Farewell to a Classy Lady of Jazz

I heard on the radio last night that jazz singer/pianist Shirley Horn died on Thursday from complications of diabetes at the age of 71. She made some small-time recordings in the fifties, one of which caught the attention of Miles Davis, who brought her to New York to open for him at the famed Village Vanguard and became a lifelong friend. Though she took some time off in the 70's to raise her daughter, she reemerged in the 80's with a series of acclaimed recordings on the Verve label, many of which received Grammy nominations. As a vocalist who was equally proficient on piano, she paved the way for many of today's younger stars like Diana Krall and Norah Jones. By all indications, she was a very classy lady and will definitely be missed.

The days are just packed: He doesn't do interviews anymore, and even his current place of residence is unknown, but there's a great feature on Bill Watterson, the Calvin and Hobbes creator, that I read today. In honor of the new collection of all ten years' worth of C&H strips, many local papers are re-running some of the strips for a few months; I'm happy that they're doing so here.