Creative Quest

January 1, 2018
Questlove, music director for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and author of Mo’ Meta Blues, recounts his own musical journey in these spirited reflections on the elements of creativity. Questlove defines creativity as the “personality that makes it possible” to produce art; he discusses the creative process, the value of mentors, and the usefulness of collaboration. Questlove suggests that the best way to engage in the creative process is what he calls “micromeditation,” or taking a few seconds to pause and let one’s mind settle. When one has trouble thinking of new ideas, he recommends going back to an older idea and reworking it, similar to how George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic incorporated the doo-wop sound of his early works into his albums of the 1970s. Questlove champions collaboration, reflecting on his own work with his Roots partner Tariq Trotter, and advises readers to be curious and open to ideas. Since creativity often grows when encountering the work of others, Questlove encourages artists to work with those who have different approaches, as he did with rapper and producer J Dilla and Talking Heads founder David Byrne, among others. Questlove’s generous, provocative guidebook offers experienced wisdom about tapping into the creative process.

February 1, 2018
The drummer and co-founder of the Roots unpacks the creative process.Questlove's Mo' Meta Blues (2013) was an uncommonly incisive, reflective, and engaging musical memoir. If that was the author's masterpiece, this is more like the previously unreleased bonus cuts; it lacks the focus and cohesion of the earlier work, mixing the enlightening with the banal. "Early in this book," he writes in conclusion, "I also said that I don't know exactly what the goal of a book about creativity should be. My method has been to share stories from my life working on and around many different projects filled with many different ideas, and the goal of that method is to pass on some of that momentum to you." The author goes behind the scenes of the Tonight Show, where the Roots are the house band, describes the elation that he feels from receiving a good review and the deflation from a bad one (he seems more attuned to reviews than many other artists), and relates the experiences and influences that have impacted his musical development. Unlike Mo' Meta Blues, this book is presented and organized like a self-help book, one that doesn't offer readers much help. "We're going to need a definition of a creative person to go forward," he writes. "Here's a first stab at it: a creative person is a person who creates." The author moves beyond tautology in the most interesting part of the book, in which he explores how the internet has transformed our culture and the very notion of creativity, making us all curators, even of our own identities. "Our brains are changing," he writes. "They used to be containers. Now they're retrievers. It's a fundamental shift." Questlove is also interested in artists working across platforms and on chefs and food in general (see his previous book, somethingtofoodabout, for more information).More dross than expected but plenty of genuine gems of insight as well.

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March 1, 2018
The exceedingly credentialed Questlove?drummer, DJ, cofounder of the massively influential hip-hop group the Roots, musical director for Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, and NYU professor?devotes his fifth book (also his third collaboration with Greenman) to creativity: what it is and how to pursue it. His near-devotional fascination with and research into the subject over the course of three decades as an artist make for an infectiously wide-ranging blend of stories, advice, and exercises. His own creative influences lead to discussions of not only music across eras and genres but also the innovations of chefs (a topic he gave the full stage to in something to food about, 2016), filmmakers, painters, comedians, and others. Offering new ideas, not-new ideas that bear repeating, and old adages tipped sideways, Questlove encourages openness to collaboration, and to failure. He looks at parody and re-creation as their own creative forms, and considers how to both benefit from and ignore the constant distractions of modern life. There couldn't be a better author for this befittingly open-minded, endlessly inspiring deep dive into creative processes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)