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Shirley Horn

Shirley Horn is an NEA Jazz Master

Shirley Horn remembered playing her grandmother's piano when she was four years old. Uninterested in playing with the neighborhood children, Horn enjoyed nothing more than to play that piano, and would close herself off in her grandmother's parlor, which was kept for guests and was chillier than the rest of the house. After several years of this, her mother, who admired classical music, enrolled the girl in piano lessons. Shirley was surrounded by music in her family, and admitted that the majority of the songs in her repertoire are those she heard while she was growing up, in Washington D.C. She played with a choir, at Sunday school, and won a talent contest and 13-week radio engagement at age 13. Horn studied piano and composition at Howard University Junior School of Music, in Washington, from age 12 to age 18. Though she focused on the piano works of great Western classical composers, it was jazz that eventually captured Horn's fancy. At age 17, Horn began playing in a local restaurant and nightclub. The pianist was forced into singing. "I was very shy and it was hard for me to sing," Horn said. Realizing she could earn more money as a vocalist, she continued to play piano and to develop her singing and playing skills, and formed her own trio in 1954.

Her marriage at age 21 slowed down her musical career, and Horn performed live only around the Washington, and Baltimore, Maryland areas. She released her first recording, “Embers and Ashes,” on the small Stereo-Craft record label in 1961. The album went mostly unnoticed, but caught the attention of legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who tracked Horn down and invited her to New York to open for him at the Village Vanguard. Horn and Davis, were drawn together by their very similar approach to music. Both artists are recognized for their use of space, long silences between notes, to create a certain tension, particularly when doing ballads. The style creates a kind of suspense. Though the two diverged musically throughout the 1960s, Davis remained a close friend and mentor of Horn's until his death in 1991.

Horn recorded “Shirley Horn with Horns,” and “Loads of Love,” in 1963 with producer Quincy Jones for Mercury. They wanted Horn to focus on her vocal skills, and had been signed as a vocalist, so a studio musician played piano on the recordings. The arrangement was not right for Horn, who would have preferred to play the music herself.

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Radio & Podcasts

New Releases From Artemis, Musique Noire, Birthday Shoutouts to Carla Bley, Connie Crothers, Shirley Horn & More

Read "New Releases From Artemis, Musique Noire, Birthday Shoutouts to Carla Bley, Connie Crothers, Shirley Horn & More" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


This broadcast includes new releases from Artemis, Luiz Millan, Musique Noire, Grace McNally, Mike Melito, Rickie Lee Jones, with a second single from Nicky Schrire, plus birthday shoutouts to Andrea Brachfeld, Gunhild Carling, Lincoln Briney, Carla Bley, Connie Crothers, KJ Denhert, Tania Maria and Shirley Horn, among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and online. Purchase their music so they can continue to distract, comfort, provoke and inspire.Playlist Andrea ...

3
Radio & Podcasts

Celebrating Jazz Foremothers Ma Rainey, Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie and Shirley Horn

Read "Celebrating Jazz Foremothers Ma Rainey, Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie and Shirley Horn" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


This broadcast celebrates the first of May with new releases from the San Gabriel 7 featuring Sinne Eeg, Rebecca Martin, Sven Anderson and Jackie Messina, with birthday shoutouts to Duke Ellington, Ma Rainey, Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie and Shirley Horn, among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their music during this time of pandemic so they can continue to distract, provoke, comfort and inspire.Playlist The DIVA Jazz Orchestra “Pure Imagination" from ...

1
Radio & Podcasts

Birthday Celebrations for Shirley Horn and Judy Collins

Read "Birthday Celebrations for Shirley Horn and Judy Collins" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


This broadcast celebrates songs about birds in the second hour plus birthday songbirds Judy Collins (who just turned 80) and the legendary Shirley Horn. New releases included vocalists Kalya Ramu, Holly Cole, Laurie Antonioli, Charles Ruggiero & Hilary Gardner, bassist Anne Mette Iversen, pianists Amina Figarova and Eric Reed, with more birthday shout outs to Bing Crosby, Connie Crothers, and Willie Nelson, among others. Playlist Ariel Pocock “Gonzalos Melody" from Living in Twilight (Justin Time ) 00:00 Kalya ...

Album Review

Shirley Horn: With Friends

Read "With Friends" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo


I dischi di Shirley Horn per la Verve hanno segnato per la cantante-pianista statunitense una seconda vita artistica, foriera di più ampi riconoscimenti. Questo doppio CD antologico enuclea alcuni degli episodi più rilevanti, dove lasciano il segno anche preziosi cammeo di Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Toots Thielemans e Wynton Marsalis. In primo piano l'eterea sensualità del suo canto sussurrato, che dalle predilette formule in trio si apre soavemente ai timbri orchestrali di Johnny Mandell. Ne discende un percorso di grande ...

9
Album Review

Shirley Horn: Shirley Horn Live at the 4 Queens

Read "Shirley Horn Live at the 4 Queens" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


“Horn did ballads and cool, understated ruminations better than anyone except her first champion, mentor and lifelong friend, trumpeter Miles Davis. Both were masters of silence and anticipation, but even Davis teased Horn about her pacing. 'You do 'em awful slow!' he once said.'" Richard Harrington, Washington Post. The incandescence that was Shirley Horn, and her central importance to jazz vocals, cannot be overstated. She was a master, like Miles Davis and Ahmad Jamal, at retaining ...

