Chapel Arts

What Jazz and Improvisation Can Teach Us

This Event Takes Place @ Chapel Arts, Cheltenham (Chapel Arts, Knapp Road (Near St. James Square), Cheltenham. GL50 3QQ)

This evening’s talk will be partly educational, partly inspirational, partly a masterclass, and partly a live and interactive jazz performance. This is a talk with a difference!

Led by educator, consultant, and jazz musician, Alex Steele, this evening’s talk will take us on a journey through the minds of jazz musicians, giving us novel insights into new ways that all of us can adopt, to improve the art of conversation, collaboration and creativity.

Alex will explore a range of different skills, behaviours and mindsets, that we can all adopt, to be better human beings. How can we listen more effectively, have more empathy, trust and empower others, deepen our connections with other human beings, be more curious, more experimental and more creative? Many of the answers will be highlighted as we explore the ways that jazz musicians improvise together.

Alex will lead the talk, and he will also be playing the piano, joined by three other musicians to form a jazz quartet. The audience will be invited to take part in a series of interactive experiments, involving the audience and the musicians. Members of the audience will be given opportunities to change aspects of the performance, and to disrupt and control what is happening between the musicians. We expect you to get brand new insights into what it means to be a brilliant human being!

ALEX STEELE
By day, Alex Steele is an associate and visiting professor with many of the world’s leading business schools and universities, and he designs and delivers executive education programmes for many of the world’s leading businesses in areas of leadership, innovation and organisational change. By night, Alex is a prolific jazz pianist, leading his own trios and quartets at jazz festivals and jazz clubs throughout the world.