Sam Rivers Swings

Listen up:

Sam Rivers – Contours

Sam Rivers (Saxophone) ‘Contours‘ 1965 with Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Herbie Hancock (Piano), Ron Carter (Bass) and Joe Chambers (drums)

James Baldwin. To be found in the ‘Human Interest’ or ‘Human Authors’section of your bookshop

“The purpose of the individual is to become greater than the definitions he has inherited” James Baldwin I found this  quote a couple of weeks ago in a book called ‘The business you were born to create” by Nick Williams which is a great read and covers a lot of ground. It has stuck with me since. I’ve been mulling it over whilst sat on the DLR and walking to and from the shops. Last night I was thinking about the statement again, and how it relates to different aspects of our behaviour and psychology. I am very much aware of the depth of meaning this statement holds having come from writer James Baldwin. James Baldwin wrote with the intention of expressing as full a range of human experiences as he possibly could. I think he was very much aware, not only of the reductive definitions that were imposed on him by others, but recognised the tendency for the individual to confine themselves to a world view or experience equally as narrow, and thus miss out on the possibility of realising their full potential. A kind of self inflicted ‘Myopia’ so to speak. It happens. I guess it’s about being who you are, yet not denying yourself the possibility of being all you could be?