Shirley Horn: D.C.’s Own

The following is a guest post by Stephanie Akau, music archivist.

Pianist and vocalist Shirley Horn (1934-2005) is an important part of the legacy of jazz in Washington, D.C., which also includes Duke Ellington, Andrew Hite and Billy Taylor. Unlike some of her Washington contemporaries who moved to New York to pursue performing careers, Shirley Horn lived her entire life in northeast D.C. She started piano lessons at age 4 with the encouragement of her mother, and at age 12 went on to study at Howard University’s Junior School of Music. Before graduating from Dunbar High School in 1952, she became interested in jazz. In the Dunbar 1952 yearbook, it was clear that Horn already had her sights set on a music career.

Around age 17, Horn discovered her singing voice, finding she could earn more money if she sang while playing piano. Her velvety alto combined with virtuosic piano technique came to define her artistic style. Horn went on to Howard University, started her own jazz group, and performed in D.C. jazz clubs. After graduating in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree in piano performance, she married Sheppard “Shep” Deering, a mechanic for the Washington Area Metro Transportation Authority. Their daughter, Rainy, was born several years later. Horn’s first album, “Embers and Ashes” (Stere-o-craft, 1960), caught the ear of Miles Davis, who invited her to open for him at the Village Vanguard.

Impressed by Horn’s set at the Village Vanguard, Quincy Jones produced her two next two albums, “Loads of Love” and “Shirley Horn with Horns” (Mercury, 1963). Horn was the vocalist on Jones’s soundtracks for the 1968 films “A Dandy in Aspic” and “For Love of Ivy.” As Rainy grew older, Horn decided to limit her performance touring and focus her work locally so she could spend more time with her. Consequently, the publicity materials in her collection provide valuable insight into a formerly vibrant D.C. jazz scene whose venues have largely disappeared over the past fifty years.

Her trio included Billy Hart on drums and Charles Ables on bass. Longtime D.C. resident Steve Williams later replaced Hart as drummer.

In 1981, Horn gave an informal performance at the JazzTimes convention held in Washington, D.C. Paul Acket, the founder of the North Sea Jazz Festival, was in the audience and invited her to perform that summer, which effectively re-energized her career. Horn, Williams, and Ables performed, recorded, and toured internationally over 20 years. After Ables died in 2001, bassist Ed Howard, another Washingtonian, stepped in.

Horn recorded with notable musicians such as Miles Davis, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Gerry Mulligan, Kenny Burrell, Toots Thielemans and Ahmad Jamal. She was nominated for a Grammy Award nine times, winning once for “I Remember Miles” (Verve, 1998), the album dedicated to Davis. Horn received the Jazz at Lincoln Center Award for Excellence (2003), Kennedy Center Honor (2004), and was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master (2005) shortly before her death at age 71. The lyric of one of Horn’s best-loved songs, “You Won’t Forget Me” by Kermit Goell and Fred Spielman, succinctly encapsulates her music and legacy:

You won’t forget me, though you may try.

I’m part of memories, too wonderful to die.

Thanks to the generosity of Shirley Horn’s daughter, the Library of Congress Music Division acquired this legacy collection. The Shirley Horn Papers contains music and correspondence from some of the songwriters she recorded, including Johnny Mandel, Richard Rodney Bennett and Alan and Marilyn Bergman: the collection is now open for research. It was my honor to author the finding aid, which is available online via the Library of Congress website.