Bobby Short

Singer and pianist, born in Danville, Illinois, USA. Working in obscurity in clubs, he first found success in 1968 with the recording of a concert with Mabel Mercer (1900–84), and began his legendary 36-year engagement at the Café Carlyle in Manhattan. He sparked a revival of Cole Porter's music with a series of albums in the 1970s in which he interpreted various composers' music, establishing a reputation as a master of jazz standards. With his casual but intimate renditions, he was the quintessential café and supper-club singer of his time. His best-known albums included Mabel Mercer and Bobby Short at Town Hall (1968) and Late Night at the Café Carlyle (1993).

Bobby Short (September 15, 1924 – March 21, 2005) was an American cabaret singer known for his interpretation of songs by early 20th century composers such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke and George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin.

He also championed African-American composers of the same period such as Eubie Blake, James P.

His dedication to his great love -- what he called the "Great American Song" --left him equally adept at performing the witty lyrics of Bessie Smith's "Gimme a Pigfoot" or Gershwin and Duke's I Can't Get Started with You.

Short always said his favorite songwriters were Ellington, Arlen and Kern, and he was instrumental in spearheading the construction of the Ellington Memorial in his beloved New York City.

He was born Robert Waltrip Short in Danville, Illinois, where one of his school classmates was Dick Van Dyke.

He started working in clubs in the 1940s, and in 1968 settled at the Café Carlyle in New York City, where he became an institution.

There an alchemy of traits -- his seemingly-effortless elegance; and most of all, his joy, his ever-abounding joy in the great American song -- made him an inimitable, seductive, sensational, marvelous, simply marvelous, great American treasure.

1972: Short sings theme song James Ivory's film "Savages". 2004: Short announces he will end his regular appearances at the Café Carlyle by the end of the year, in favor of touring, traveling and spending time with friends. 2005: Short dies of leukemia at New York Presbyterian Hospital on March 21, 2005, aged 80.