Shirley Horn was one of the great jazz singers of her time, even though in hindsight she might have been born a little too late for her time. A traditionalist to the core, she rejected her label’s attempts to modernize her music and her image in the ’60s, preferring to stick to the lush, evocative ballads that were always her strong suit, even as she watched them go out of style while she was still in her youth.
There’s a little bit of irony in jazz composer/Ruby Yacht affiliate Chris Misch-Bloxdorf reconstructing the late singer’s orchestral 1992 album Here’s To Life, then. Horn herself probably would have hated it, because it’s drenched in the kind of modernist sounds that she always resisted—for some, hearing her immortal rendition of “Wild is the Wind” set to a trip-hop beat probably amounts to blasphemy. But the craftiness is hard to deny. Misch-Bloxdorf, who released the project under the Artie Do Good moniker, deconstructs most of these tracks beyond recognition, cribbing tricks from modern hip-hop, downtempo and experimental music, and bringing in some guest poets and rappers, including his Ruby Yacht associate Safari Al on the standout “Perfect Loyal.”
As for Horn herself, Misch-Bloxdorf employs her voice only sparingly, but every time it comes in it sounds as striking as it must have 25 or 50 years ago. It’s not often you hear music this modern and timeless all at once.
You can stream the project below.
