120823bk Shearing 7/1/06 9:31 PM Page 2 1. Have You Met Miss Jones? 2:54 8. Bop, Look And Listen 2:55 15. Tenderly 3:08 18. There’s A Lull In My Life 2:41 (Richard Rodgers–Lorenz Hart) (George Shearing) (Walter Gross–Jack Lawrence) (Mack Gordon-Harry Revel) George Shearing Trio George Shearing Quintet George Shearing, solo piano George Shearing Quintet Savoy 658, mx S-3388 MGM 10426, mx 49-S-88-5 MGM 30247, mx 50-S-110 MGM 11425, mx 52-S-276-5 Recorded 3 February 1947, New York Recorded 17 February 1949, New York Recorded 4 April 1950, New York Recorded 17 July 1952, New York 2. I Only Have Eyes For You 2:35 9. Nothing But D. Best 2:56 16. Pick Yourself Up 2:52 19. We’ll Be Together Again 2:28 (Al Dubin–Harry Warren) (Denzil Best) (Jerome Kern–Dorothy Fields) (Carl Fischer–Frankie Laine) George Shearing Trio George Shearing Quintet George Shearing Quintet George Shearing Quintet London 412, mx DR 12999-1 MGM 10596, mx 49-S-249 MGM 10859, mx 50-S-229-3 MG 30417, mx 51-S-3083-4 Recorded 26 November 1948, London Recorded 28 June 1949, New York Recorded 5 July 1950, New York Recorded 16 May 1951, Los Angeles 3. Consternation 2:42 10. East Of The Sun (And West Of The 17. Roses Of Picardy 2:54 20. Lullaby Of Birdland 2:39 (George Shearing) Moon) 3:06 (Frederick Weatherly–Haydn Wood) (George Shearing) George Shearing Trio (Brooks Bowman) George Shearing Quintet George Shearing Quintet London 412, mx DR 12996-1 George Shearing Quintet MGM 10859, mx 50-S-226-2 MGM 11354, mx 52-S-278-5 Recorded 26 November 1948, London MGM 10539, mx 49-S-292-3 Recorded 5 July 1950, New York Recorded 17 July 1952, New York 4. Cherokee 2:39 Recorded 28 July 1949, New York (Ray Noble) 11. In A Chinese Garden 4:39 Transfers & Production: David Lennick George Shearing Quintet (Chuck Wayne) Digital Restoration: Graham Newton Discovery 107, mx DR 148 George Shearing Quintet Original 78s from the collections of David Lennick & John Rutherford Recorded 31 January 1949, New York MGM 10647, mx 49-S-293-3, S-294-4 5. Bebop’s Fables 2:57 Recorded 29 July 1949, New York (Leonard Feather) 12. Carnegie Horizons 2:30 Also available in the Naxos Jazz Legends series ... George Shearing Quintet (George Shearing) Discovery 105, mx DR 150 George Shearing Quintet Recorded 31 January 1949, New York MGM 10763, mx 49-S-434-2 6. Life With Feather 3:06 Recorded 27 December 1949, New York (Leonard Feather) 13. I’ll Remember April 2:47 George Shearing Quintet (Don Raye–Gene dePaul–Pat Johnston) Discovery 104, mx DR 155 George Shearing Quintet Recorded 31 January 1949, New York MGM 10687, mx 49-S-432-5 7. September In The Rain 3:13 Recorded 27 December 1949, New York (Al Dubin–Harry Warren) 14. Jumping With Symphony Sid 2:41 George Shearing Quintet (Lester Young) MGM 10426, mx 49-S-86-3 George Shearing Quintet Recorded 17 February 1949, New York MGM 10787, mx 49-S-435-1 8.120730 8.120760 8.120771 Recorded 27 December 1949, New York These titles are not for retail sale in the USA 5 8.120823 6 8.120823 120823bk Shearing 7/1/06 9:31 PM Page 1 GEORGE SHEARING Hampton’s piano player, Milt Buckner, who remainder of the record. A return trip to London Shearing quintet to jazz audiences, and and Cal Tjader, with whom he popularized an played in what was known as the ‘locked hands’ in November 1948 saw Shearing still in the trio beginning Shearing’s years of greatest influence Afro-Cuban-influenced variation on his sound. ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ Original Recordings 1947-1952 style, in which the left hand played block chords mode, although by this time, he had begun and popularity. Most of the rest of this CD Shearing would keep the quintet format until in unison with the right hand, rather than writing bebop-flavored compositions, including consists of recordings made with this unit. Most 1979, when he began touring and recording When George Shearing burst on the American fellow Englishman composer and jazz critic playing repeated rhythm figures as stride or Consternation. notable among these is Lullaby Of Birdland, with other groups, most notably with singer Mel jazz scene in 1949, he had everything going Leonard Feather led him to visit America in boogie pianists did. With the locked chord Back in the States, Shearing met clarinettist which Shearing wrote as a theme song for the Tormé. Although Shearing has slowed down against him. First of all, Shearing was English, 1946. In 1947, he went to stay. sound came a unique combination of Buddy DeFranco, with whom he formed a New York nightclub named for Charlie Parker. considerably, he is, in his late eighties, still active and few European jazz musicians had