Don Shirley: sentimental genius?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I threw on Improvisations by the Don Shirley Duo again after watching an old biopic about Gershwin and it's almost too romantic. It's like a soundtrack to some life I'll never have.

Shirley was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1927, attended the Leningrad Conservatory at age 9, made his debut with the Boston Pops at age 18. He recorded scores of albums, earned a doctorate of Music, Psychology, and Liturgical Arts. In the one newspaper article I can find about him (outside of a cursory Allmusic entry), Stravinsky is quoted as calling his playing "worthy of the gods." To my ears, Shirley's eager rush of classical piano over jazz beats feels like the best of the genre, whatever that genre is.

So why has nobody heard of him? Where is he now? What's his story?

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 8 April 2003 06:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I see Improvisations was reissued in '99.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002SWQT/ref=m_art_li_8/002-5961249-9443258?v=glance&s=music

One customer says: "Why his music hasn't received more attention from jazz critics and anthologists is a mystery."

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 8 April 2003 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

fifteen years pass...

So, after picking up the above record at a second-hand shop in Bed-Stuy the '90s, playing it every week for years, then doing the above Internet search (gosh, 15 years ago), I had largely forgotten about Don Shirley the man until I walked into a major motion picture about him yesterday. 'Green Book,' about his 1962 tour of the South with a white driver, gives the music a physical equivalent in Mahershala Ali's performance and the Viggo Mortensen character's view of him—and a persuasive rationale for the music's limits. That it's at least part faerie tale seems part of its pretense, but I still found it very moving. It clearly loves the music.

Shout out to Johnny Fever:

Don Shirley, multi-genre pianist (1927-2013)

― Peter Scholtes, Sunday, 30 December 2018 17:14 (six years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.