Today’s guest doesn’t just play music—he organizes it into impact. Rick DellaRatta is a world-class jazz pianist, composer, and founder of Jazz for Peace, known for uniting musicians and communities after 9/11 and channeling concerts into real resources for nonprofits. We talk origin stories (a piano on Christmas Eve), improvisation as a path to freedom, the famous United Nations concert, and why Rick believes “the final solution is love.” He also explains the Jazz for Peace Empowerment Grant model—how it helps outstanding causes become better funded, more sponsored, and more connected.

Highlights:

Improvisation, frequency, and raising human consciousness

The poem that sparked Jazz for Peace after 9/11

UN concert bringing Israeli, Palestinian, and American musicians together

Transforming communities (from schools to Rwanda)

The “zero to 100” idea: funding peace with the same seriousness we fund war

How any legit cause can tap Jazz for Peace’s grant process

Chapters (timestamps to add after upload):

00:00 Intro

02:00 Piano arrives, a kid starts improvising

07:40 Discovering jazz in a library drawer

12:10 The poem & the UN concert

21:30 Art as activism: case studies

33:15 The Empowerment Grant (how it works)

44:50 “Zero to 100” and the podcast: The Final Solution Is Love

51:00 Closing & CTAs

Guest links:

Jazz for Peace site & grants info

Rick DellaRatta’s podcast: The Final Solution Is Love

EOE links:

Pre-order Experience Over Expectation (launch Sept 23) → marymccorvey.com

Subscribe on Substack & YouTube for episodes, clips, and behind-the-scenes

#ExperienceOverExpectation #RickDellaRatta #JazzForPeace #TheFinalSolutionIsLove #Jazz #ArtAsActivism #PeaceThroughMusic #Podcast #MaryMcCorvey