The Head Listens Before It Thinks

Living with a brain condition has taught us something jazz seems to understand instinctively, thinking doesn’t always start with logic. Sometimes it starts with rhythm. With listening. With allowing the mind to move before trying to name what it’s doing. Jazz players don’t force a straight line, they follow curves, pauses, improvisation. The brain works that way too. It’s not broken because it wanders. It’s often finding its own tempo.

The artwork Jazz Head by Günther Kieser captures this beautifully. A mind made of brass, valves, loops, breath turned into sound, complexity turned into expression. Neurologically, rhythm and improvisation engage multiple systems at once: attention, memory, emotion, timing. When those systems move together, something opens. Sometimes all we need are the right tools, or conditions, to let that rhythm come through. Not to fix the brain, but to let it play.