo," from Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia, 1961). And, representing Davis' electric years, drummer Obed Calvaire deconstructs the title track to Davis' seminal fusion masterpiece Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970), resulting in an even more open-ended take, while trombonistRobin Eubanks builds a fragment-driven and groove- heavy deconstruction of the title track to 1986's Tutu (Davis' Warner Brothers debut and first deep collaboration with bassist Marcus Miller).

This is the Collective's longest-lasting lineup—with the exception of Jones replacing Avishai Cohen, this incarnation has remained consistent since 2015'sLive: SFJAZZ Center 2014 -The Music of Joe Henderson & Original Compositions (SFJAZZ, 2015). And, while only Zenón remains from the Collective's 2004 incarnation—but with trombonist Robin Eubanks coming a relatively close second, having joined the group for its Fifth Annual Concert Tour in 2008—it's significant that the engine driving the Collective has remained stable since Live: SFJAZZ Center 2013—The Music of Chick Corea & New Compositions (SFJAZZ, 2014), with Simon, Penman and Calvaire. In many ways, it's the ideal confluence of the Collective's ongoing introduction of fresh ideas from new members and an adherence to the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

This constant refreshing of the Collective's lineup has led to a group united in concept if not by specific sound or chemistry, though both can be found in abundance with each lineup...including thus current one. That said, if the group must be placed in a box, the term "modern mainstream" best fits: largely acoustic, with a clear reverence for the jazz tradition while, at the same time, continually introducing ideas from farther afield, often the result of each of its members' work outside the Collective (with every member a leader in his own right), and plenty of the more sophisticated harmonic and rhythmic developments that have earmarked a considerable amount of the music coming from the post-'60s generations.

In recent years the Collective has also begun introducing a little electricity into the picture, with Cohen and Eubanks' tasteful effects first heard on Live in New York Season 8—Music of Stevie Wonder (SFJAZZ, 2011). Here, while still focusing largely on acoustic piano, Simon also adds a chiming Fender Rhodes to "Bitches Brew" and midway through "Tutu," while contributing synthesizer to two originals: Calvaires's numerically driven, polyrhythmic and densely contrapuntal "111"; and Eubanks' relatively (and uncharacteristically) simple yet still far from without its challenges composition, "Shields Green."

Every Davis arrangement, every new original composition, provides plenty of solo space, though the Collective rarely resorts to straight "head-solo-head" formats, instead couching improvisational work without the context of detailed compositional forms. With only two tracks dropping below the seven- minute mark and most tracks more than comfortably breaking the eight-minute threshold, there's a plethora of opportunities for delineated soloing, in-tandem trade-offs, extemporizations bolstered by appealing, four- part horn passages, breakdowns of the Collective into smaller subsets, unfettered free play and full-on octet blowing.

There's an embarrassment of riches to be found across Live: SFJAZZ Center 2016—Music of Miles Davis & Original Compositions' 140-minute program. One of the more intriguing Davis arrangements is Calvaire's "Bitches Brew"—a reading that flirts, at the start, with Joe Zawinul's title track to the trumpeter's similarly groundbreaking record from the previous year, In a Silent Way(Columbia, 1969), before opening up to greater freedom that remains predicated on the many simple but memorable fragments that Calvaire found while researching Davis' many live versions of the tune. The drummer discovered there were no consistent theme(s) across performances and so, he chose a few and arranged around them...most notably Davis' single-note staccato shots. As the track unfolds, what becomes clear is that Calvaire has fashioned a new, more considered arrangement; one that shifts from temporally unfettered free play to a more complexly constructed collection of time-driven brass lines, snaking through the drummer's frenetic playing before a brief but impressive bass solo leads to a near-free-for-all, with only Penman holding down the rhythm as even more frenzied lines emerge, as Calvaire both mirrors their rhythms and fills with reckless abandon before the group finally coalesces with the original track's seven-note ostinato. It's an exhilarating version; one which deconstructs the original's collage construction by producer Teo Macero and reconstructs it into a new form that Davis would never have been able to conceive at the time, based on his recording approach at that juncture in his career.

Calvaire's deconstruction/reconstruction is one of the Collective's approaches to creating 21st century arrangements of timeless classics, as Zenón demonstrated in his arrangement of "Superstition," from the Stevie Wonderset. Still, that shouldn't be taken as a suggestion of predictability; if anything the Collective has demonstrated, year after year, that it has the capacity to breathe new life into well-known material, even when its approach is more literal.

