BOBBY Short, who has died at the age of 80, was a New York institution and part of the cultural landscape of the city.

For 37 years, he was a fixture at the Cafe Carlyle at the Carlyle Hotel where he played piano and sang Porter, Gershwin and Ellington for the rich and famous who had, decades earlier, accepted him into their world, making him the first black man to be included in the elite Social Register. His admirers included the famous socialite Gloria Vanderbilt and two former first ladies - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Nancy Reagan.

Always debonair and dapper, Short once said: "My audience expects a certain amount of sophistication when they come to hear me." But while he embodied elegance and good taste (in the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters, a trip to the Upper East Side to hear him is portrayed as the ultimate classy night out) , he began his life in relative poverty. The ninth of 10 children, he started performing in saloons around his hometown of Danville, Illinois, at an early age. By the time he was nine, his father had died and the Depression was well underway, so the selftaught pianist was effectively supporting his siblings. Within a couple of years, he was in Chicago to be billed as the "Miniature King of Swing".

Short played engagements of varying lengths all over the US in the 1940s, and met many of his musical heroes - the jazz pianists Nat King Cole, Art Tatum and the nightclub entertainer Hildegarde - in the process. In 1948, he was hired to play for a week at Los Angeles' prestigious Cafe Gala, which was patronised by his favourite songwriter, Cole Porter, and the singer Lena Horne. He stayed three years, and later said that he had fallen into a "velvet-lined rut".

After an extensive trip across Europe in the early 1950s, he made a series of successful albums which boosted his salary and landed him a TV slot. In 1968, his unique act won him the role he was born to have, as the resident supper-club singer and pianist at the Carlyle. During his long run there, he continued to record and his affinity for Cole Porter's songs was showcased in one of his best albums, the 1972 Bobby Short Loves Cole Porter, on which his vocals captured the pain that lies beneath the acid wit of the great songsmith's lyrics.

He had played once at a party at which Porterwas present, and had been rewarded by Porter's personal endorsement of his handling of his songs. Noel Coward had also expressed his appreciation of Short's interpretations of his material, and had practically begged him to record it - which he did.

For Short, choosing a song was simple. He said: "It has to be beautiful . . . I have to admire a song's structure and what it's about. But I also have to determine how I can transfer my affection for a song to an audience. I have to decide if I can put it across." Even in the week running up to his death, Short was searching for beautiful songs. The American jazz cornettist Warren Vache, who worked with Short on several occasions, said that he had phoned to enquire about a song entitled It Was Not Exactly Paris, by contemporary composer Mickey Leonard.

Vache said what often struck him about Short was "how when he finished a song he would stand still and smile while the audience applauded, freely allowing them to show their appreciation, with seemingly infinite patience".

Short once said about his early career: "I felt I had a gift and I enjoyed performing. I didn't know then and I don't know now how well or how badly I sing and play the piano but I knew that I was a good performer."

Bobby Short, singer; born September 15, 1924; died March 21, 2005.