Don Shirley obit

Donald Shirley, a Pianist With His Own Genre, Dies at 86

 

He was not on the list.

Pianist, composer, and arranger Don Shirley was born in Pensacola, Florida, on January 29, 1927. He began playing piano at age two, and seven years later had developed his skills so rapidly, he was studying theory at the prestigious Leningrad Conservatory of Music. Shirley made his concert debut with the Boston Pops in 1945, while the following year, the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed one of his first major compositions. In the ensuing years between 1954 and 1968, Shirley performed as a soloist and as a member of several symphonies, including the Boston Pops, Detroit Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington. Shirley also composed several organ symphonies, a piano concerto, two string quartets, and numerous pieces for piano. His musical language also encompassed tastefully mastered combinations of standards, show tunes, ballads, spirituals, and jazz performed with his own trio. Incredibly, Shirley also found time between performing and recording to obtain a PhD of Music, Psychology, and Liturgical Arts. Throughout the '50s and '60s, he released numerous albums on the Cadence label. In 1999, Collectables began reissuing several of those albums as two-for-one sets. Shirley died of heart disease on April 6, 2013.

Jamaican American pianist and composer Don Shirley displayed immense talent at an early age, debuting in concert with the Boston Pops at age 18. Despite the obstacles of segregation, he performed at prestigious venues and earned acclaim for his work with the Don Shirley Trio, showcasing a unique style that melded classical, spiritual and popular elements. Largely forgotten by the time of his death, Shirley was introduced to new generations of fans with the 2018 premiere of Green Book, starring Mahershala Ali as Shirley and Viggo Mortensen as his bodyguard and chauffeur, Anthony "Tony Lip" Vallelonga.

Donald Walbridge Shirley was born on January 29, 1927, in Pensacola, Florida, to Jamaican immigrants: His father, Edwin, was an Episcopal minister, and his mother, Stella, was a teacher.

Shirley first showed an interest in the piano at two-and-a-half years old, and by age 3 he was performing on the organ at church. At age nine, around the time his mother died, Shirley traveled to the Soviet Union to study theory at the Leningrad Conservatory of Music. He later received lessons in advanced composition from Conrad Bernier and Dr. Thaddeus Jones at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

In June 1945, at age 18, Shirley made his concert debut with the Boston Pops, playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat. The London Philharmonic Orchestra performed his first major composition the following year, and in 1949 he received an invite from the Haitian government to play at the Exposition International du Bi-Centenaire De Port-au-Prince.

Despite his training, Shirley in his 20s was dissuaded from pursuing a career as a classical pianist by impresario Sol Hurok, who said the country wasn't ready to accept a Black man in that arena. Shirley subsequently developed his own genre, melding his influences in blues, spirituals, show tunes, and popular music to deliver compositions that were both familiar and original to audiences.

His imagination and deft touch drew praise from musical luminaries like Igor Stravinsky, who cited Shirley's virtuosity as "worthy of the gods," and Duke Ellington, who said he would "give up his bench" at the piano to let Shirley take the reins.

Starting with Tonal Expressions in 1955, Shirley began recording his unique versions of popular favorites like "Blue Moon," "Lullaby of Birdland" and "Love for Sale." He soon embarked on a longtime collaboration with bassist Ken Fricker and cellist Juri Taht, who frequently joined him in the studio and on stage as the Don Shirley Trio.

The trio enjoyed a highlight with their self-titled 1961 album, which included the Top 40 hit "Water Boy," and continued recording together through 1972's The Don Shirley Point of View.

Also in 1955, Shirley made his Carnegie Hall debut with Ellington and the Symphony of the Air Orchestra. He went on to perform with the Detroit Symphony, the Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra over the years, along the way appearing in such prestigious venues as Milan's La Scala Opera House and New York's Metropolitan Opera House.

Following the death of his good friend Ellington in 1974, Shirley composed "Divertimento for Duke by Don." Other ambitious creations included his variations on the story of Orpheus in the Underworld, a tone poem based on James Joyce's Finnegans Wake and works for piano, cello and strings.

Although some narrative liberties were taken with the Green Book script – including the decision to condense Shirley's year-plus tour into two months – the central story of the protagonists' professional and personal relationship is largely accurate. When they met in 1962, Shirley was looking to bring his music on the road but wary of the hostile treatment endured by Nat King Cole in Alabama a few years earlier; it was determined that Tony Lip, a working-class Italian from the Bronx and a bouncer at Manhattan's Copacabana nightclub, would provide any necessary muscle.

According to the Lip's son Nick Vallelonga, who wrote the screenplay, his dad was shocked by the discrimination he witnessed on tour and rethought his own prejudices while developing an admiration for his employer. He said the men remained close friends, with Shirley unfailingly calling on the holidays, until they died within months of each other in 2013.