Jones' arrangement of "So What," the opening track to Davis' classic Kind of Blue, may begin with a brief, tightly arranged eight-second ensemble figure before turning more literally to the original's opening bass and piano duo (faithfully transcribed) and what has become one of the most instantly recognizable call-and-response themes in jazz history. Taken at a particular fast clip, re-harmonized and gradually morphing into a newly minted theme that finally comes back to its initial section, it opens up to a fast-swinging solo section for Eubanks. As he signals the end of his solo with a quote of Davis' familiar bass line, Simon picks up the baton for an equally impressive turn: another example of how, bolstered by Penman and Calvaire's unshakable anchor, the pianist constructs motif-driven improvisations that, like Eubanks, possess a clear sense of form, even as they are predicated upon in-the-moment spontaneity.

Zenón, a recipient of both the Guggenheim Fellowship and MacArthur ("Genius Grant") Fellowships—and a writer capable of bridging the gap between knotty complexity and folkloric innocence/simplicity—delivers a characteristically challenging chart for "Nardis," a modal tune that became much better known through pianist Bill Evans' many recordings. It's also taken at an uncharacteristically bright tempo, with a combination of serpentine lines and stop/start rhythms; a revision of the original melody to include some brief Eastern-tinged tonalities; and enough freedom to allow for a thrilling series of trade-offs (over a more complex form) between Zenón and Wolf before leading to an equally electrifying solo from Calvaire and a breathtaking ensemble conclusion that seems to challenge everyone— players and audience—to keep up.

Eubanks' "Tutu" reshuffles and alters the emphases on familiar but considerably re-harmonized changes, with Simon, Penman and Calvaire's metrically challenging support anchoring a set-defining solo of staggering virtuosity from the trombonist, before the tune finally shifts to the familiar, greasy bass line, muted trumpet theme...and a more atmospheric undercurrent, as Simon switches to Fender Rhodes.

Amongst one of the best sets of new original compositions since the Collective first formed, Penman's metrically challenging "Your Turn" is as worthy of attention as any, as the bassist jokingly describes the composition, in the liner notes, as "a poorly disguised attempt at revenge for many years of hard rhythm parts thrown at me." The first two minutes is a brass chorale of the most contemporary kind, with rhythmic twists and turns, shifting harmonies and staggered interactions leading to a gradually emerging theme and, finally, an extended bass solo of captivating invention, a band reiteration of the introduction and, finally, a series of impressive solos by Zenón, Wolf (who seems to get paradoxically more muscular and lithe with every passing year) and Eubanks.

Despite being a masterful player of frightening virtuosity, Wolf's "In the Heat of the Night" is, instead, a soulful ballad, with a drum groove culled from D'Angelo's chart-topping "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" creating a gentle but groove-heavy foundation for Jones' brief, blues-drenched solo and a lengthier feature for the vibraphonist that slowly builds to a powerful climax.

Elsewhere, Jones' own "Hutcherson Hug" is another extended feature for the vibraphonist; alluding to the affectionate hugs with whom the late vibraphonist met every member of the Collective when he was in the group from 2004 through 2007, it is, indeed, a soft, warm waltz that may feature lush horn arrangements but is, more often than not, a piece that breaks down into smaller group subsets, such as during Penman's solo, where he is supported only by Simon and a brush and cymbal-driven Calvaire. That the composition is not a feature for its composer only points to another characteristic of the Collective: a generous group of musicians who must also, as described by SFJAZZ Founder and Executive Artistic Director Randall Kline, be "good people." Everybody shines, of course, but this is clearly a group with egos checked at the door.

Equally, Sánchez's chant-driven "Canto" may have originally been written for another project and substituted here for the new tune first written by the saxophonist for the tour but, filled as it is with the space and simplicity that often earmarked Davis' work, it's a perfect choice. Filled with burnished brass harmonies, a soft, hand-driven pulse and one of Sanchez's most restrained yet effective solos on record, it's a perfect personal homage to the late trumpeter.

