Live recording of
1992 from the
Munich Philharmonie
George Shearing - piano
George Shearing -
Misty
Watch the full concert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TJBiyX6Qds&list;=PLDOx7nx0z2hhm3c1SWH44GYkkOPdhgBbJ
Sir George Shearing, (13
August 1919 –
14 February 2011) was a
British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for
Discovery Records,
MGM Records and
Capitol Records. The composer of over
300 titles, including the jazz standard "
Lullaby of Birdland", had multiple albums on the
Billboard charts during the
1950s,
1960s,
1980s and
1990s. He died of heart failure in
New York City, at the age of 91.
Born in
Battersea, London, Shearing was the youngest of nine children. He was born blind to working class parents: his father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains in the evening. He started to learn piano at the age of three and began formal training at
Linden Lodge School for the
Blind, where he spent four years.
Though he was offered several scholarships, Shearing opted to perform at a local pub, the
Mason's
Arms in
Lambeth, for "25 bob a week" playing piano and accordion. He joined an all-blind band during that time and was influenced by the records of
Teddy Wilson and
Fats Waller. Shearing made his first
BBC radio broadcast during this time after befriending
Leonard Feather, with whom he started recording in
1937. In
1940, Shearing joined
Harry Parry's popular band and contributed to the comeback of
Stéphane Grappelli. [...]
In
1947, Shearing emigrated to the
United States, where his harmonically complex style mixing swing, bop and modern classical influences gained popularity. One of his first performances in the US was at the
Hickory House. He performed with the
Oscar Pettiford Trio and led a jazz quartet with
Buddy DeFranco, which led to contractual problems, since Shearing was under contract to
MGM and DeFranco to Capitol Records. In 1949, he formed the first George Shearing
Quintet, a band with
Margie Hyams (vibraphone),
Chuck Wayne (guitar), later replaced by
Toots Thielemans (listed as
John Tillman),
John Levy (bass) and
Denzil Best (drums) and recorded for
Discovery,
Savoy and MGM, including the immensely popular single "
September in the Rain" (MGM), which sold over 900,
000 copies; "my other hit" to accompany "Lullaby of Birdland". [...]
Shearing's interest in classical music resulted in some performances with concert orchestras in the 1950s and 1960s, and his solos frequently drew upon the music of
Satie, Delius and
Debussy for inspiration. He became known for a piano technique known as "Shearing's voicing", a type of double melody block chord, with an additional fifth part that doubles the melody an octave lower. (This style is also known as "locked hands" and the jazz organist
Milt Buckner is generally credited with inventing it.) In
1956, Shearing became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He continued to play with his quintet, with augmented players through the years, and recorded with
Capitol until
1969. [...]
In
1970, he began to "phase out his by-now-predictable quintet" and disbanded the group in 1978. One of his more notable albums during this period was
The Reunion, with George Shearing (
Verve 1976), made in collaboration with bassist
Andy Simpkins and drummer
Rusty Jones, and featuring Stéphane Grappelli, the musician with whom he had debuted as a sideman decades before.
Later, Shearing played with a trio, as a soloist and increasingly in a duo. Among his collaborations were sets with the
Montgomery Brothers,
Marian McPartland,
Brian Q. Torff,
Jim Hall,
Hank Jones and
Kenny Davern. In
1979, Shearing signed with
Concord Records, and recorded for the label with
Mel Tormé. This collaboration garnered Shearing and
Tormé two
Grammys,
one in 1983 and another in
1984. Shearing remained fit and active well into his later years and continued to perform, even after being honoured with an
Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award in
1993. He never forgot his native country and, in his last years, would split his year between living in
New York and
Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, UK, where he had bought a house with his second wife, singer
Ellie Geffert. This gave him the opportunity to tour the UK, giving concerts, often with Tormé, backed by the
BBC Big Band. He was appointed
OBE in
1996. In
2007, he was knighted. "So", he noted later, "the poor, blind kid from
Battersea became Sir George Shearing. Now that's a fairy tale come true."
In 2004, he released his memoirs, Lullaby of Birdland, which was accompanied by a double-album "musical autobiography",
Lullabies of Birdland. Shortly afterwards, however, he suffered a fall at his home and retired from regular performing.
This text is based on the Wikipedia-article "George Shearing" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Shearing). A list of the authors is available here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index
.php?title=George_Shearing&action;=history
- published: 06 Jan 2016
- views: 2349