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George Shearing
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George Shearing enjoys an international reputation as a pianist, arranger and composer. Equally at home on the concert stage as in jazz clubs, Shearing is recognized for inventive, orchestrated jazz. He has written over 300 compositions, including the classic “Lullaby of Birdland,” which has become a jazz standard. Shearing was born in 1919 in the Battersea area of London. Congenitally blind, he was the youngest of nine children. His father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains at night after caring for the children during the day. His only formal musical education consisted of four years of study at the Linden Lodge School for the Blind. While his talent won him a number of university scholarships, he was forced to refuse them in favor of a more financially productive pursuit…playing piano in a neighborhood pub for the handsome salary of $5 a week! Shearing joined an all-blind band in the 1930’s. At that time he developed a friendship with the noted jazz critic and author, Leonard Feather. Through this contact, he made his first appearance on BBC radio. In 1947, Mr. Shearing moved to America, where he spent two years establishing his fame on this side of the Atlantic. The Shearing Sound commanded national attention when, in 1949, he gathered a quintet to record “September in the Rain” for MGM. The record was an overnight success and sold 900,000 copies. His U.S. reputation was permanently established when he was booked into Birdland, the legendary jazz spot in New York. Since then, he has become one of the country’s most popular performing and recording artist. In 1982 and 1983 he won Grammy Awards with recordings he made with Mel Torme. Mr. Shearing was the subject of an hour-long television documentary entitled “The Shearing Touch” presented on the Southbank Show with Melvyn Bragg on ITV in the UK. Three presidents have invited Mr. Shearing to play at the White House.. Ford, Carter and Reagan. He performed at the Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. He is a member of the Friars Club and the Lotos Club in New York and the Bohemian Club in San Francisco. His awards and honors are many. In May 1975, he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Westminster College in Salt Lake City. In May of 1994, Hamilton College in upstate New York awarded him another honorary doctorate in music. DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana presented him with an honorary doctorate of music on June 1, 2002. He received the prestigious Horatio Alger Award for Distinguished Americans in 1978 and a community recreational facility in Battersea, south London, was named the George Shearing Centre in his honor. In May of 1993, he was presented with the British equivalent of the Grammy…the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement. In June of 1996, Mr. Shearing was included in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List and on November 26, 1996 he was invested by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his “service to music and Anglo-US relations.” He was presented the first American Music Award by the National Arts Club, New York City, in March of 1998. In 1999, his 80th birthday was celebrated in England where he played to a sold-out house at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. Also appearing with him were the BBC Big Band, the strings of the London Symphony, Dame Cleo Laine and John Dankworth. BBC Radio 2 presented a 2 1/2-hour “Salute to Shearing” in honor of his birthday. The following year another sold-out house at Carnegie Hall was treated to his birthday celebration featuring the George Shearing Quintet with Nancy Wilson, Dave Brubeck, Dr. Billy Taylor, the John Pizzarelli Trio, Tito Puente and Peter Schickele who brought a special greeting from PDQ Bach! Mr. Shearing’s biography, “Lullaby of Birdland,” published by Continuum, was released February 2005. In conjunction with the autobiography release Concord Records released a composite of Shearing recordings in a 2-CD set entitled “Lullabies of Birdland.: A Musical Autobiography” which was immediately followed up with “Hopeless Romantics” with Michael Feinstein. Concord then released the collectors set Mel Tormé & George Shearing The Concord Years. Mr. Shearing’s popularity continues to rise.
Hal Galper: Adventures In The Zone
by Paul Rauch
This article was first published on All About Jazz on October 20, 2020. The career of Hal Galper has earned the pianist acclaim as both a performer and educator. Perhaps most importantly, it has drawn attention to his contributions to the music as a true innovator. While other pianists of his era gained more ...
Jacob Chung: Live At Frankie's Jazz Club
by Pierre Giroux
Tenor saxophonist Jacob Chung's Live At Frankie's Jazz Club captures fresh performances of music that feel like a snapshot of deep friendship filtered through the lens of timeless jazz language. Recorded live at Vancouver, BC's iconic venue, Chung is joined by pianist Tyler Henderson, bassist Caleb Tobocman, and drummer Hank Allen-Barfield. These three equally talented musicians ...
Take Five with pianist, composer Itamar Dahan
by AAJ Staff
Meet Itamar Dahan Itamar Dahan is a Brooklyn-based jazz pianist, composer, and producer originally from Israel. Known for his deeply lyrical style and bold harmonic language, he has performed with legendary artists including NEA Jazz Master Reggie Workman, Billy Hart, Omer Avital, and David Broza. A graduate of The New School's Jazz program on a full ...
OJC Odds & Ends: From Cal Tjader to Mal Waldron
by C. Andrew Hovan
Once the vinyl renaissance confirmed that record labels could bring in a steady income just by tapping their holdings, they began combing their archives to fuel a steady stream of reissues. With a catalog of more than 1.2 million songs, Concord Records was uniquely positioned to capitalize on this resurgence. Its Craft Recordings subsidiary has emerged ...
Janette Mason: ReWired
by Neil Duggan
Rewired is an acoustic trio album from the highly versatile pianist Janette Mason. She has proved to be a standout performer across jazz, pop and rock genres, having worked with Oasis, Robert Wyatt, Seal and Pulp. She is accompanied by her equally adaptable long-time collaborators: bassist Tom Mason (Lizz Wright, Jamie Cullum) and drummer Eric Ford ...
Jazz, Gnu and New: ECM Reissues To Excite Vinyl Fans
by Joshua Weiner
ECM's “Luminessence" series pays tribute to the impressive legacy of Manfred Eicher's label, founded in Germany in 1969. Several of its most historic and beloved releases are being reissued on audiophile vinyl cut from the original analog tapes (or, in the case of more recent albums, from high-resolution digital masters) and presented in heavy gatefold sleeves ...
Christmas Hedgehogs and Foxes
by Patrick Burnette
Every musician, it seems, does a holiday album sooner or later, and visions of residuals dance in their heads. But given the flood of releases each year, it's hard to stand out, and the canon of Christmas favorites is already pretty crowded. How to make your mark? You could try to do one or two distinctive ...
Wayne Shorter, Samara Joy, Barker/Irabagon/Parker, Tom Johnson Jazz Orchestra
by Cheryl K.
During this week's two-hour program of Jazz and improvised music--saxophonist Wayne Shorter; vocalist Samara Joy; Meva's Journal; trombonist Ryan Keberle; drummer Gerald Cleaver; keyboardist, composer and bandleader Tom Johnson; and The Impanemas. Playlist Wayne Shorter “Zero Gravity to the 15th Dimension" from Celebration, Vol. 1 (Blue Note) 11:42 Sara Serpa “Mercy and Caprice" from ...
Perfection: George Shearing - I'll Be Around, 1951
As you can see, I'm still hooked on I'll Be Around, one of composer Alec Wilder's best songs. He reportedly wrote the music in 10 minutes while riding in a cab in Baltimore. But the words “took much longer," he said in an interview before his death in 1980. Recorded first by Cab Calloway, then by ...
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