The set closes with Simon's "Feel the Groove." A pianist often associated (as is true of some of his other band mates, most notably Zenón) with music of a more cerebral nature, the composition is driven by a repetitive vibraphone figure and irresistible, loosely played rhythm. Calvaire's combination of cajón and drum kit, a stellar solo from Zenón and then, after an ensemble interlude, Simon's most thought-provoking improvisational turn of the set makes "Feel the Groove" a perfect closer that can be taken as a salve for the soul,while, at the same time, providing plenty of compositional substance for the mind to absorb.

The beauty of SFJAZZ Collective's privately released two and sometimes three-CD sets—which contain performances of all eight arrangements and original compositions—is that while no single live performance can include all sixteen tracks, the albums always provide a sampling of a particular year's full repertoire. While there are no dates currently up on the SFJAZZ site, it suggests that the Collective is continuing to tour these imaginative re-works of Miles Davis tunes alongside the group's new original music. Who the next musician up for tribute is still to be announced, but in the meantime, the SFJAZZ Collective has finally brought the music of Miles Davis into its ever-expanding repertoire, and with Live: SFJAZZ Center 2016—Music of Miles Davis & Original Compositions, released a live document that continues to position the group at the forefront of the modern mainstream...in the broadest, most accomplished fashion possible.

Track Listing: CD1: So What; Nardis; Milestones; Tutu; Bitches Brew; All Blues; Joshua; Teo. CD2: Tribe; Canto; Your Turn; 111; In the Heat of the Night; Shields Green; Hutcherson Hug; Feel the Groove.

Personnel: Miguel Zenón: alto saxophone; David Sánchez: tenor saxophone; Sean Jones: trumpet; Robin Eubanks: trombone; Warren Wolf: vibraphone, marimba; Edward Simon: piano, Fender Rhodes (CD-#4-5), synthesizer (CD2#4-5); Matt Penman: bass; Obed Calvaire: drums.

Title: Live: SFJAZZ Center 2016 - Music of Miles Davis & Original Compositions| Year Released: 2017 | Record Label: SFJAZZ

