"It's Got to Come Out:" Shirley Horn, 1934-2005

"I think when I was born, it's like God said, 'Music!,' and that was it. All my life, that's all I knew. It's in me, it's jammed up and it's got to come out."

--jazz vocalist and pianist Shirley Horn (1934-2005), quoted by Richard Harrington in his tribute "The Innate Tempo Of Shirley Horn," Washingtonpost.com. Even if you're not a jazz fan, read it for his lush, evocative prose. Lovely.

Harrington also recommends several albums as an introduction to Horn's work.

Gospel folks often make statements like this--I'm thinking of Take 6's "Something Within Me" (So Much 2 Say), the quartet song "It's In Me (And It's Got to Come Out)," and Cross Movement's "Driven" (Holy Culture). These songs make me think about the passions that are deep within all of us--passions that won't let us go, no matter how hard we try to outrun them. Passions to change the world or help those in need, the desire to master a body of knowledge or see the fulfillment of a dream.

To use Horn's words, what's the word that God seems to have written on you heart? The dream or passion that's "jammed up and got to come out?"