| Bobby Short |
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| cabaret singers | |
| 1924 births | |
| 2005 deaths | |
| american male singers | |
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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 began performing after leaving home at the age of eleven for Chicago , with his mother's permission. He started working in clubs in the 1940s, and in 1968 settled at the Cafe Carlyle in New York City , where he became an institution. There an alchemy of traits -- his seemingly-effortless elegance; his vocal phrasing (perfected, as was that of Frank Sinatra 's, at the feet of Miss Mabel Mercer (with perhaps also some help from Ethel Waters ); his genius for presenting unknown songs worth knowing while keeping well-known songs fresh; his rollicking stride piano style subtly informed by his side playing of the classical composers; his infectious good cheer; his resolute, self-disciplined professionalism; 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.
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