Like A Bird Up In The Sky

Paul Vasile, our beloved Minister of Music, reminded me after having attended the New Year's Eve Watch Night Service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, of the song, I Wish I Knew How to be Free.

It became one of the anthems of the Civil Rights movement written by Billy Taylor, jazz pianist and composer who died this past December and was memorialized at the Riverside Church this past Monday. Taylor wrote the song in 1967 for the iconic Nina Simone.

I have been humming it for the past few weeks. It has become in many ways my theme song for the new year -- particularly so in light of the tragedy in Tucson.