#SFJAZZ Collective

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attredd · 5 years

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As the field of Democratic Party presidential contenders narrows, we may well find ourselves stuck in a big ideas debate over the merits of "capitalism" versus "socialism." Of the three front-runners, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) famously called herself "a capitalist to my bones," while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) identifies as a democratic socialist. Former Vice President Joe Biden seems to be... whatever will keep the big money donors rolling in. Meanwhile, a lot of centrists, liberals and leftists are drawing up battle lines depending on whose label they prefer.But "socialism" and "capitalism" are just words. And the way they get used in everyday debate covers a vast and diverse array of economic arrangements. At the edges, they bleed into one another to the point you can't tell where one ends and one begins.For instance, consider the way your average Fox News pundit slings the word "socialist" at anyone to the left of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Or how the establishments of both parties, as well as the American billionaire class, are hell-bent against Warren becoming president. These are the defenders of America's status quo, which is understood to be capitalism. But whatever Warren means by the term is clearly something they want no part of. Meanwhile, if you actually pick through Sanders' definition of democratic socialism, it's basically some combination of Franklin Roosevelt's politics plus Nordic social democracy -- two things lots of people traditionally understood as falling under the capitalism umbrella.The difference between, say, giving markets "better rules" -- as Warren says she wants to do -- and "interfering with" or "disrupting" markets -- as Warren and Sanders' critics say they will do -- is entirely in the eye of the beholder. That's because markets themselves are social constructs all the way down. They simply don't exist before government, or whatever your local social authority is, lays down some rules giving them form and structure.In that spirit, allow me to sketch what is, I think, something close to my own ideal economy: The private sector is made up of many small-to-medium sized firms, all run and owned by the workers who labor within them. Wages are determined through sectoral bargaining. If stocks still exist at all, they confer no voting rights, and are simply an alternative means of raising finance. Financial markets are modest and straightforward affairs geared solely toward facilitating real investment. Wall Street and the big banks are no more, and loans for private business are created through a national network of public banks and credit unions. Major conglomerates, corporate monopolies, and big tech platforms have all been smashed by antitrust law, nationalized, or tamed as tightly regulated public utilities.Companies are still permitted to go under if they can't compete, and banks are still allowed to fail if they make bad bets. But the government stands ready to ensure continued full employment, through a national job guarantee, public investment, and industrial policy as needed. The government also provides (not necessarily exclusively) health care, education, child care, sweeping public transit, public housing, basic utilities, retirement income, a vast suite of cash welfare benefits, generous research and development funding, and community development grants. Steeply progressive taxes put a hard ceiling on how much income one person can bring home, and how much wealth they can accumulate.So... is this a capitalist economy or a socialist one?Those aforementioned Fox News pundits, party establishments, and Bloomberg-ian billionaires, I'm sure, would all say my vision is socialism -- and they'd consider it some mix of absurd and horrifying. On the flip side, markets and competition and the iterative trial-and-error that is capitalism's best feature still play big roles in this scenario. Companies that are not competitive still go bust; banks and financial institutions still suffer losses if they make bad investment decisions.Self-identified socialists have long said that markets would still play a role in their preferred societies -- but exactly what role tends to be vague. One of the more useful thinkers on this score is Karl Polanyi, because he was very concrete and specific: get land (housing), labor (employment), and money itself (i.e. credit and financing) out of the market context. I think you could throw stuff like health care and education and transit onto that list as well. But the point is, if we say markets will play some limited role -- as opposed to gobbling up all of society like they do now -- then we're not really saying anything until we start laying down specifics. All the real work is in the nitty gritty of this question.I've been reading Matt Stoller's Goliath, about American politics' long battle against monopolies -- which we are currently losing badly. One thing he touches on is how much of the post-war U.S. left became infatuated with bigness: organizing an economy of shared abundance is easier when you have a few giant unions and giant corporate powerhouses to deal with, rather than a vast system of modestly-sized yeoman businesses and worker organizations. The problem is that, historically speaking, big central planning has tended to come packaged with authoritarianism and repression. See modern China or Soviet Russia -- or, as Stoller notes, the historical linkages between monopoly cartels and fascism. Friedrich Hayek was onto something in that regard.America's current irony is that, in its efforts to avoid socialist authoritarianism, it's delivered itself into the hands of capitalist authoritarianism. In both cases, the mistake is the same: the refusal to grapple with the structure of power. And I hope one thing my little scenario gets across is how a society that embodies socialist values could also be a decentralized one, with lots of little power centers engaged in a democratic give-and-take with one another, instead of a few big power centers running everything."The people will own the means of production" is not a terribly helpful phrase. How exactly will that ownership be structured and enforced? By what processes will we determine what the people wish to do with their property? At what level and jurisdiction will those processes operate?These are the questions that determine whether you've built democracy and egalitarianism into the structure of the economy itself, or whether you merely have a democratic government that hopefully remains democratic as it runs a top-down economy. I think it's clear that you can't really achieve the former without significant reliance on competitive markets in some way. At the same time, modern America's vacuous faith in "unfettered" markets as the solution to all social problems ultimately ends with neither democratic government nor democratic economics.At the end of the day, I don't really care if you call yourself a capitalist, a socialist, a distributist, a progressive, or a populist. Tell me how you will organize and dole out power.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?

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#Capitalism and socialism are just words

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thedeadshotnetwork · 7 years

