When Shirley Horn died, in October of 2005 at 71, the worlds of Jazz and American Popular Song lost perhaps their most shiningly individualistic singing pianist since the 1940s heyday of Nat Cole. In December 1984, Horn joined Marian McPartland for nearly an hour of music and conversation on the latter's long-running National Public Radio program Piano Jazz. At the time, Horn's sultry-voiced artistry and apposite pianistics were in full flower, which makes this disc particularly significant, with solo renderings of "I Could Have Told You," "Violets for Your Furs," and "There's No You" especially moving. In McPartland, who is, of course, as superb a pianist as she is scintillating interviewer, Horn found an ideal host with whom to discuss her work--and perform several duets. Now released for the first time on CD, Shirley Horn's visit to Piano Jazz was well worth the wait.