OLP Album #17: A Jazz Date With George Shearing

Read About This Recording

Throughout his prime years, George Shearing showed that it was possible to be both popular with the general public and play creative bop-oriented jazz. Always a brilliant pianist, he has had one of the longest careers in jazz history.

Born in England in 1919, Shearing (who was born blind) began playing piano when he was three. By the time he was 18 he was a professional jazz pianist influenced by Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller, able to play anything from stride to boogie-woogie. A member of violinist Stephane Grappelli's group in the early 1940s, Shearing was a household name in England. In 1947, after visiting the U.S., he decided to relocate and explore the new music of bebop.

In 1949, he formed the George Shearing Quintet, a unique band consisting of piano, vibes, guitar, bass and drums. The distinctive sound, with the piano's block chords playing the themes in unison with vibes and guitar, made the group very popular. The Quintet, with regular changes in personnel, lasted for 20 years. Shearing continued into the late 1990s, performing with duets and sometimes Mel Torme.

A Jazz Date With George Shearing is a duplicate of a former LP. It has a dozen of the Shearing Quintet's finest performances from 1949-53. With Marjorie Hyams, Don Elliot, Joe Roland or Cal Tjader on vibes and Chuck Wayne, Dick Garcia or Toots Thielemans on guitar, Shearing performs such numbers as Swedish Pastry, Bop, Look And Listen, Conception, How's Trix and Nothing But D. Best.

A Jazz Date serves as a perfect introduction to the music of the classic George Shearing Quintet.

-Scott Yanow

Contents

Imported from Europe!

Remastered!

Swedish Pastry; Lonely Moments; Bop, Look and Listen; Conception; Carnegie Horizons; Strolling; (Geneva's) Move; How's Trix; Nothing but D. Best; Loose Leaf; Night Flight; Mood for Milt.

George Shearing, Piano; Marjorie Hyams, Don Elliott, Joe Roland, Vibes; Cal Tjader, Vibes/Bongos; Chuck Wayne, Dick Garcia, Toots Thielemans, Guitars; John Levy, Al McKibbon, Upright Basses; Denzil Best, Marquis Foster, Bill Clark, Drums; George Shearing Quintet.