May the Music Never End

1	Forget Me 3:30
2	If You Go Away 4:49
3	Yesterday 4:14
4	Take Love Easy 5:12
5	Never Let Me Go 5:17
6	Watch What Happens 3:29
7	Ill Wind 7:09
8	Maybe September 7:10
9	Everything Must Change 5:01
10	This Is All I Ask 6:43
11	May the Music Never End 5:07

Barnes & Noble

No one epitomizes jazz vocal artistry quite like Shirley Horn. With a style that is subtlety itself, Horn can still achieve enormous expressiveness by what seems like the barest of means. The ability of a voice that rarely rises above a whisper to deliver knockout punches again and again is a mysterious gift exhibited throughout the triumphant May the Music Never End. No longer playing piano, Horn turns over keyboard duties to George Mesterhazy, who fits the singer’s style to a tee, and the great Ahmad Jamal, who impresses on two tracks. (Roy Hargrove also slips in for two tracks, displaying his sumptuous flugelhorn chops.) A new bassist, Ed Howard, replaces the late Charles Ables, Horn’s longtime accompanist, and links up beautifully with another Horn regular, drummer Steve Williams. But the attention never strays too far from the exquisite singer, who revels in the lyric contours of such standards as “Never Let Me Go,” “Watch What Happens,” “This Is All I Ask,” and the Beatles’ “Yesterday.” Horn, as all her devoted fans know, is a national treasure -- may her music never end. Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

Shirley Horn has made a remarkably strong and consistent series of records for Verve. On May the Music Never End, her 12th record for Verve, there are two big changes: the absence of Horn's longtime musical partner bassist Charles Ables, who passed away in 2001, and the addition of a pianist to take the place of Horn's quite capable playing. Ed Howard fills in admirably on bass and George Mesterhazy does the same on piano, except for on two tracks ("Maybe September" and "This is All I Ask") where Ahmad Jamal takes over. Horn's trademark sound is the sparse, languid torch song, with atmospheric piano chords and her gentle and soulful vocals caressing the notes as she slowly lets them ease into the listener's ear. Most of the album is in this downcast, nocturnal mood: the highlights are her smoldering version of the Jacques Brel-Rod McKuen song "If You Go Away," the bossa nova-influenced "Watch What Happens," and the heartbreaking and bleak "Ill Wind." She also does a very nice job with the Gordon Jenkins-penned "September of My Years"-style ballad "This Is All I Ask" and the emotional "May the Music Never End." These two tracks taken together almost sound like Horn saying goodbye to music and the world of jazz and will really bring a lump to the throat of Horn fans. She breaks up the somber mood with a few swinging tracks: the rollicking take on "Forget Me"; the lightly swinging "Take Love Easy," with some nice Roy Hargrove obbligatos; and the martial "Everything Must Change," which features one of Horn's most dramatic vocals and a wonderful moment three and a half minutes into the song where the tight rhythm bursts open and the band hits a big up-tempo groove with Horn soaring over top. The only real clunker here is her version of the Beatles' "Yesterday," a song that has been done just about every way possible. Here Horn cuts the tempo, adds some atmosphere, and actually manages to over sing the song. Her voice pushes at the outer reaches of her range, but her phrasing is strangely urgent and she sounds old for the first time. It is a rare misstep on an otherwise very good record by one of the great underrated jazz singers. If it is indeed her swan song, then she went out the same way she came in: as a true classic. Tim Sendra

Absolute Sound

Even without Horn at the piano, [this] is her best album since 1998’s I Remember Miles.