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I've studied billionaires and interviewed neuroscientists, and I've created the ultimate framework for making better decisions Spencer Platt/Getty Images This post from Matt Bodnar originally appeared on Quora as an answer to the question " Which decision-making strategies yield the best results? " Billionaires like Warren Buffett believe in the power of compounding knowledge through constantly learning and studying. Charlie Munger believes that a successful entrepreneur needs to be multidisciplinary. Successful people tend to use mental models, psychological concepts or tidbits of wisdom that in some way explains how the world works. I've studied billionaires, talked with neuroscientists, psychologists, astronauts, and more — and from all of those conversations — I've put together a framework I call "the Art of Decision-making." The Art of Decision-making has 4 key components: Harness the power of compounding by building on your knowledge and getting 1% smarter every day Focus on and study things that don't change or change very slowly over time — master the principles and you can invent the tactics Follow the path of worldly wisdom and focus on acquiring multidisciplinary knowledge across academic disciplines like psychology, mathematics, and biology Build a toolkit of mental models so that you can better understand reality and achieve your goals. The more time and energy you invest in your decision-making ability, the more it continues to build and build on itself by harnessing the power of compounding Becoming a master at the Art of Decision-making cascades through everything you do. It's not incremental growth in your knowledge, it's exponential growth. Einstein described the power of compounding as the "eight wonder of the world" — and if you've ever crunched some numbers on a compound interest calculator you know how powerful compounding can be over time. If you get 1% better at thinking — at understanding how the world works, how human behavior works, how economic systems function, and understanding your own brain — that 1% improvement impacts everything you do. You're not just going to benefit at work, but when you deal with your spouse, or negotiate the purchase of a new car, or decide where to invest your savings. You're entire life is essentially a long chain of decisions. These small incremental improvements in decision-making aren't noticeable at first, but they eventually result in a huge transformation in how you think, act, and understand the world. Here's a quote from our dear friend Warren Buffett, when asked what the key to success was he pointed to a stack of books and said: "Read 500 pages like this every day. That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it." Nati Harnik/AP S pend your time mastering the core principles that underpin psychology and human behavior, because those things never change A key piece of building a compounding machine of knowledge — that over time will let you vault over almost everyone on the planet in terms of sheer brain power — is focusing on knowledge that doesn't change or changes very slowly over time. Many people focus their time and energy on learning rapidly changing tactics, the minutiae, highly specific actions and pieces of advice without a broader context. As Sun Tzu once said "tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat" and Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble." People gobble up the latest article "10 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Email Opt-In Rate" but the problem with studying knowledge like that is that it changes — it doesn't give you something to build up and build upon over time — in 18 months all of the advice in that article will be useless. If you spent a year in 2004 reading every book on high performance banner ads — none of that knowledge would be relevant today. But if you flip that, if you study the strategy — spend your time mastering the core principles that underpin psychology and human behavior, reading things like the book Influence by Robert Cialdini — you can invent marketing tactics on the fly — because you understand the bigger picture. And that knowledge changes very slowly over time — it's a core foundation that you can build upon and grow from. This also means that the best kind of knowledge to focus on and spend your time investing in is not ephemeral junk like facebook, twitter, and buzzfeed, but the core pillars of human knowledge and the major academic disciplines, which brings us to the principle of Worldly Wisdom. Cultivate worldly wisdom by collecting knowledge from lots of different disciplines and areas of life The next key component of The Art of Decision-making is cultivating what Charlie Munger (the billionaire business partner of Warren Buffett) called Worldy Wisdom. Here's a great description of the concept of worldly wisdom from Robert Griffin's book " Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor: " Munger has adopted an approach to business and life that he refers to as worldly wisdom. Munger believes that by using a range of different models from many different disciplines — psychology, history, mathematics, physics, philosophy, biology, and so on — a person can use the combined output of the synthesis to produce something that has more value than the sum of its parts. Robert Hagstrom wrote a wonderful book on worldly wisdom entitled Investing: The Last Liberal Art, in which he states that "each discipline entwines with, and in the process strengthens, every other. From each discipline the thoughtful person draws significant mental models, the key ideas that combine to produce a cohesive understanding. Those who cultivate this broad view are well on their way to achieving worldly wisdom." Being multidisciplinary means collecting knowledge from lots of different disciplines and areas of life and building an approach to understanding the world that integrates all that knowledge into a cohesive framework. In order to get what you want you have to understand how to get there, and in order to do that, you have to understand how things work — things like human behavior, economic systems, money, biology, and mathematics. Josh Kaufman explains this