Bad News About Shirley Horn

[JSngry]

Just read in the new Jazz Times that Ms. Horn has had her right foot amputated due to complications from diabetes and is no longer playing piano, even though she is still singing and touring. Hadn't seen this info posted here, but if it's "common knowledge", I apologize.

She's got a cat named George Mesterhazy accompanying her now on tour and on her new album (on which she's also accompanied by Ahmad Jamal for 2 cuts), and she states delight in his abilities, but if you're like me, it's a major drag to think that we'll never again hear Shirley's own magnificent accompaniments to her equally magnificent vocals.

At least we'll still have the vocals...

[king ubu]

This is very sad news, indeed, Jim

Have not heard anything about it, so, thanks for sharing!

Though when I saw her in 2001, she already looked like a real old lady. She was brough to the stage on a wheel chair, and looked quite tired. But she played one of the most perfectly balanced (programming of songs) and performed concerts I ever saw/heard, which is why I did not have too many thought about her health.

Let's wish her all the best!

ubu

[jazzbo]

Sad news. Let's wish her all the best indeed!

[RonF]

Thanks Jim. Glad to know the reason for this. Hate hearing it.

On her new album May The Music Never End, on Verve, Mesterhazy plays piano on all but I think two songs. A co-worker and I were wondering aloud about why she wasn't playing. And I wasn't aware that her long time bass player George Ables passed away (last year?) Ed Howard is playing bass on this new cd, with Steve Wiilliams on drums. It's a great record. Sure hope it won't be her last.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Yes, Shirley has seen a lot of adversity. But do not give up hope. She played piano for an encore at the JVC festival.

If you haven't already, please visit the SH discography on my (new) website.

-----------------

Shirley Horn Tries to Regain Her Other Voice

by Lara Pellegrinelli

New York Times, June 22, 2003

The last year and a half has been pretty tough for Shirley Horn, the

renowned jazz singer and pianist. She lost her right foot because of

complications from diabetes. Her bass player of 33 years, Charles

Ables, died of cancer, and Ms. Horn recently underwent chemotherapy

in her battle with breast cancer. Her record company, Verve, decided

not to renew her contract just before she went into the studio to

work on her 12th album for it, "May the Music Never End," which is to

be released on Tuesday.

Yet Ms. Horn, 69, prefers not to dwell on the past. Earlier this

month she played four sold-out nights at Yoshi's, a popular jazz club

in Oakland, Calif. This week she will perform twice at Carnegie Hall

as part of the JVC Jazz Festival: tomorrow she will appear in a

tribute to the singer Peggy Lee, which features some 20 singers

including Eartha Kitt and Peter Cincotti, and on Friday she shares a

double bill with the pianist Dave Brubeck.

There was one frustration that she wanted to talk about. "I've got to

get back to the piano," Ms. Horn said from her home in

Washington. "I'm dying right now. It's rough."

The loss of her foot has resulted in what she considers an even

greater impairment, the loss of her ability to accompany herself. Her

playing relies on the piano's sustain pedal to produce sonorous

curtains. The shimmering chords she plays on signature songs

like "Here's to Life" and "Estaté" provide the perfect backdrop for

the quiet drama of her vocal interpretations.

She still struggles with the prosthetic device she uses in place of

her foot. "Every piano is different in the distance between the top

of the pedal and the floor," she said, adding that a few millimeters

can make all the difference.

She hopes she will be able to play at least one song on Friday, but

won't know whether she can until she actually sits behind the piano.

George Mesterhazy, something of a Horn protégé, will replace her on

piano; he will be joined in the Shirley Horn Trio by another newcomer

on bass, Ed Howard, and Steve Williams, who will play drums as he has

done for more than 20 years.

Ms. Horn will also find herself in an unfamiliar place: squinting

into spotlights, face to face with an audience. Her attention will no

longer be split between her hands and her voice, freeing her to

explore new emotional depths. What no longer flows from her

fingertips sometimes finds an alternative means of expression in a

few improvised scat choruses, as it did at Iridium in February.

Ms. Horn is determined to work through her recent setbacks and keep

making music that she loves. Asked about her future plans, she

replied, "Child, I am gonna make a record. And then I'm gonna make

another one. And another."

-----------------

[Apparently there has been some backpedaling about the canceling of her Verve contract.]

==========

(excerpt from: Bittersweet and Serious Blend Without Discord by Stephen Holden, NYT 6/30/03)

On Friday Ms. Horn whose right leg was recently amputated below the knee (because of diabetes), had to abandon the keyboard because the surgery left her unable to manipulate the sustain pedal. Only at the very end of the evening did she approach the piano to perform an encore.

