SHIRLEY HORN
May the Music Never End

Verve

Shirley Horn has been doing basically the same thing for a great deal of her career, but she keeps getting better at it, distilling it down to the essence, even when you thought she’d already gotten there. On all of her Verve recordings (she signed with the label in the late ‘80s) Horn uses her voice, by turns gritty and smoky, to create a unique interpretation of the songs she sings. In her hands, they become declamations, or as Stanley Crouch says in his perceptive liner notes: “One of her special gifts, when she decides to be what they used to call a torch singer, is her ability to make a song almost into a speech, with the notes quite subtly sneaking into the words.”

Horn is a very capable self-accompanist at the piano, but on May the Music Never End she turns the piano chair over to George Mesterhazy (with the exception of two tracks on which Ahmad Jamal takes over), who handles it with his characteristic taste. In any event, no song that Horn undertakes, regardless of how familiar, will sound anything like what you’ve heard before. Take the Paul McCartney chestnut “Yesterday.” Horn sings it like it was a Charles Aznavour or Edith Piaf cabaret monologue, with no trace of the legato sensibilities that McCartney (as well as the George Martin-arranged string quartet on the original recording or countless other singers) brought to the material. Another standout performance, with different emotional content, is Horn’s interpretation of Michel Legrand’s “Watch What Happens.” Taken at a mellow bossa pace, there’s lots of space for Horn to play with both lyric and melody, and the results give the song a real lift.

The guest spots on the album work really well, too. Ahmad Jamal, a master of space himself, is the perfect accompanist to Horn, providing tender support as well as tasteful embellishment on “Maybe September” and the Gordon Jenkins-penned “This Is All I Ask.” The playing is simply sublime, with Jamal displaying impressive technique even while soloing in an understated manner (on “Maybe September”). Horn’s longtime drummer, Steve Williams, adds color, as does bassist Ed Howard, who replaces longtime Horn bassist Charles Abels, who passed away in 2001 (he appeared on Horn’s last album, You’re My Thrill). Horn has done a number of recordings with guest trumpet players, most notably Miles Davis on the haunting “You Won’t Forget Me,” an amazing piece of work that turned out to be one of Davis’s last studio recordings. Here she utilizes Roy Hargrove, who mellows his sound by playing flugelhorn. He provides the perfect counterpoint to Horn’s voice, playing phrases that seem to float lightly above the singer like an echo of happier days.

There may be those that will find Horn’s interpretations of familiar tunes a bit too distinctive for their tastes, but if you’re unfamiliar with Shirley’s singing, I suggest you give it some time to grow on you. Listeners who know what to expect will be neither disappointed nor surprised by May the Music Never End—they’ll simply welcome the voice and presence of an old friend.