beautifully in The Personal MBA : "Every business fundamentally relies on two factors People and Systems…To understand how businesses work, you must have a firm understanding of how people tend to think and behave — how humans make decisions, act on those decisions, and communicate with others. Recent advances in psychology are revealing why people do the things they do, as well as how to improve our own behavior and work more effectively with others. Systems, on the other hand, are the invisible structures that hold every business together. At the core, every business is a collection of processes that can be reliably repeated to produce a particular result. By understanding the essentials of how complex systems work, it's possible to find ways to improve existing systems, whether you're dealing with a marketing campaign or an automotive assembly line." The problem is that too many people have a very narrow focus — they master one piece of the puzzle, say marketing or finance, and think that has all the answers. But reality is messy and complex and interwoven. Most big events in our lives aren't caused by one simple explanation; they are the result of an interplay of factors. A multidisciplinary approach intertwines and strengthens itself by enabling you to pull from different disciplines of knowledge and bring the exact tools necessary to understand and solve tough challenges and to achieve complicated and difficult goals. As Peter Bevelin writes in Seeking Wisdom : "Since no single discipline has all the answers we need to understand and use the big ideas from all the important disciplines: Mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, psychology, and rank and use them in order of reliability." Mark Brake / Getty Images A mental model is a concept, an idea, a tidbit of wisdom that in some way explains how the world works Now its time to go deeper into Mental Models, which we briefly touched on earlier. A mental model is simply a concept, an idea, a tidbit of wisdom that in some way explains how the world works. Mental models are one of the cornerstones of high leverage thinking. In fact, Charlie Munger puts it pretty bluntly: "Developing the habit of mastering the multiple models which underlie reality is the best thing you can do." When a billionaire tells me something is "the best thing I can do" — I listen. And I've spent a tremendous amount of time studying billionaires, people like Charlie Munger, and mental models so that you don't have to. A few examples of mental models would be concepts like the 80/20 principle and compounding , both of which we discussed earlier, as well as concepts like expected value and base rates from mathematics, notions such as confirmation bias, anchoring, and social proof from psychology, the prisoner's dilemma from game theory , or the concept of natural selection from biology. Elon Musk has another great way of describing this. "One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves / details or there is nothing for them to hang on to." – Elon Musk While this may seem a bit overwhelming, the good news is that you don't have to become an expert in physics and chemistry. The whole idea is to master the big ideas. Take the major principles from a 101 textbook and combine them into a framework of mental models that offers a rich and deep tool kit to look at, understand, and manipulate reality to your ends. Checklists and decision journals both allow you to step outside your head, use an external system to eliminate bias from your thinking I will also share two specific strategies for making better decisions. Checklists Decision journals Checklists and decision journals both allow you to step outside your head, use an external system to eliminate bias from your thinking and make sure you cover all possible mental models that may address a particular problem. "No wise pilot, no matter how great his talent or experience, fails to use his checklist." - Charlie Munger Checklists are a vital tool to get out of your own head and make sure you haven't missed anything. Even experts like doctors routinely miss basic things like washing their hands, and implementing checklists in hospitals has saved thousands of lives as a result. Decision journals help make your thought process clear and mitigate cognitive biases. Biases like hindsight bias and creeping determinism can disrupt your thinking and make your analysis of an event incorrect after the fact. Michael J. Mauboussin, the Global Head of Strategy for Credit Suisse, describes decision journals as follows: "Most professionals and businesspeople don't keep track of how good their decisions were. They keep track of how things turned out as the result of their decisions. Over the long haul, of course, good decisions provide a much higher chance of desirable outcomes. But in the short run the link between decisions and results can be very loose. The primary way to focus attention on the decision-making process is to keep a journal that documents your thinking. This is how you impose accountability on yourself. Here's what you do. Go out and get a notebook. When you are making a consequential decision in your portfolio, business, or life, write down what you expect to happen, why you expect it to happen, and attach probabilities to your views. If you are so inclined, also jot down how you feel physically and emotionally. Make sure you note the date and time." A decision journal freezes your thoughts in time so you can go back later and see where you went wrong, and what you could have done instead. This provides you with an opportunity to improve your thinking in an iterative way. Months after a decision has taken place, you can go back and review what you thought, see where your thinking was wrong, and start correcting it. Combine all these factors to become a high-level thinker When you combine all of these factors, you are putting your brain on a high leverage rocket ship — and with the power of compounding you will start leaving other people in the dust and be well on your way to mastering The Art of Decision-making. NOW WATCH: 'Shark Tank' star Barbara Corcoran: How I went from a 10-kid household and more than 20 jobs to become a real estate mogul November 14, 2017 at 03:46PM

