My “Six Days at Ronnie Scott’s: Billy Cobham on Jazz Fusion and the Art of Creation” is voted one of the year’s top four jazz books in the just released JazzTimes Reader’s Poll. The winner of the poll is Dexter Gordon: Sophisticated Giant by Maxine Gordon. Other runners-up are Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century by Nate Chinen and Tony Bennett: Onstage and in the Studio by Tony Bennett with Dick Golden
Here is a first look at the March and April Travel Itinerary for the “Surmountable” book project. I leave 2 March at 2:10am and will arrive in San Francisco with the Kickstarter campaign completed. I will be blogging throughout the project, sharing interviews and observations throughout.
OK, time’s here for Kickstarter campaign fans who like to torment Creators by funding at the 11th hour. We are a few thousand away from hitting our goal and the campaign ends in a day. As you know, if you don’t hit your goal, no moneys are drawn and the campaign fails. YIKES!
Surmountable was nominated last week by Kickstarter as one of their “Projects We Love.”
I hit the Bangkok airport tonight to start my travel around the USA and the world to scenes of historical political protests to gather stories for a playbook on citizen engagement. We have great Rewards for funders from signed books to events to a week of creative writing on a Thai island. My backpack is groaning from the extra gear and I’m all in. How about you???? America and the world need you. Big hugs from The Road. Hit this link or click on any of the images to find out more about the campaign.
“Surmountable” is Kickstarter’s top Print Journalism and featured Publishing project.
To support the project, go to our Kickstarter project page and select from terrific rewards, including a weekly writing retreat on a gorgeous Thai island.
The American Constitution was revolutionary and inspired the world because it put citizens in charge with a specific blueprint for how to keep aristocrats, autocrats, and chaos at bay. We are at an extraordinary moment when Americans from every part of the political spectrum feel abandoned and disaffected, the system paralyzed and corrupted.
It wasn’t always this way. Throughout our history, everyday Americans organized and effectively moved the needle on big ideas and causes that mattered. Executive producer Adam Edwards and acclaimed author Brian Gruber are partnering to explore why that is no longer the case, what we can learn from history, and how citizens can engage in 2019 to move mountains.
We believe our current challenges are surmountable as those came before us faced much greater odds and won — from the women’s suffrage and civil rights movements to the single person responsible for the most recent Constitutional amendment to the Bonus Army veterans who helped swing the 1932 election to see justice served.
We have plenty of history books. We need a playbook. Adam is funding the writing process, but we are looking for your help to fund the travel, production, and other elements to deliver an important new book and big impact. We will harvest fresh narratives from witnesses to history, family members, key stakeholders, thought leaders, those behind the scenes who solved the logistics, and those who imagined the big ideas that moved the country.
Our goal is to understand how they surmounted seemingly impossible obstacles and how they brought the vision of the country’s founders alive. And, depending on the funds raised, we will travel to the scenes of historic global protests from Berlin to Tunis to Seoul to mine provocative stories for models and lessons learned.
London jazz reviewer Frank Griffith reviewed the June London Cobham show and now publishes his review of the book. Check out the full London Jazz News review here, and enjoy the excerpts below.
Brian Gruber: Six Days At Ronnie Scott’s – Billy Cobham On Jazz Fusion And The Act Of Creation
(Book Review by Frank Griffith)
“Brian Gruber‘s new book has the hallmarks of one of the greatest tomes about perhaps the most influential drummers and bandleaders of this or any other era. Gruber has captured Billy Cobham‘s insights, humour and straightforwardness to an extent that no one else has previously achieved. One major reason for this is Gruber’s approach of interweaving the texts of one-to-one interviews with Cobham with his observations of the Billy Cobham/Guy Barker Big Band during their 2017 six-day residency at Ronnie Scott’s. This allows the reader to move between the two kinds of narrative in a balanced way, avoiding the need to absorb too much of either in one go. Not unlike a radio host playing frequent tracks interspersed with interviewing a noted guest, Gruber clearly gets the balance right, keeping the reader’s attention as he makes each new angle on how Billy ticks emerge into view.