ever Shearing listened incessantly to American instruments, focusing on the sound of piano, quintet. But when they went to record, Later, after George David Weiss added lyrics, on the jazz circuit, outliving nearly all of his become popular in the United States. Add to jazz pianists, from stride kings Fats Waller and vibraphone, and guitar, playing in unison but in DeFranco’s contract with another label the vocal version was made famous by Ella contemporaries with his musicality, sense of that the fact that he was blind, white, and Earl Hines to Teddy Wilson and Meade ‘Lux’ different octaves. prohibited him from participating. At Leonard Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. humour, and love for entertaining. played the piano and you can begin to realize Lewis. But the pianists who were the greatest Although Shearing played with many Feather’s suggestion, Shearing hired Marjorie When Margie Hyams retired from the odds against making it in the competitive influence on Shearing were Bud Powell, Erroll different musicians over the years, his most Hyams, a 25-year old bop vibraphonist who had performing to get married, Shearing kept the Cary Ginell jazz scene on 52nd Street in New York, when Garner, Hank Jones, and Art Tatum. Through famous group was a quintet featuring Marjorie played with Woody Herman’s ‘First Herd’. The same instrumental lineup intact, using other – a winner of the 2004 ASCAP/Deems Taylor such powerhouses as Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Powell, Shearing learned the explosive and Hyams on vibraphone, Chuck Wayne on guitar, urbane sound of the piano and vibraphone vibraphonists including Don Elliott, Joe Roland, Award for music journalism and Thelonious Monk were changing the way aggressive technique of one of bebop’s pioneers. John Levy (who would later be Shearing’s became Shearing’s trademark, and the quintet jazz was played. Despite all of these factors, Garner and Jones’s music taught him that he manager) on bass, and Denzil Best on drums. made their first recordings for the Discovery George Shearing not only created a sound of his could play bebop without being raucous. But The unusual horn-less quintet was made even label on 31 January 1949. On one of the songs, Personnel own, he became a huge commercial success, Tatum’s awesome abilities were what proved to more unique because of its racially integrated Ray Noble’s Cherokee (a favourite for bop Track 1: George Shearing, piano; Gene Ramey, Track 15: George Shearing, piano solo inventing a sound that helped make jazz be the most influential of all. makeup (both Best and Levy were black) and the musicians), Hyams moved over to the piano bass; Cozy Cole, drums accessible to a variety of audiences in the 1950s. Consequently, when he arrived in America, it inclusion of a woman, Hyams, in a major role. while Shearing played accordion, an instrument Tracks 18 & 20: George Shearing, piano; Joe Born in London on 13 August 1919, George was Tatum, another blind musician, whom Shearing’s sound could be as elegant as that of not normally associated with jazz. Tracks 2 & 3: George Shearing, piano; Jack Roland, vibraphone; Dick Garcia, guitar; Al Albert Shearing was blind from birth. He Shearing sought out. Many pianists were in such the Modern Jazz Quartet (which had similar Shearing’s love of outrageous puns was Fallon, bass; Norman Burns, drums McKibbon, bass; Marquis Foster, drums attended the Linden Lodge School for the Blind, awe of Tatum’s unbelievable technique, that he instrumentation), or it could swing with the reflected in many of his song titles, as evidenced Track 4: George Shearing, accordion; Marjorie Track 19: George Shearing, piano; Don Elliott, and although he studied classical piano, he was referred to as ‘God’. According to Shearing, fervor of the hardboppers of 52nd Street. On by two Leonard Feather compositions he Hyams, piano; Chuck Wayne, guitar; John vibraphone; Chuck Wayne, guitar; Al showed an aptitude for improvisation from the ‘When I first met him, I said, “Mr. Tatum, I’ve piano, Shearing exhibited the influences of all of recorded at this session: Bebop’s Fables and Life Levy, bass; Denzil Best, drums McKibbon, bass; Denzil Best, drums start. In the late ’30s, Shearing toured with an been listening to your records for years, and I’ve his heroes, from the dazzling runs of Tatum and with Feather (the latter a nod toward the then Tracks 5–14, 16 & 17 : George Shearing, piano; all blind band led by Claude Bampton. He was copied so many of your things. I’m really Oscar Peterson to the bebop of Bud Powell and popular Broadway play, Life with Father).