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tortuga-aak · 7 years

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I've studied billionaires and interviewed neuroscientists, and I've created the ultimate framework for making better decisions

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

This post from Matt Bodnar originally appeared on Quora as an answer to the question "Which decision-making strategies yield the best results?"

Billionaires like Warren Buffett believe in the power of compounding knowledge through constantly learning and studying.

Charlie Munger believes that a successful entrepreneur needs to be��multidisciplinary.

Successful people tend to use mental models, psychological concepts or tidbits of wisdom that in some way explains how the world works.

I've studied billionaires, talked with neuroscientists, psychologists, astronauts, and more — and from all of those conversations — I've put together a framework I call "the Art of Decision-making."

The Art of Decision-making has 4 key components:

Harness the power of compounding by building on your knowledge and getting 1% smarter every day

Focus on and study things that don't change or change very slowly over time — master the principles and you can invent the tactics

Follow the path of worldly wisdom and focus on acquiring multidisciplinary knowledge across academic disciplines like psychology, mathematics, and biology

Build a toolkit of mental models so that you can better understand reality and achieve your goals.

The more time and energy you invest in your decision-making ability, the more it continues to build and build on itself by harnessing the power of compounding

Becoming a master at the Art of Decision-making cascades through everything you do. It's not incremental growth in your knowledge, it's exponential growth. Einstein described the power of compounding as the "eight wonder of the world" — and if you've ever crunched some numbers on a compound interest calculator you know how powerful compounding can be over time.

If you get 1% better at thinking — at understanding how the world works, how human behavior works, how economic systems function, and understanding your own brain — that 1% improvement impacts everything you do. You're not just going to benefit at work, but when you deal with your spouse, or negotiate the purchase of a new car, or decide where to invest your savings. You're entire life is essentially a long chain of decisions.

These small incremental improvements in decision-making aren't noticeable at first, but they eventually result in a huge transformation in how you think, act, and understand the world.

Here's a quote from our dear friend Warren Buffett, when asked what the key to success was he pointed to a stack of books and said:

"Read 500 pages like this every day. That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it."

Nati Harnik/AP

Spend your time mastering the core principles that underpin psychology and human behavior, because those things never change

A key piece of building a compounding machine of knowledge — that over time will let you vault over almost everyone on the planet in terms of sheer brain power — is focusing on knowledge that doesn't change or changes very slowly over time.

Many people focus their time and energy on learning rapidly changing tactics, the minutiae, highly specific actions and pieces of advice without a broader context. As Sun Tzu once said "tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat" and Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

"As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble."

People gobble up the latest article "10 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Email Opt-In Rate" but the problem with studying knowledge like that is that it changes — it doesn't give you something to build up and build upon over time — in 18 months all of the advice in that article will be useless. If you spent a year in 2004 reading every book on high performance banner ads — none of that knowledge would be relevant today.

But if you flip that, if you study the strategy — spend your time mastering the core principles that underpin psychology and human behavior, reading things like the book Influence by Robert Cialdini — you can invent marketing tactics on the fly — because you understand the bigger picture. And that knowledge changes very slowly over time — it's a core foundation that you can build upon and grow from.

This also means that the best kind of knowledge to focus on and spend your time investing in is not ephemeral junk like facebook, twitter, and buzzfeed, but the core pillars of human knowledge and the major academic disciplines, which brings us to the principle of Worldly Wisdom.

Cultivate worldly wisdom by collecting knowledge from lots of different disciplines and areas of life

The next key component of The Art of Decision-making is cultivating what Charlie Munger (the billionaire business partner of Warren Buffett) called Worldy Wisdom.

Here's a great description of the concept of worldly wisdom from Robert Griffin's book "Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor:"

Munger has adopted an approach to business and life that he refers to as worldly wisdom. Munger believes that by using a range of different models from many different disciplines — psychology, history, mathematics, physics, philosophy, biology, and so on — a person can use the combined output of the synthesis to produce something that has more value than the sum of its parts. Robert Hagstrom wrote a wonderful book on worldly wisdom entitled Investing: The Last Liberal Art, in which he states that "each discipline entwines with, and in the process strengthens, every other. From each discipline the thoughtful person draws significant mental models, the key ideas that combine to produce a cohesive understanding. Those who cultivate this broad view are well on their way to achieving worldly wisdom."

Being multidisciplinary means collecting knowledge from lots of different disciplines and areas of life and building an approach to understanding the world that integrates all that knowledge into a cohesive framework.

In order to get what you want you have to understand how to get there, and in order to do that, you have to understand how things work — things like human behavior, economic systems, money, biology, and mathematics. Josh Kaufman explains this beautifully in The Personal MBA:

"Every business fundamentally relies on two factors People and Systems…To understand how businesses work, you must have a firm understanding of how people tend to think and behave — how humans make decisions, act on those decisions, and communicate with others. Recent advances in psychology are revealing why people do the things they do, as well as how to improve our own behavior and work more effectively with others.

