BOBBY SHORT, American singer died (b. 1924); an American cabaret singer known for his interpretation of songs by 20^th century composers such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke and George Gershwin. He also championed African-American composers of the same period such as Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson, Randy Razaf, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, presenting their work not in a polemical way, but as simply the obvious equal of that of their paler contemporaries. His dedication to his great love – what he called the “Great American Song” – left him equally adept at performing the witty lyrics of Bessie Smith’s “Gimme a Pigfoot” or Gershwin and Duke’s I Can’t Get Started with You.