The question that hovered over the evening was how well the 69-year-old singer would fare without the inspiration and grounding of the keyboard at her fingertips. The answer came back quickly: extremely well. Seated in a wheelchair and facing the audience, Ms. Horn exuded the authority of an amused grande dame, serenely but firmly in charge. If the communication between her and George Mesterhazy, the sensitive, deeply lyrical pianist charged with trying to read her musical mind, wasn't always perfect (a couple of her signature pauses seemed tentative), freedom from the keyboard allowed Ms. Horn to devote a keener attention to the song lyrics.

The set was anchored in four elongated ballads, "A Time for Love," "Yesterday" "Here's to Life" and "May the Music Never End" that worked together to evoke a grand, ultimately optimistic summing up of a lifetime's bittersweet experience. Given the roominess of the arrangements and Ms. Horn's dynamic understatement, every accent and detail counted, and the moments she chose to ruffle her own decorum were brilliantly selected. An example was her abrupt, ferocious emphasis on the word "suddenly" in "Yesterday," the Paul McCartney song, to suggest how jarring it can be is to wake up one morning and realize how many years have passed.

===========

Mike

[JSngry]

So does anybody have a definitive answer about the status of her Verve contract?

If it's indeed over, it's been one helluva run.

[BFrank]

I heard about this quite a while ago. I think her health is OK otherwise and that she is hoping to be able to play piano again someday.

[DrJ]

What a sad thing to happen. I hope she is able to work with the prosthesis over time and perhaps get back to accompanying herself up to the level of her own exacting standards.

Horn is one of my favorite vocalists because of her ability to get across the deeper meanings in a lyric, to communicate emotionally. This news really tugs at my heart.

[JSngry]

Yeah, she does so many things at such excrutiatingly (in the good sense) s.....l.......o............w tempos that I'd think that working with another pianist (and bassist, for that matter), would be difficult, no matter how gifted or tuned in the cat(s) is/are.

Jimmy Scott can do it, but he's never accompanied himself that I know of, so he's used to it. Shirley's been at her own "command post" for so long that....

Here's to life.

[DrJ]

Yeah, the slow tempo thing with Horn is simply unbelievable...the stuff would just fall apart in lesser hands.

Jim, you're right Scott is one of the only others who can hang with Shirely in that category, and you may be interested to know that I picked up the fabled FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL (Tangerine/Rhino) CD reissue based on your accolades back on the BNBB. I totally agree that it's a monumental recording, amazing to think about how that music just sat in the vaults forever and was pulled off the shelves before it had a chance to make its destined impact. Anyway, it now sits alongside my personal favorite of Ms. Horn's (YOU WON'T FORGET ME - Verve) as a shining example of sublime balladry.

[JSngry]

Glad to hear you dug the Scott. Do you have ALL THE WAY too? If not... If the Tangerine date was as good as it could be for its time (and I think it is), the add another 30 or so years life experience and you get ALL THE WAY. Of course, in between there was THE SOURCE (or, if you got the nerve , LOST AND FOUND). A freakin' LIFETIME in 3 CDs...

I think my singlemost favorite Horn performance (and there are many indeed) is "Goodbye" from I LOVE YOU, PARIS. She does it as a medley with "New York State Of Mind" (go figure...). But it's SO slow, SO dark, and SO painful right from the git-go, and it's a dark, painful tune anyway. Sinatra's ONLY THE LONELY version is sometimes too heavy for me to handle. But Horn's version... by the time she gets to the final bridge, it's all over for me, and really, it was over about 3 seconds after she began it (oh, those chords she plays to fill in her spaces!). I mean, for anybody else, emotionally climaxing the tune at the level she BEGINS at would be a MAJOR triumph. But THIS lady...

She inspires awe, and not that many people do that these days. God bless Shirley Horn.

[RonF]

Glad to hear you dug the Scott. Do you have ALL THE WAY too? If not... If the Tangerine date was as good as it could be for its time (and I think it is), the add another 30 or so years life experience and you get ALL THE WAY. Of course, in between there was THE SOURCE (or, if you got the nerve , LOST AND FOUND). A freakin' LIFETIME in 3 CDs...

I think my singlemost favorite Horn performance (and there are many indeed) is "Goodbye" from I LOVE YOU, PARIS. She does it as a medley with "New York State Of Mind" (go figure...). But it's SO slow, SO dark, and SO painful right from the git-go, and it's a dark, painful tune anyway. Sinatra's ONLY THE LONELY version is sometimes too heavy for me to handle. But Horn's version... by the time she gets to the final bridge, it's all over for me, and really, it was over about 3 seconds after she began it (oh, those chords she plays to fill in her spaces!). I mean, for anybody else, emotionally climaxing the tune at the level she BEGINS at would be a MAJOR triumph. But THIS lady...

She inspires awe, and not that many people do that these days. God bless Shirley Horn.

Jim, From I Love You Paris...What about LA Breakdown? Sends chills everytime.

[JSngry]

Yeah, it's ALL good, ain't it?