“Pointing to the briefcase I said: ‘How do you know you are going to reject them?’

“‘If they were any good, they wouldn’t be dropped at my hotel by the writers in person. Some New York agent would have them.’

“‘Then why take them at all?’

“‘Partly not to hurt feelings. Partly the thousand-to-one chance all publishers live for. But mostly you’re at a cocktail party and get introduced to all sorts of people, and some of them have novels written and you are just liquored up enough to be benevolent and full of love for the human race, so you say you’d love to see the script. It is then dropped at your hotel with such sickening speed that you are forced to go through the motions of reading it.'”

Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

Shirley Horn, the great jazz singer-pianist, died last night after a long illness. Here‘s the first obit to hit the blogosphere–there’ll be more soon. In the meantime, celebrate her life by listening to the album that first brought her to the attention of the general public.

This is what I wrote for the Washington Post the last time I saw Horn live, at New York’s Iridium in 2003:

To Washingtonians, Horn is an old friend, but up here in Second City, she’s an Event. None of my friends can remember the last time she sang in a Manhattan nightclub. Her engagement was all the more eventful in light of the fact that it was something of a comeback. Insiders knew that chronic illness had put her in a wheelchair and stopped her from playing piano. It was impossible to imagine anyone else playing for the best self-accompanist in jazz, so when the word got out that she was coming to town, fans marked their calendars, not sure whether to be excited or nervous.

I felt both ways as I waited and waited for Horn to show up. She was a half-hour late, and I was close enough to the bandstand to overhear the members of her trio (including George Mesterhazy on piano, who carried out his unenviable task with skill and discretion) wondering out loud whether she’d go through with it. Finally, she materialized in the wings, and you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief as she was wheeled into place, followed in half a heartbeat by a standing ovation. It was quite an opening–and quite a show. Horn sang in a near-whisper, the whole room leaning on every syllable. “I Got Lost in His Arms” was sly and lustful, “Here’s to Life” almost hurtfully poignant. As for “Yesterdays,” I can’t even begin to tell you what it was like to hear her utter the line “I’m not half the girl I used to be.” All I can say is that you could have heard a tear drop–and plenty did, mine included. I dined with three jazz singers a couple of weeks later, and it turned out that they’d all been to see Shirley Horn, and couldn’t talk about anything else. I don’t know when I’ve heard anything scarier or braver, or more beautiful….

I miss her already.

UPDATE: Go here for more from NPR, including sound bites and links.

Here‘s the bio posted by the National Endowment for the Arts after Horn won one of the 2005 Jazz Masters Fellowships.

The Washington Post beat the New York Times to the Web by a day with its staff-written obit. (Ben Ratliff’s Times obit is here.) Also of interest is this appreciation by the Post‘s Richard Harrington.

Here’s a tribute from the Bad Plus.

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated each Thursday. In all cases, I either gave these shows strongly favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened or saw and liked them some time in the past year (or both). For more information, click on the title.

Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.

BROADWAY:

– Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter, strong language, one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

– Chicago* (musical, R, adult subject matter, sexual content, fairly strong language)

– Dirty Rotten Scoundrels* (musical, R, extremely vulgar, reviewed here)

– Doubt* (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, implicit sexual content, reviewed here)

– Fiddler on the Roof (musical, G, one scene of mild violence but otherwise family-friendly, reviewed here)

– The Light in the Piazza (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter and a brief bedroom scene, reviewed here)

– Sweet Charity (musical, PG-13, lots of cutesy-pie sexual content, reviewed here)

– The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

– Orson’s Shadow (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, very strong language, reviewed here)

– Slava’s Snowshow (performance art, G, child-friendly, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

– The Caterers (drama, R, violence, strong language, and explicit sexual situations, reviewed here, closes Oct. 30)

– Sides: The Fear Is Real… (sketch comedy, PG, some strong language, reviewed here, closes Oct. 30)

– Amount paid in 1945 by Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner for a farmhouse, a barn, and five acres of land on Long Island: $5,000

– The same amount in today’s dollars, courtesy of Inflation Calculator: $52,524.10

(Source: Jed Perl, New Art City)

“‘There’s so much that I want to tell you,’ she said at last, ‘and it’s hard to explain. My life is full of jealousies and disappointments, you know. You get to hating people who do contemptible work and who get on just as well as you do. There are many disappointments in my profession, and bitter, bitter contempts!’ Her face hardened, and looked much older. ‘If you love the good thing vitally, enough to give up for it all that one must give up for it, then you must hate the cheap thing just as hard. I tell you, there is such a thing as creative hate! A contempt that drives you through fire, makes you risk everything and lose everything, makes you a long sight better than you ever knew you could be.'”

Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark

– Royalties earned by Willa Cather’s My

“It’s funny to have a priest with a high salary. An artist with a large income is in the same position.”

– Raymond Chandler’s fee in 1943 for thirteen weeks of work on the screenplay of Double Indemnity: $9,750