As a British jazz musician who rose to grew to become one thing of a family title within the US, George Shearing belongs to a small however elite membership that features clarinetist Acker Bilk (who scored a No.1 hit single in America with “Stranger On The Shore”), saxophonist and membership proprietor Ronnie Scott, saxophonist/composer John Dankworth, and guitarist John McLaughlin. However Shearing was the primary of those to make his mark, which was undoubtedly aided by his emigrating to the US in 1947. And it was there, two years later, the place he put collectively his groundbreaking quintet (combining piano, vibraphone, guitar, bass, and drums) whose distinctive sound mixed parts of bebop with swing, Latin, and classical music to usher in a brand new age of contemporary chamber jazz.
A Byword For Cool Jazz Sophistication
Because the 40s rolled into the 50s, George Shearing’s title grew to become a byword for cool jazz sophistication. His fame at that time provided a pointy distinction along with his humble London working-class roots. Blind from delivery, Shearing got here into the world on Wednesday, August 13, 1919, to a father who delivered coal and a mom who cleaned trains for a dwelling. He was introduced up in Battersea, in south-west London, and was drawn to music at a younger age, because of the presence of a piano in his dwelling.
Regardless of his visible impairment, Shearing had a pure aptitude for enjoying the piano (he began classes at age 5) and was capable of memorize tunes he discovered from listening to the radio. He studied music at Linden School, a residential college for blind kids, the place he stayed till he was 16, at which level he started working as pub pianist. From there, whereas nonetheless an adolescent, he auditioned for a band of all-blind musicians led by Claude Bampton and received a job taking part in accordion with them.
The Shearing Sound
Shearing made his first recording, aged 18, in 1937. Within the battle years, he performed as a member of Harry Parry And The Radio Rhythm Membership Sextet earlier than becoming a member of forces with French violinist Stéphane Grappelli. When it comes to his piano fashion, Shearing was initially influenced by US musicians akin to Artwork Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and Fat Waller, however was capable of distil these inspirations and filter them via his personal sensibility to ultimately arrive at a novel sound outlined by magnificence and the usage of block chords.
As soon as he received to America, Shearing made a number of sides for the Discovery and Savoy labels, however his recognition took off with a single he recorded along with his quintet for MGM, “September In The Rain.” Its gross sales reached virtually one million copies and the tune got here to outline what was referred to as “the Shearing sound.”
In his 2004 autobiography, Lullaby Of Birdland, Shearing revealed the origins of this fashion: “It came about by combining two distinct musical elements – the voicing of the Glen Miller saxophone section and the so-called ‘locked hands’ piano style of a man named Milt Buckner, whom I heard playing with Lionel Hampton’s big band on my first visit [to the US] in 1946.”
His Signature Tune
In 1952, Shearing wrote a tune that not solely grew to become his signature tune but additionally a bona fide jazz normal. It was referred to as “Lullaby Of Birdland” and was initially written to promote music writer Morris Levy’s New York jazz membership, Birdland, on the radio. The tune rapidly grew to become fashionable after its launch, by way of MGM, and spawned numerous cowl variations, together with instrumental ones by Erroll Garner and Coleman Hawkins, and vocal renditions (with lyrics penned by George Weiss) by Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, and, in more moderen occasions, Chaka Khan and Amy Winehouse.
Within the mid-50s, Shearing left MGM for Capitol Information, the place his quintet’s albums grew to become extra adventurous and showcased the group in a wide range of musical contexts. “There were settings with brass, strings, brass and woodwinds, vocal groups, Latin sounds, in fact a whole range of different elements with which the quintet was able to work quite amicably,” Shearing recalled. The pianist additionally launched into a few orchestral tasks with Frank Sinatra’s arranger Billy Might, and recorded collaborations with a number of singers, together with Dakota Staton (In The Night time), Peggy Lee (Magnificence With The Beat), Nancy Wilson (The Swingin’s Mutual!) and, most famously, Nat “King” Cole (Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing Performs). The latter album, with lush preparations by Ralph Carmichael, featured the favored tunes “Let There Be Love” and “Pick Yourself Up.”
Not Dangerous For A Child From Battersea
Shearing stayed with Capitol till 1969, then based his personal short-lived label, Sheba. By that point, his quintet gave the impression to be operating out of gasoline and he disbanded it in 1978. In later years, he recorded many titles for Harmony Jazz (together with 4 albums with singer Mel Tormé, one in all which, An Night With George Shearing And Mel Tormé, received a Grammy) and, later, Telarc.
Shearing was a lot honored throughout his lengthy profession. He performed for 3 totally different US presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan) and was awarded an OBE in 1996 earlier than receiving a knighthood from the Queen in 2007. “In the quiet moments when I reflect on all this,” wrote Shearing in his autobiography, “I can’t help thinking, not bad for a kid from Battersea!”
Although Shearing grew to become an American citizen in 1956, in later years he spent a whole lot of time at his dwelling within the Cotswolds, England. A foul fall in 2004 put an finish to his performing profession and he died seven years later, on Valentine’s Day 2011, aged 91.
George Shearing is undoubtedly one of many UK’s biggest jazz musicians and his success is much more outstanding given the non-public hurdles and drawbacks he needed to overcome. He left behind a much-valued legacy of recordings that stay fashionable at present and which assure that he’ll all the time be fondly remembered.
