Jazz vocalist and pianist Shirley Horn was born in Washington, D.C. and began playing the piano at the age of four. By the time she as twelves years old, she was studying piano and composition at Howard University, where she later attended to study classical music. Horn created her own jazz trio when she was twenty, moving away from her classical training and toward the influence of musicians Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal and Errol Garner. Her proximately to the iconic U Street jazz area in her hometown fed her growing fixation with jazz music, and in 1960 she was discovered by Miles Davis. She was known for putting on one-woman shows that rivaled whole bands, with exceptional range and skill on the piano and a powerhouse voice made for blues ballads. Despite her obvious talent, critical acclaim for recordings like her 1963 release Shirley Horn with Horns, and endorsement from the likes of Davis and Quincy Jones, Horn never achieved commercial success because of drastic shift in popular music in the 1960s, when The Beatles hit the US. Her talent was recognized with nine Grammy Award nominations and one Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance on her album I Remember Miles, a last thanks to her longtime friend and mentor.
