Last fall I noticed something small at work that kept catching my attention. There was a woman in the office who seemed to wear the same outfit almost every day. Same black pants, same neutral sweater ...

The request came on a recent Sunday morning from my 14-year-old son, as I was in the kitchen listening for the 12th straight time to Wes Montgomery’s 1965 recording of John Coltrane’s “Impressions”—a ...