Here's to Life

Product Description:

Personnel: Shirley Horn (vocals, piano); Wynton Marsalis (trumpet); Charles Ables (bass instrument); Steve Williams (drums); Johnny Mandel.

Recording information: Clinton Recording Studios, New York, New York; Group IV Recording, Hollywood, California.

Sometimes the most effective backdrop for a spare, "minimalist" singer is a lush orchestral arrangement with strings. The problem is that there aren't too many arrangers left who can write in the old romantic, melodic style. One exception to the rule is composer Johnny Mandel, the man who scored Jimmy Scott's major comeback ALL THE WAY and, most recently, Diana Krall's WHEN I LOOK INTO YOUR EYES. Mandel's greatest triumph, however, is also Shirlrey Horn's best album, HERE'S TO LIFE, the only one of her many sessions that really captures the flaming romanticism lurking beneath that deceptively economical vocal technique.

Horn has a wealth of material to work with, gems like Billie Holiday's "How am I to Know?," with lyrics by Dorothy Parker, all dressed up in bossa nova style, and Edith Piaf's anthemic "If You Love Me." There is Mandel's own lovely "A Time for Love," as well as two by the great film composer Diimtri Tiomkin, "Wild is the Wind" and "Return to Paradise." The titles alone conjure up a heady, get-away-from-it-all atmosphere, one that enables Horn to justify her reputation as a major artist.