For fans of Shirley Horn's superslow ballad singing, Christmas has come early in the form of this digitally remastered twofer. It brings together Horn's first album under her own name, Embers and Ashes (previously only available on LP) and Where Are You Going, which has previously been issued on CD. Subtitled Songs of Lost Love Sung by Shirley Horn, Embers and Ashes attracted the attention and praise of no less a personage than Miles Davis, who was hardly known for his critical generosity towards fellow musicians. Indeed, so impressed was Davis when he heard the album that he asked Horn to open for him at the Village Vanguard in New York, a date which also led to her singing on the film soundtrack of For Love Of Ivy (1968). There are untold riches on offer here, including the amazing sense of space created by ‘He NeverMentioned Love’, the stretching out into infinity of the final word of each line of ‘I Thought About You’, a typically fresh slant on ‘God Bless The Child’, and the remarkable phrasing on the Curtis Lewis penned ‘Blue City’. The reverb might occasionally sound a little too cavernous for some ears, but the singing sweeps all before it. Listening to Horn's phrasing on songs such as ‘Something Happens To Me’ and ‘Do It Again’ from Where Are You Going, you realise just how much of an influence she was on Diana Krall. ‘A Foggy Day’ is included as a bonus track, one of the tunes from an all-Gershwin album recorded by Stuff Smith in 1959 on which Horn sang and played piano. On the original recording John Eaton is credited as the pianist (Eaton was present at the session and played on two of the album's 11 tracks), although Stuff Smith himself has confirmed that it was actually Horn on piano duties for most of the date.