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y Marcus Errico
Oct 21, 2005, 5:25 PM PT

Shirley Horn, the great jazz vocalist and pianist and one of the last links to the Miles Davis era, has died at age 71, her label announced Friday.

The Grammy-winning songbird, whose vocal phrasing, song selection and piano prowess influenced the likes of Norah Jones and Diana Krall, succumbed Thursday to complications of diabetes in her hometown of Washington, D.C.

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"Horn's taste is impeccable, her conviction contagious, and when she sings a lyric...we accept it as pure gospel," Vanity Fair once wrote.

Born May 1, 1934, Horn picked up the piano in her childhood. "What I remember first in my life is playing the piano. That's when I was four years old. I'd go to my grandmother's home. She had a parlor with a great big piano," Horn recounted on the Website of her label, Verve Records. "I didn't want to do anything but just go in there and sit on the piano stool. I wasn't interested in playing with the kids outside. After several years of this my grandmother told my mother to get me lessons."

As her skills progressed, she was admitted to Juilliard, but turned down the offer for financial reasons. Instead, she majored in music at Howard University. By 1954 she formed her first trio, which plied the clubs in D.C. and Baltimore. She also--reluctantly--became a sought-after vocalist.

"I was very shy and it was hard for me to sing," Horn once said. "But then I started to realize how much I loved to sing."

Her debut single, "Embers and Ashes," caught the attention of Davis, who cajoled Horn into opening for him at New York's Village Vanguard in 1960. That sparked a lasting friendship and launched Horn to national prominence.

She was soon signed to Mercury Records and, with Quincy Jones producing, recorded two albums in 1963: Loads of Love and Shirley Horn with Horns. But she had a falling out with Mercury over her creative direction and stopped recording for the label. The disagreement, coupled with the birth of her daughter, led Horn to retreat from the spotlight and return to the D.C. area for an extended period.

She stormed back in 1987 after signing with Verve. She wound up recording 14 albums for the label and her second act proved more popular than her first. She toured widely, scored eight Grammy nominations, collaborated with Joe Henderson and Wynton Marsalis, and even managed to recruit old pal Davis to back her on 1991's You Won't Forget Me, among the final sessions before his death.

She won a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance in 1998 for her tribute to Davis, I Remember Miles. Among many other accolades, she was an inductee into the Jazz Hall of Fame, was feted at Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center and, in 2004, was named a jazz master by the National Endowment for the Arts, the organization's top honor for a jazz musician.

"Shirley Horn was a true innovator. She created a unique style of playing and singing that was not only original, but so penetrating and so much her own that few dared try to copy it," said Verve president and CEO Ron Goldstein.

"She was also a great character and I will miss all of my conversations with her, which were delivered in the same deadpan, ironic style that we all knew and loved from her performances. Her passing is a great loss to Verve, to jazz, and to the world."

RIP Ms. Horn

so sad. so sad....

Now THIS is classy... Who'd of thunk we even know who Shirely Horn is, right? Well, the fact that we do says what an amazing talent she was. Like Mavis, Dinah, Sarah, and Ella, Shirley Horn had a unique gospel/soul/blues/jazz voice that was instantly recognizable.

Rest In Peace