Return from a Leave of Presence

Wow, it has been a year since my last newsletter went out—and what a year, eh?

I'm grateful to be able to put these words in your inbox today as I start my journey back to "worky work" after spending most of this past year bringing baby Mateo into the world. I'm grateful to him for being a pretty chill baby; he has been quite amenable to abiding with my daily trombone practice. So perhaps I have him to thank for being in the best musical shape I've been in since having surgery three years ago!

(Side note: I also upgraded my web publishing software to enable subscriber comments. If you'd like to give this feature at try, log in at the website and say hello. This is also an effective strategy for requesting baby pictures.)

It's funny, I haven't really "taken a leave" from very much other than getting paid for work, but that probably says more about what counts as work in this strange time we are living through than it does about what I've been up to—if only there were a commission paid for diaper changes.

Since my last update, I did manage one academic conference trip before the end of my year at Wellesley: to Lisbon, Portugal for the Music and Online Communities Research Network (MOCReN) conference; the text of the talk is available on my website. Mirlo has also been chirping along this whole time, with two new stewards joining the team last summer. We had the opportunity to present the user experience research we commissioned online for the MOCReN folks in November, available here, and have continued working to improve the tool and bring new artists into the fold.

I'm especially excited to welcome Som da Massa onto the platform! Their debut album, O Amor e o Som e a Dor, is a beautiful reinterpretation of the music of Northeast Brazil. It was released this week and happens to feature the trombone stylings of one certain brassman with whom you may be familiar. This was a joy to record, as it was my first time back in the studio since surgery. I've included a track at the end of this post, but encourage you to check out the whole album:

You may have noticed that the tagline on my site has changed from "Jazz Anthropology" to "Creative Cooperation"—this reflects a shift in focus for me, zooming out from the specifics of jazz practice and anthropological research to a broader focus on what I've learned from those and many other projects in recent years. One community with whom I've been deepening these insights is the Cooperative Circle of Sociocracy for All, where a wonderful group has gathered to work together at the intersection of sociocracy and organizational cooperation. I'm looking forward to sharing some of what I've learned 0n Thursday at the Annual Global Sociocracy Conference. You can read more about my presentation, "Going Off Book: When It's Good To Break the Rules" and sign up here:

Moving forward, I hope to share lessons I am learning about what the Chilean philosopher of the solidarity economy, Luis Razeto, calls "C-Factor": the capacity we have as human groups to work together to meet the moment. Creativity and cooperation are two key dimensions of this inquiry—and I'm grateful to you for taking the time to read along and keep in touch as the journey unfolds.

Lastly, as promised, here's a track from the new Som da Massa album, "Dito (Pt. 2)"!