Don Shirley

Don Shirley
Born	Donald Walbridge Shirley (1927-01-29)January 29, 1927 Pensacola, Florida, U.S.
Died	April 6, 2013(2013-04-06) (aged 86) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Chicago
Occupations	Musician composer
Spouse	Jean C. Hill (divorced)
Musical career
Genres	Jazz classical chamber jazz
Instrument(s)	Piano organ
Years active	1945–2013
Labels	Cadence Columbia Atlantic

Donald Walbridge Shirley (January 29, 1927 – April 6, 2013) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He recorded many albums for Cadence during the 1950s and 1960s, experimenting with jazz with a classical influence. He wrote organ symphonies, piano concerti, a cello concerto, three string quartets, a one-act opera, works for organ, piano and violin, a symphonic tone poem based on the novel Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, and a set of "Variations" on the legend of Orpheus in the Underworld. During the 1960s, Shirley went on a number of concert tours, some in Deep South states, hiring New York-nightclub bouncer Tony "Lip" Vallelonga as his driver and bodyguard. Their story is dramatized in the 2018 film Green Book.

Biography

Early life

Donald Walbridge Shirley was born on January 29, 1927, in Pensacola, Florida, to Jamaican immigrants, Stella Gertrude (1903–1936), a teacher, and Edwin S. Shirley (1885–1982), an Episcopal priest. His birthplace was sometimes given as Kingston, Jamaica, because promoters falsely advertised him as being Jamaican-born.

Education

Shirley started to learn piano when he was two years old. At the age of nine, he was invited to study theory with Mittolovski at the Leningrad Conservatory of Music. He also studied with Conrad Bernier and Thaddeus Jones at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Shirley earned a doctorate of Music, Psychology, and Liturgical Arts after temporarily giving up the piano.

Career

In 1945, at the age of 18, Shirley performed the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor concerto with the Boston Pops. A year later, Shirley performed one of his compositions with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1949, he received an invitation from the Haitian government to play at the Exposition International du Bi-Centenaire de Port-au-Prince, followed by a request from President Estimé and Archbishop Le Goise for a repeat performance the next week.

Discouraged by the lack of opportunities for classical black musicians, Shirley abandoned the piano as a career while young. He studied psychology at the University of Chicago and began work in Chicago as a psychologist. There he returned to music. He was given a grant to study the relationship between music and juvenile crime, which had broken out in the postwar era of the early 1950s. Playing in a small club, he experimented with sound to determine how the audience responded. The audience was unaware of his experiments and that students had been planted to gauge their reactions.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Shirley recorded many albums for Cadence Records, experimenting with jazz with a classical influence. In 1961, his single "Water Boy" reached No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for 14 weeks. He performed in New York City at Basin Street East, where Duke Ellington heard him and they started a friendship.

At Arthur Fiedler's invitation, Shirley appeared with the Boston Pops in Chicago in June 1954. In 1955, he performed with the NBC Symphony at the premiere of Ellington's Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall. He also appeared on TV on Arthur Godfrey and His Friends.

During the 1960s, Shirley went on a number of concert tours, some in southern states, believing that he could change some minds with his performances. He hired New York-nightclub bouncer Tony "Lip" Vallelonga as his driver and bodyguard. Their story is dramatized in the 2018 film Green Book. In the fictionalized account, despite some early friction with their differing personalities, the two became good friends. However, Maurice Shirley, Don's brother, said, "My brother never considered Tony to be his 'friend'; he was an employee, his chauffeur (who resented wearing a uniform and cap). This is why context and nuance are so important."

In the fall of 1968, Shirley performed the Tchaikovsky concerto with the Detroit Symphony. He also worked with the Chicago Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra. He wrote symphonies for the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. He played as soloist with the orchestra at Milan's La Scala opera house in a program dedicated to George Gershwin's music.

Shirley wrote organ symphonies, piano concerti, a cello concerto, three string quartets, a one-act opera, works for organ, piano and violin, a symphonic tone poem based on the novel Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, and a set of "Variations" on the legend of Orpheus in the Underworld.

Personal life

Shirley was married to Jean C. Hill in Cook County, Illinois on December 23, 1952. but they later divorced.

He died of heart disease April 6, 2013, at the age of 86.

In popular culture

• Green Book (2018)

Discography

• Tonal Expressions (Cadence, 1955)
• Orpheus in the Underworld (Cadence, 1956)
• Piano Perspectives (Cadence, 1956)
• Don Shirley Duo (Cadence, 1956)
• Don Shirley with Two Basses (Cadence, 1957)
• Improvisations (Cadence, 1957)
• Don Shirley (Audio Fidelity, 1959)
• Don Shirley Solos (Cadence, 1959)
• Don Shirley Plays Love Songs (Cadence, 1960)
• Don Shirley Plays Gershwin (Cadence, 1960)
• Don Shirley Plays Standards (Cadence, 1960)
• Don Shirley Plays Birdland Lullabies (Cadence, 1960)
• Don Shirley Plays Showtunes (Cadence, 1960)
• Don Shirley Trio (Cadence, 1961)
• Piano Arrangements of Spirituals (Cadence, 1962)
• Pianist Extraordinary (Cadence, 1962)
• Piano Spirituals (1962)
• Don Shirley Presents Martha Flowers (1962)
• Drown in My Own Tears (Cadence, 1962)
• Water Boy (Columbia, 1965)
• The Gospel According to Don Shirley (Columbia, 1969)
• Don Shirley in Concert (Columbia, 1969)
• The Don Shirley Point of View (Atlantic, 1972)
• Home with Donald Shirley (2001)

Bibliography

• Feather, L. G. (1960). The New Edition of the Encyclopedia of Jazz. Horizon Press. pp. 418–419.
• Fox, A. (2007). Compendium of Over 2000 Jazz Pianists. Trofford Publishing. p. 138. ISBN 1425118488.
• Neely, T., ed. (2001). Goldmine Record Album Price Guide (2nd ed.). Krause Publications. pp. 507–508. ISBN 0873493168.
• Neely, T., ed. (2003). Goldmine Record Album Price Guide (3rd ed.). Krause Publications. p. 545. ISBN 087349671X.
• Whitburn, J. (1991). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Albums. Billboard Books. p. 328. ISBN 0823075346.

External links

• "Shirley: Jazz Review". audiophileaudition.net.
• "The Cadence Story". bsnpubs.com.