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Billy Hart, drummer
“Why Did I Choose You?”
One of my favourite data I’ve ever made was “A Lazy Afternoon,” with me and Buster Williams accompanying Shirley. And one in every of my favourite tracks from it’s “Why Did I Choose You?” It’s wonderful how she made us really feel once we had been on the bandstand along with her. More than one time, she made me cry. It was embarrassing, in entrance of the viewers, however I used to be so moved by the music. And her affect reveals up in every single place, each as a singer and a pianist. When you hear Herbie Hancock, even, you say: Man, Herbie actually heard Shirley Horn! Anybody would say that, however I specifically can say that as a result of I performed with Shirley Horn reverse Miles Davis on the Village Vanguard, greater than as soon as, and that’s once I met Herbie. A bunch of youthful singers, like Diana Krall, actually primarily based their means of singing on Shirley. I used to be speaking not way back to Samara Joy, and he or she stated that “A Lazy Afternoon” is one in every of her favourite data.
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Andrey Henkin, music critic
“Consequences of a Drug Addict Role”
Like modern Nina Simone, the classically skilled pianist Shirley Horn began out as a reluctant singer. And, after her first success within the early Nineteen Sixties, Horn turned more and more dissatisfied with the settings through which she was heard, a lot in order that she departed the highlight in 1966. Before her re-emergence within the late Seventies and rising fame by way of the tip of her life, she made a single album in 1973 for the obscure Perception label, a return to the intimacy of her 1960 debut and once more that includes her piano. Closing out the date, a set mixing Great American Songbook requirements and up to date pop fare, is the audacious divergence in Horn’s discography “Consequences of a Drug Addict Role.”
Over a sparsely sinister musical backdrop — Horn’s sole composer credit score — is Harold Wing’s poetry recounting a lifetime of dependency, traces like “a challenge a day/no work or play/nothing to say/but how’s the stuff today.” Horn’s unadorned vocal fashion is rendered all of the extra chilling by an added echo impact, particularly placing when she repeats “Death” to shut out the observe. In six minutes, Horn places you on the chilly streets, on the lookout for a repair whereas wanting over your shoulder.
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Fredara Hadley, scholar
“Return to Paradise”
Whenever I discover myself in a tropical and plush nook of our planet, “Return to Paradise” is the music that performs in my head. It occurs each single time unconsciously. The brilliance of Shirley Horn’s vocal phrasing and delicate piano taking part in implies that even when I’m not in a tropical and plush nook of our planet, listening to “Return to Paradise” creates a second of elegant respite. I first fell in love with Shirley Horn once I heard Mark de Clive-Lowe’s remix of “Return to Paradise” for the 2002 “Verve Remixed” compilation. Twentysomething me danced and vibed to his model, however I liked her voice a lot that I fortunately fell down the rabbit gap of her discography. I turned a devotee of her unrushed melodic storytelling and a delighted eavesdropper on the intimate dialog between her voice and her piano. For me, Shirley Horn is paradise discovered.
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Rusty Hassan, radio D.J.
“Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now”
Shirley lived a couple of blocks from me. She was not solely a good friend, she was a neighbor. And as she bought an increasing number of well-known and celebrated, with the earnings she had coming in, quite than transfer, she stored including onto her home, constructing additions onto her residence on Lawrence Street. One time I noticed her, she stated: “I can’t do any more — I can’t get any more permits. But I finally got the room I want that will fit the grand piano.” She was actually tight with D.C. — her loyalty to D.C. was such that she at all times did New Year’s Eve on the One Step Down, on Pennsylvania Avenue. And her album “The Main Ingredient” was recorded at that home on Lawrence Street. The tune “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now” is up-tempo, and one thing that folks might simply be drawn to. The complete environment was actually like having a celebration. When you noticed her in live performance, she’d be properly dressed, to the nines, carrying gloves, and actually acutely aware of who she was in efficiency. But when she was off the stage, it was: “How you doin’, c’mon, let’s eat, let’s have some fun.” “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now” is an previous swinger, a Fats Waller tune, and I feel that spirit is within the music.
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Jordannah Elizabeth, music critic
“Here’s to Life”
Jazz vocalists will be thought-about equal to the getting older means of all wines, from broadly produced California merlots to the rarest Bordeaux; time is of the essence. Shirley Horn’s later work, 1992’s “Here’s to Life” (Verve), turned her signature trendy customary, because the cooing string part behind her creates a potent sonic realm, flowing like new silk for Horn to ship an unforgettable efficiency. Horn’s sensibility — managed, romantic and intuitive — additionally feels very intentional, virtually as if she knew “Here’s to Life” was to be an emblem of knowledge and survival that’s extra candy than bitter. She is regal, traditional and easily good.