Systems, on the other hand, are the invisible structures that hold every business together. At the core, every business is a collection of processes that can be reliably repeated to produce a particular result. By understanding the essentials of how complex systems work, it's possible to find ways to improve existing systems, whether you're dealing with a marketing campaign or an automotive assembly line."

The problem is that too many people have a very narrow focus — they master one piece of the puzzle, say marketing or finance, and think that has all the answers. But reality is messy and complex and interwoven. Most big events in our lives aren't caused by one simple explanation; they are the result of an interplay of factors.

A multidisciplinary approach intertwines and strengthens itself by enabling you to pull from different disciplines of knowledge and bring the exact tools necessary to understand and solve tough challenges and to achieve complicated and difficult goals. As Peter Bevelin writes in Seeking Wisdom:

"Since no single discipline has all the answers we need to understand and use the big ideas from all the important disciplines: Mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, psychology, and rank and use them in order of reliability."

Mark Brake / Getty Images

A mental model is a concept, an idea, a tidbit of wisdom that in some way explains how the world works

Now its time to go deeper into Mental Models, which we briefly touched on earlier. A mental model is simply a concept, an idea, a tidbit of wisdom that in some way explains how the world works. Mental models are one of the cornerstones of high leverage thinking. In fact, Charlie Munger puts it pretty bluntly:

"Developing the habit of mastering the multiple models which underlie reality is the best thing you can do."

When a billionaire tells me something is "the best thing I can do" — I listen. And I've spent a tremendous amount of time studying billionaires, people like Charlie Munger, and mental models so that you don't have to.

A few examples of mental models would be concepts like the 80/20 principle and compounding, both of which we discussed earlier, as well as concepts like expected value and base rates from mathematics, notions such as confirmation bias, anchoring, and social proof from psychology, the prisoner's dilemma from game theory, or the concept of natural selection from biology.

Elon Musk has another great way of describing this.

"One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves / details or there is nothing for them to hang on to." – Elon Musk

While this may seem a bit overwhelming, the good news is that you don't have to become an expert in physics and chemistry. The whole idea is to master the big ideas. Take the major principles from a 101 textbook and combine them into a framework of mental models that offers a rich and deep tool kit to look at, understand, and manipulate reality to your ends.

Checklists and decision journals both allow you to step outside your head, use an external system to eliminate bias from your thinking

I will also share two specific strategies for making better decisions.

Checklists

Decision journals

Checklists and decision journals both allow you to step outside your head, use an external system to eliminate bias from your thinking and make sure you cover all possible mental models that may address a particular problem.

"No wise pilot, no matter how great his talent or experience, fails to use his checklist." - Charlie Munger

Checklists are a vital tool to get out of your own head and make sure you haven't missed anything. Even experts like doctors routinely miss basic things like washing their hands, and implementing checklists in hospitals has saved thousands of lives as a result.

Decision journals help make your thought process clear and mitigate cognitive biases. Biases like hindsight bias and creeping determinism can disrupt your thinking and make your analysis of an event incorrect after the fact.

Michael J. Mauboussin, the Global Head of Strategy for Credit Suisse, describes decision journals as follows:

"Most professionals and businesspeople don't keep track of how good their decisions were. They keep track of how things turned out as the result of their decisions. Over the long haul, of course, good decisions provide a much higher chance of desirable outcomes. But in the short run the link between decisions and results can be very loose.

The primary way to focus attention on the decision-making process is to keep a journal that documents your thinking. This is how you impose accountability on yourself. Here's what you do. Go out and get a notebook. When you are making a consequential decision in your portfolio, business, or life, write down what you expect to happen, why you expect it to happen, and attach probabilities to your views. If you are so inclined, also jot down how you feel physically and emotionally. Make sure you note the date and time."

A decision journal freezes your thoughts in time so you can go back later and see where you went wrong, and what you could have done instead. This provides you with an opportunity to improve your thinking in an iterative way.

Months after a decision has taken place, you can go back and review what you thought, see where your thinking was wrong, and start correcting it.

Combine all these factors to become a high-level thinker

When you combine all of these factors, you are putting your brain on a high leverage rocket ship — and with the power of compounding you will start leaving other people in the dust and be well on your way to mastering The Art of Decision-making.

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