Shirley Horn

Born May 1, 1934 in Washington, D.C., Shirley Horn was a jazz singer and pianist whose smoky voice placed her with Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRae at the pinnacle of jazz vocal stardom. She worked with many jazz icons including Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Toots Thielemans, Dizzy Gillespie, and Quincy Jones. She learned to play piano as a child and played in a trio at university before she was urged to sing in her teens. She was discovered playing live by James Gavin from Stere-O-Craft, who then took her to New York to record her debut album Embers and Ashes (1960). Miles Davis heard the album and invited Horn to play intermission sets at the Village Vanguard. She signed with Mercury Records in 1962 thanks to Quincy Jones, who was the label’s vice-president and jazz arranger. After a few albums on the label, Horn felt that Mercury Records was trying to turn her into a mainstream pop artist and she left the label. Her last album of the 1960s was Travelin’ Light (1965), released on the ABC-Paramount label. She left the business and focused on raising her daughter, releasing only two albums in the 1970s. Horn returned to the music business in 1981 with the album All Night Long. She began to play live engagements and released several critically acclaimed albums including The Garden of the Blues (1985), I Thought About You (1987), All of Me (1987) and Close Enough for Love (1989). Her Grammy Award nominations (for Best Jazz Vocal Performance) started with the 1991 album You Won't Forget Me, which featured a rare guest appearance from Miles Davis. That album was followed by Here's to Life (1992), Light Out of Darkness (1993), I Love You, Paris (1994), The Main Ingredient (1996), Loving You (1997), her Grammy-winning I Remember Miles (1998), You're My Thrill (2001) and May the Music Never End (2003). Horn continued to perform in top venues and at major festivals around the world even after her right foot was amputated in 2001 as a result of diabetes. Shirley Horn died of complications from the disease on October 20, 2005 at the age of 71.