"Democracy has no king," jazz legend Wynton Marsalis says

Post-election, legendary jazz musician Wynton Marsalis told #FortuneGlobalForum that U.S. democracy is always “in swing.”

Transcript

00:00The fundamental of democracy is no king.

00:02Okay, and because you don't have a king, then you have to figure

00:05out how to negotiate space.

00:07So in jazz, you could be the leader of a band,

00:10but if you solo all night, democracy has the element of choice.

00:14You can choose to expend as much of your energy as you can expend

00:17on the rights of others, or you can expend it all

00:20on yourself and what you think.

00:21Jazz is the same way.

00:23One person could solo for 15 or 20 minutes,

00:25and there could be nine other people lined up waiting to play.

00:28And the rhythm section, which is the piano, bass, and drums,

00:31they tend to, when you solo too long,

00:34they do a thing that we call breathe.

00:36At the top of a cycle, we play on forms that are like a clock,

00:39has a certain number of bars.

00:41When you play too long, the rhythm section goes.

00:43And you can choose then to play through that.

00:47So the element of choice, the fact that we do not have a king,

00:51and the fact that the more global your understanding is,

00:55the more you can perceive what other people are doing,

00:57and the more successful you can be as a player in a group,

01:00but you may not be more successful as an individual soloist.