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Listen on YouTube<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n One of my favorite records I\u2019ve ever made was \u201cA Lazy Afternoon,\u201d with me and Buster Williams accompanying Shirley. And one of my favorite tracks from it is \u201cWhy Did I Choose You?\u201d It\u2019s amazing how she made us feel when we were on the bandstand with her. More than one time, she made me cry. It was embarrassing, in front of the audience, but I was so moved by the music. And her influence shows up everywhere, both as a singer and a pianist. When you hear Herbie Hancock, even, you say: Man, Herbie really heard Shirley Horn! Anybody would say that, but I in particular can say that because I played with Shirley Horn opposite Miles Davis at the Village Vanguard, more than once, and that\u2019s when I met Herbie. A bunch of younger singers, like Diana Krall, really based their way of singing on Shirley. I was talking not long ago to Samara Joy<\/a>, and she said that \u201cA Lazy Afternoon\u201d is one of her favorite records.<\/p>\n Listen on YouTube<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Like contemporary Nina Simone, the classically trained pianist Shirley Horn started out as a reluctant singer. And, after her first success in the early 1960s, Horn became increasingly dissatisfied with the settings in which she was heard, so much so that she departed the spotlight in 1966. Before her re-emergence in the late 1970s and increasing fame through the end 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 again featuring her piano. Closing out the date, a set mixing Great American Songbook standards and recent pop fare, is the audacious divergence in Horn\u2019s discography \u201cConsequences of a Drug Addict Role.\u201d<\/p>\n Over a sparsely sinister musical backdrop \u2014 Horn\u2019s sole composer credit \u2014 is Harold Wing\u2019s poetry recounting a life of dependency, lines like \u201ca challenge a day\/no work or play\/nothing to say\/but how\u2019s the stuff today.\u201d Horn\u2019s unadorned vocal style is rendered all the more chilling by an added echo effect, especially striking when she repeats \u201cDeath\u201d to close out the track. In six minutes, Horn puts you on the cold streets, looking for a fix while looking over your shoulder.<\/p>\n Listen on YouTube<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Whenever I find myself in a tropical and lush corner of our planet, \u201cReturn to Paradise\u201d is the song that plays in my head. It happens every single time unconsciously. The brilliance of Shirley Horn\u2019s vocal phrasing and sensitive piano playing means that even when I am not in a tropical and lush corner of our planet, listening to \u201cReturn to Paradise\u201d creates a moment of sublime respite. I first fell in love with Shirley Horn when I heard Mark de Clive-Lowe\u2019s remix of \u201cReturn to Paradise\u201d for the 2002 \u201cVerve Remixed\u201d compilation. Twentysomething me danced and vibed to his version, but I loved her voice so much that I happily fell down the rabbit hole of her discography. I became a devotee of her unrushed melodic storytelling and a delighted eavesdropper on the intimate conversation between her voice and her piano. For me, Shirley Horn is paradise found.<\/p>\n Listen on YouTube<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Shirley lived a few blocks from me. She was not only a friend, she was a neighbor. And as she got more and more famous and celebrated, with the income she had coming in, rather than move, she kept adding onto her house, building additions onto her home on Lawrence Street. One time I saw her, she said: \u201cI can\u2019t do any more \u2014 I can\u2019t get any more permits. But I finally got the room I want that will fit the grand piano.\u201d She was really tight with D.C. \u2014 her loyalty to D.C. was such that she always did New Year\u2019s Eve at the One Step Down, on Pennsylvania Avenue. And her album \u201cThe Main Ingredient\u201d was recorded at that house on Lawrence Street. The tune \u201cKeepin\u2019 Out of Mischief Now\u201d is up-tempo, and something that people could easily be drawn to. The whole atmosphere was really like having a party. When you saw her in concert, she\u2019d be well dressed, to the nines, wearing gloves, and really conscious of who she was in performance. But when she was off the stage, it was: \u201cHow you doin\u2019, c\u2019mon, let\u2019s eat, let\u2019s have some fun.\u201d \u201cKeepin\u2019 Out of Mischief Now\u201d is an old swinger, a Fats Waller tune, and I think that spirit is in the music.<\/p>\n\u25c6 \u25c6 \u25c6<\/span><\/h3>\n
Billy Hart, drummer<\/h2>\n
\u201cWhy Did I Choose You?\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u25c6 \u25c6 \u25c6<\/span><\/h3>\n
Andrey Henkin, music critic<\/h2>\n
\u201cConsequences of a Drug Addict Role\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u25c6 \u25c6 \u25c6<\/span><\/h3>\n
Fredara Hadley, scholar<\/h2>\n
\u201cReturn to Paradise\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u25c6 \u25c6 \u25c6<\/span><\/h3>\n
Rusty Hassan, radio D.J.<\/h2>\n
\u201cKeepin\u2019 Out of Mischief Now\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n