V. 1. Cognitions -- v. 2. Critical theories

In Reaching Beyond, Buddhist thinker and activist Daisaku Ikeda explores the origins, development,and international influence of jazz with legendary artists Herbie Hancockand Wayne Shorter.Reflecting on their lives and careers, Mr. Hancock and Mr. Shorter sharethe lessons they have learned from their musical mentors, including MilesDavis and Art Blakey, and how the Buddhist philosophy they’ve learnedfrom President Ikeda over the past forty years deeply resonates with theemancipatory spirit of jazz.These wide-ranging conversations include such thought-provoking topics as:• Music’s mission for peace in a time of discord• The importance of the artist’s spiritual growth• The Buddhist concept of changing poison into medicine• Ways to make the “ideal America” a reality for everyoneReaching Beyond offers positive new ideasfor musicians and nonmusicians alike.

Interdisciplinary approach chimes with current teaching trends Each section opens with specially commissioned thinkpiece from major scholar The first reader to address improvisation from a performance studies perspective

Flashes of lightning, resounding thunder, gloomy fog, brilliant sunshine...these are the life manifestations of the skies. The concrete visceral experiences that living under those skies stir within us are the ground for individual impulses, emotions, sentiments that in their interaction generate their own ever-changing clouds. While our intellect concentrates on the discovery of our cosmic position, on the architecture of the universe, our imagination is informed by the gloomy vapors, the glimmers of fleeting light, and the glory of the skies. Reconnoitering from the soil of human life and striving towards the infinite, the elan of imagination gets caught up in the clouds of the skies. There in that dimness, sensory receptivity, dispositions, emotions, passionate strivings, yearnings, elevations gather and propagate. From the “Passions of the Skies” spring innermost intuitions that nourish literature and the arts.​

With a panoramic sweep across continents and topics, Early Modern Improvisations is an interdisciplinary collection that analyzes the relationship between early modern literature and history through lenses such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and politics. The book engages readers interested in texts that range from Shakespeare and Tudor queens to Anglican missionary work in North America; from contemporary feminist television series to Ancient Greek linguistic and philosophical concepts; from the delicate dance of diplomatic exchange to the instabilities of illness, food insecurity, and piracy. Its range of contributions encourages readers to discover their own intersections across literary and historical texts, a sense of discovery that this collection’s contributors learned from its dedicatee, John Watkins, a major literary and cultural historian whose work moves effortlessly across geographical, temporal, and political borders. His work and his personality embody the spirit of creative improvisation that brings new ideas together, allowing texts and figures of history to haunt later eras and encourage new questions. This volume is aimed at scholars and students alike who wish to explore early modern culture and its reverberations in ways that engage with a world outside the grand narratives and centralized institutions of power, a world that is more provisional, less scripted, and more improvisational. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC)] 4.0 license.