Acclaimed Grammy-winning jazz artist Shirley Horne has died at the age of 71. Horn, who died at a nursing home in Maryland on Thursday, was nominated for nine Grammy awards in the last decade, winning the best jazz vocal performance award in 1998 for album 'I Remember Miles', dedicated to friend and mentor Miles Davis. Always critically respected, she finally became a star in the nineties when she released a series of albums for Verve Records. Accompanying herself on keyboard, she became known for her distinctive, whispery vocals, and became a major influence on younger artists such as Norah Jones.
Horn, who was unable to take up a music scholarship at the Juilliard School due to financial difficulties, went on to study music at Howard University, and began her career in the late fifties as a pianist in local restaurants and nightclubs. In 1960 she recorded her first album 'Embers And Ashes', and after hearing that recording, Miles Davis persuaded her to open for him in New York. Her subsequent performances led to a contract with Mercury Records. She released few albums over the years, and it was not until the late eighties when her relationship with PolyGram imprint Verve began, that she began a prolific period of productivity. She toured very little, preferring to stay in her home town of Washington with her family. She is survived by her husband, Shep Deering, her daughter, and two grandsons.