Shirley Horn - May The Music Never End

I was waiting for a package this morning that didn't arrive, but I got an unexpected one instead from my lovely girlfriend who is obviously gunning for my annual Extravagant Gift Giver award. It was a autographed copy of Shirley Horn's 2003 album, May The Music Never End (Horn performed in Singapore sometime last week). Her voice is still beautiful, despite what a couple of negative Amazon user reviews may suggest, in any case its degradation is nowhere near that of Joni Mitchell's, and Joni has hardly been more emotive in my opinion than she has been in these later years. Horn's is smoky, authoritative, weary, and strong all at once in these fine performances. Even the one song that sounds like a bad idea on paper, a cover of the Beatles' Yesterday, is pretty much flawed to perfection.


“May the Music Never End” (Shirley Horn)