352
Album Review

Shirley Horn Trio: Live At the 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival

Read "Live At the 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival" reviewed by Joel Roberts


No jazz singer ever sang as softly and slowly and with such subtle command as Shirley Horn. Her voice often just above a whisper, she forced audiences to hush up and pay attention as she delivered lyrics without flash or pretense, but with a knowing sense of life lived and dues paid.

Three years to the month of her passing in 2005, it’s a gift for Horn’s devotees to have a chance to hear this collection ...

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Album Review

Shirley Horn: Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz

Read "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz" reviewed by Andrew Rowan


An appearance on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz radio broadcast often sheds light on unexplored aspects of an artist's career as the host conducts her intrepid, conversational interviews. Here, we have both illuminating conversation and Shirley Horn's musical essence: heartfelt ballad singing at crawling tempos, spot-on piano accompaniment, and deep-in-the-keys swing. Unless she knew you well, Horn could be a reluctant conversationalist. In this setting, though, she sheds some light on her career and musical philosophy, saying that ...

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1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Shirley Horn's birthday today!

Shirley Horn remembered playing her grandmother's piano when she was four years old. Uninterested in playing with the neighborhood children, Horn enjoyed nothing more than to play that piano, and would close herself off in her grandmother's parlor, which was kept for guests and was chillier than the rest of the house. After several years of this, her mother, who admired classical music, enrolled the girl in piano lessons. Shirley was ...

TV / Film

Doc: Shirley Horn Sings & Plays 'Here's to Life'

Doc: Shirley Horn Sings & Plays 'Here's to Life'

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Vocalist Shirley Horn's 1992 album Here's to Life (Verve) is a jazz masterpiece. The album has long been considered Horn's most emotionally penetrating album and Johnny Mandel's greatest triumph as a string arranger and orchestra conductor. He won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) for the album. Unfortunately, Horn lost in the Best Jazz Vocal Performance category that year to Bobby McFerrin for his vocal of 'Round Midnight on his Play album with Chick Corea. Many fans of ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Shirley Horn's birthday today!

Shirley Horn remembered playing her grandmother's piano when she was four years old. Uninterested in playing with the neighborhood children, Horn enjoyed nothing more than to play that piano, and would close herself off in her grandmother's parlor, which was kept for guests and was chillier than the rest of the house. After several years of this, her mother, who admired classical music, enrolled the girl in piano lessons. Shirley was ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Shirley Horn's birthday today!

Shirley Horn remembered playing her grandmother's piano when she was four years old. Uninterested in playing with the neighborhood children, Horn enjoyed nothing more than to play that piano, and would close herself off in her grandmother's parlor, which was kept for guests and was chillier than the rest of the house. After several years of this, her mother, who admired classical music, enrolled the girl in piano lessons. Shirley was ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Shirley Horn's birthday today!

Shirley Horn remembered playing her grandmother's piano when she was four years old. Uninterested in playing with the neighborhood children, Horn enjoyed nothing more than to play that piano, and would close herself off in her grandmother's parlor, which was kept for guests and was chillier than the rest of the house. After several years of this, her mother, who admired classical music, enrolled the girl in piano lessons. Shirley was ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Shirley Horn's birthday today!

Shirley Horn remembered playing her grandmother\'s piano when she was four years old. Uninterested in playing with the neighborhood children, Horn enjoyed nothing more than to play that piano, and would close herself off in her grandmother\'s parlor, which was kept for guests and was chillier than the rest of the house. After several years of this, her mother, who admired classical music, enrolled the girl in piano lessons... Read more. ...

Video / DVD

Shirley Horn: Bern, 1990

Shirley Horn: Bern, 1990

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Happy New Year to all of my JazzWax readers around the globe and to my Facebook friends and 10.7K Twitter followers! As a New Year's Day treat, I'm sharing a link that pianist Leslie Pintchik sent along featuring the splendor that was Shirley Horn. In the video, she sings and plays at the International Jazz Festival in Bern, Switzerland, in 1990, backed by bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams. Part 1 leads into the next five parts. So just ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Shirley Horn's birthday today!

Shirley Horn remembered playing her grandmother\'s piano when she was four years old. Uninterested in playing with the neighborhood children, Horn enjoyed nothing more than to play that piano, and would close herself off in her grandmother\'s parlor, which was kept for guests and was chillier than the rest of the house. After several years of this, her mother, who admired classical music, enrolled the girl in piano lessons... Read more. ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Jazz Musician of the Day: Shirley Horn

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Shirley Horn's birthday today!

Shirley Horn remembered playing her grandmother\'s piano when she was four years old. Uninterested in playing with the neighborhood children, Horn enjoyed nothing more than to play that piano, and would close herself off in her grandmother\'s parlor, which was kept for guests and was chillier than the rest of the house. After several years of this, her mother, who admired classical music, enrolled the girl in piano lessons... Read more. ...

2

Recording

Shirley Horn at the 4 Queens

Shirley Horn at the 4 Queens

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

If you were a female jazz vocalist who began your recording career in 1959 or later, you were almost certainly in trouble. Not only were you entering real estate already crowded with band veterans such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Peggy Lee, June Christy, Carmen McRae, Julie London and Joe Stafford but you also were going up against pop titans including Patti Page, Dinah Shore, Eydie Gormé, Rosemary Clooney and so many others. To complicate matters, the market ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

One Day, Forever

Arkadia Records
2023

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Magic Moments

Arkadia Records
2022

buy

Shirley Horn Live at...

Resonance Records
2016

buy

Live At the 1994...

Monterey Jazz Festival Records
2008

buy

Marian McPartland's...

The Jazz Alliance
2006

buy

Videos

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