“Six Days provides a terrific insight into the music and life of a world-class drummer resulting in a unique and challenging document for fans of Cobham, jazz, fusion and the culture of the 60s and 70s. A must and thoroughly enjoyable read.”
I had the great pleasure of doing a visioning process with the radiant Justyna Stoklosa two years ago. We plotted out a bold future, and this recent press is a small reflection of the brilliant and impressive life journey she has staked out. Koh Phangan seems an unusually good incubator for people seeking something very different out of life. Big hugs from afar.
Here is the New York Post front cover. The Murdoch papers of course use the ‘crazy hippie’ clickbait angle but great exposure.
Here is Justyna’s Facebook post announcing the press:
“Feeling high” in the New York Post. If you read the Daily Mail article yesterday, this one is on a similar note just in short form (btw the Daily Mail article already has 20K shares in under two days which just blows my mind – big thanks to everyone that reposted it – we love you for sharing our story with the world and we’re sending many good vibes your way! 
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❤️) Still, I never thought possible that media as mainstream as The New York Post would pick up the story of our unorthodox lifestyle…
And a very nice note from her on Facebook reminiscing about our visioning process:
Justyna Stoklosa Brian, I will never forget your kindness. You proved a great friend in a time of need, a supportive shoulder AND you threw a goodbye party for me driving to the next town just to get my favorite papaya salad.
You visioning plan let me see patterns in my past where relationships got in the way of pursuing my highest excitement and a too-tight bond with my parents kept me from making bold and gutsy lifestyle choices.
You also ‘forced’ me to actually phrase what I want to achieve and that was then ‘no 1 fruitarian female in SE Asia’. Since then I have changed it to ‘no 1 fruitarian in the world’ altho my fiancé always laughs at this ego-driven aim. I am still very ambitious, and that is never going to change as my ‘work’ is my highest excitement and doesnt feel like work. Altho nowadays its more about helping people rather than being number one in anything.
As a side note: our Youtube channel reached 20 million views in its first year of existence. We are invited as guest speakers to all the fruit festivals around the world. We have more ppl wanting to come to our retreats that we will be able to host this year. After the huge media storm of the last few days, a couple of big TV shows have reached out.
All that doesnt matter in the face of finding Simon, the love of my life, my fruitarian fiance, 13 years my junior.
I will always be super grateful for your help and support, Brian, will never forget 
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Subscribe to her YouTube page – it has 20 million views.
It’s a great joy to help aspiring writers advance their projects, whether spoken word presentations, poetry compilations, or full-length books. Every Tuesday night, Writers of Koh Phangan, a group I founded earlier this year, meets on our Thai island, to write, share and connect. I had the particular pleasure of working with local writers on their Phangan Slam spoken word presentations (photos below), and their ongoing writing projects. Here’s what they shared about our work together.
From Romanian poet Andreea Tănăsoaica,
“Coaching with Brian was brilliant. His straight-forward questions made everything simpler, more pragmatic and actionable. He motivated me to look at my writing as a project, to dare call it a book and he demystified the process of turning a creative project into a published work. I wrote so much more after our meeting and I feel so inspired. Very grateful, looking forward to continue.”
From the UK’s Gemini Adams,
“Brian Gruber is brilliant. So present. Extremely insightful. Wise. He helped me refine a provocative piece I’d penned to share at a conference of world leaders, and gave me powerful tools for bringing out the best of it through my delivery. Including very helpful ways of actually enjoying the experience of standing in stage publicly calling people out!”
Check out the Writing Coaching page for details n how to get your book project to completion.
Brian Gruber is an author, writing coach, and marketing consultant living on the Thai island of Koh Phangan. He has spent 40 years studying, leading, and founding new media companies and projects.
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