[Nfbf-l] FW: George Shearing dies at 91

Thu Feb 17 14:15:50 UTC 2011

He was a great pianist.

Sherri
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sherrill O'Brien" <sherrill.obrien at verizon.net>
To: "Mike O'Brien" <mikewobrien at verizon.net>; "Dick and Alice Bledsoe" 
<dafk-bledsoe at sbcglobal.net>; "NFBFL" <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 10:00 AM
Subject: [Nfbf-l] FW: George Shearing dies at 91

>
>
> Jazz pianist George Shearing dies at 91      By JAKE COYLE  AP 
> Entertainment
> Writer     The Associated Press     NEW YORK   . Sir George Shearing, the
> ebullient jazz pianist who wrote the standard "Lullaby of Birdland" and 
> had
> a string of hits both with and without his quintet, has died. He was 91.
>
> Shearing, blind since birth, died early Monday morning in Manhattan of
> congestive heart failure, his longtime manager Dale Sheets said.
>
> He was a totally one-of-a-kind performer," said Sheets. It was something
> wonderful to see, to watch him work.
>
> Shearing had been a superstar of the jazz world since a couple of years
> after he arrived in the United States in 1947 from his native England, 
> where
> he was already hugely popular. The George Shearing Quintet's first big hit
> came in 1949 with a version of songwriter Harry Warren's "September in the
> Rain.
>
> He remained active well into his 80s, releasing a CD called "Lullabies of
> Birdland" as well as a memoir, "Lullaby of Birdland," in early 2004. In
> March of that year, though, he was hospitalized after suffering a fall at
> his home. It took him months to recover, and he largely retired from 
> public
> appearances after that.
>
> Sheets said that while Shearing ceased working, he never stop playing 
> piano.
>
> He was getting better periodically and doing quite well up into about a
> month ago," said Sheets.
>
> In a 1987 Associated Press interview, Shearing said the ingredients for a
> great performance were "a good audience, a good piano, and a good physical
> feeling, which is not available to every soul, every day of everyone's 
> life.
>
> Your intent, then, is to speak to your audience in a language you know, to
> try to communicate in a way that will bring to them as good a feeling as 
> you
> have yourself," he said.
>
> In 2007, Shearing was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution 
> to
> music. When the honor was announced, he said it was "amazing to receive an
> honor for something I absolutely love doing.
>
> Shearing's bebop-influenced sound became identified with a quintet piano,
> vibes, guitar, bass and drums   which he put together in 1949. More
> recently, he played mostly solo or with only a bassist. He excelled in the
> "locked hands" technique, in which the pianist plays parallel melodies 
> with
> the two hands, creating a distinctly full sound.
>
> Among the luminaries with whom Shearing worked over the years: Tito 
> Puente,
> Nancy Wilson, Nat "King" Cole, Mel Torme, Marian McPartland, the Boston
> Pops, Peggy Lee, Billy Taylor, Don Thompson, Stephane Grappelli and Sarah
> Vaughan, whom Shearing called "the best contralto in pop.
>
> When Torme won Grammys two years in a row in 1983-84, for "An Evening With
> George Shearing and Mel Torme" and "Top Drawer," he blasted the National
> Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences for failing to nominate his partner,
> Shearing, either time.
>
> It's hard to image a more compatible musical partner," Shearing said after
> Torme died in 1999. I humbly put forth that Mel and I had the best musical
> marriage in many a year. We literally breathed together during our 
> countless
> performances. And he told Down Beat magazine: "Mel was one of the few 
> people
> that I played with whom I felt I worked with and not for.
>
> Shearing wrote "Lullaby of Birdland" in 1952; it's named for the famous 
> New
> York jazz club. He acknowledged composing it in just 10 minutes. But I
> always tell people, it took me 10 minutes and 35 years in the business," 
> he
> told The Christian Science Monitor in 1980. Just in case anybody thinks
> there are any totally free rides left, there are none!
>
> At an 80th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall in 1999, Shearing
> introduced "Lullaby" by joking: "I have been credited with writing 300
> songs. Two hundred ninety-nine enjoyed a bumpy ride from relative 
> obscurity
> to total oblivion. Here is the other one.
>
> Pianist Dave Brubeck was among those who performed at the Carnegie Hall
> event.
>
> I've lost a dear friend," Brubeck said Monday. His photo is over my piano 
> in
> the studio. Over the years, we've played many concerts together. I 
> consider
> him one of the greatest musical minds I've ever been around. In the '50s,
> George paved the way for me and the (Modern Jazz Quartet), and even today
> jazz players, especially pianists, are indebted to him.
>
> Among other songs recorded by the George Shearing Quintet: "I'll Never 
> Smile
> Again," "Mambo Inn," "Conception," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and
> "East of the Sun (and West of the Moon).
>
> The landmark albums he and the quintet made include "The Swingin's 
> Mutual,"
> backing up vocalist Wilson, and "Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing 
> Plays.
>
> But Shearing laid the quintet to rest in 1978, except for occasional
> revivals.
>
> I needed a breath of fresh air and a chance to grow individually," he told
> the AP. "What I find as a soloist or working with a bassist, is that I can
> address myself more to the proposition of being a complete pianist; I find 
> a
> lot more pianistic freedom.
>
> He was already working at his memoir in 1987, saying he was using a 
> Braille
> word processor. I think there are a lot of things to be told from my view
> the world of sound and feel," he said. Years earlier, in a 1953 AP
> interview, he had said he referred to his blindness as little as possible
> because, "I want to get by as a human being, not as a blind person.
>
> As he grew older, he spoke frankly of aging.
>
> I'm not sure that technique and improvisational abilities improve with 
> age,"
> the pianist said. I think what improves is your sense of judgment, of
> maturity. I think you become a much better editor of your own material.
>
> Shearing was born Aug. 13, 1919, to a working-class family and grew up in
> the Battersea district of London.
>
> A prodigy despite his inability to see printed music, he studied classical
> music for several years before deciding to "test the water on my own"
> instead of pursuing additional studies at a university. Shearing began his
> career at a London pub when he was 16.
>
> During World War II, the young pianist teamed with Grappelli, the French
> jazz violinist, who spent the war years in London. Grappelli recalled to
> writer Leonard Feather in 1976 that he and Shearing would "play during air
> raids. Was not very amusing.
>
> Shearing had a daughter, Wendy, with his first wife, the former Trixie
> Bayes, whom he married in 1941. The marriage ended in divorce in 1973 and
> two years later he married singer Ellie Geffert.
>
> The popularity of the Shearing quartet's records a half-century ago had 
> some
> writers suggesting he didn't take his jazz seriously enough. In a
> 2002 New York Times piece, critic Terry Teachout said such talk was beside
> the point.
>
> The time has come," Teachout wrote, "for George Shearing to be 
> acknowledged
> not as a commercial purveyor of bop-and-water, but as an exceptionally
> versatile artist who has given pleasure to countless listeners for whom 
> such
> critical hairsplitting is irrelevant.
>
> Shearing is survived by his wife, Geffert.
>
>
> tracyduffy at nc.rr.com
>  (that's also my messenger contact)
> twitter.com/todayinbraille
> Skype: raleighgirl62
>
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