George Shearing was a British born pianist who led a popular jazz group that took the country by storm for many years. Born blind, the youngest of nine children, he started learning to play at the age of three … and went on to compose more than 300 titles during his illustrious career, including the jazz standard Lullaby of Birdland (Uppermost video). He had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 60s, 80s, and even the 1990s.
Shearing emigrated to the U.S. and founded the first George Shearing Quintet in 1949, which saw a number of permutations over the years and finally led to solo and trio performances later in his career. He drew upon classical music and the records of Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller for his influences, eventually developing a harmonically complex style––mixing swing, bop and modern classical into his playing. His technique became 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 of playing is also known as Locked Hands.
Henry Mancini’s Dreamsville, like the video above, was recorded in 1992 at the Munich Philharmonie … with Neil Swainson on bass.
George goes solo with John Williams at the Boston Pops with his performance of Look At That Face. The picture quality is a bit compromised, but the music is near perfect!
