Don Shirley

Don Shirley (born January 29, 1927) is an American-Jamaican jazz pianist and composer.

Shirley's prodigious piano skills were recognized early and Shirley began his career as a composer and virtuoso performer at a young age.

Don Shirley's music is hard to categorize. It is possible to say that as an arranger-composer he treats each piece of music as a new composition, not just an arrangement. Don plays Standards in a non-standard way. He is a virtuoso, playing everything from show tunes, to ballads, to his personal arrangements of Negro spirituals, to jazz, and always with the overtone of a classically-trained musician who has utmost respect for the music he is playing.