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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZSHIRLEY, Don(b Donald Walbridge Shirley, 29 January 1927, Kingston, Jamaica) Piano, composer. From an academically brilliant family, he was invited to the Leningrad Conservatory, and has doctorates in music, psychology and liturgical art; his classical technique was praised by Igor Stravinsky, and he was encouraged to play jazz by George Shearing and Duke Ellington. He made his concert debut at age 18 in 1945, playing the Tchaikovsky piano concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Dean Dixon conducting. He had composed classical pieces and was teaching psychology at the U. of Chicago when he got back into performing almost accidentally, investigating the effects of music on members of an audience. He made highly praised albums in a very unusual style, playing standards, show tunes and pop songs, his unique harmonic treatment sounding improvised, a sort of ultimate in laid-back fireside music. He began recording for Archie Bleyer’s Cadence label; on his first three LPs 1954-6 his accompanist was bassist Richard Davis. Tonal Expressions included pop songs ('Secret Love'), several evergreens and a medley from the show New Faces; it made the top 15 albums in 1955, his only chart showing. Also in 1955 he played in the orchestrated version of Duke Ellington’s New World A-Comin’ at Carnegie Hall as Duke conducted the NBC Symphony of the Air (formerly Toscanini’s orchestra, the NBC S.O.) Six more LPs 1957-61 included three solo sets and three with bass and cello; there was also a trio record on Audio Fidelity. Three Columbia LPs 1965-8 included In Concert (live at Carnegie Hall); he played organ and piano on an Atlantic LP in 1974 with long-time associates Kenneth Fricker on drums, Juri Taht on cello, James Bond on second cello, including a Gershwin medley and pop songs: 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'By The Time I Get To Phoenix'. The Cadence albums were being reissued by Collectables, two LPs on each CD, and there was a new CD, Home With Donald Shirley, on Walbridge in 2001, available from his office in Carnegie Hall. He has a website at www.donshirley.com. |