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BEATSTREET

Shirley Horn: Here's to Life

Verve/ Universal Music; Rs. 445 (CD)

Shirley Horn's whispery, breathy voice and meaningful pauses made her rendition of ballads unique.

Especially, the title song of her 1991 album Here's to Life.

The song was part of a compilation album called "Verve's Grammy Winners."

I struck gold when I chanced upon the original album recently.

Muted strings

Horn is in full flow here, and not just on the opening (and title) track.

The most astonishing thing about this album is the fact that although Horn, on vocals and piano, is accompanied by a large string orchestra besides the usual small jazz group of bass, drums and occasional trumpet or flute, the strings are unusually muted.

That allows the jazz buff to pay attention to Horn's virtuosity as a singer and pianist, in both of which capacities she performs admirably.

All the pieces here are ballads.

Horn, who died last year, refrains from making a foray into faster-paced and lighter numbers, sometimes in a sardonic mood; when she did, we heard a facet of her music that added versatility to her emotional depth.

Here her piano solos, as well as guest star Wynton Marsalis' trumpet solos on two numbers and James Walker's and Stephen Kujala's flute solos on a couple of other tracks, help to keep the flag of jazz flying across the album.

But the two best numbers, the title track and "Summer (Estate)," despite having no solo improvisation, easily establish themselves as the pick of the album.

JAZZEBEL

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