George Shearing R.I.P.

[charles t]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/02/14/arts/AP-US-Obit-George-Shearing.html?_r=1&ref=arts"]http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/02/14/arts/AP-US-Obit-George-Shearing.html?_r=1&ref=arts

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

thanks for that Chas

link to Grauniad coverage:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/14/george-shearing-dies-aged-91

if you read Alyn's life story you can only have admiration for the man and his escape from a very poor set of circumstances in his earliest years

[Lateralthinking1]

I really liked his style of playing. Afraid I'm going to go all middle-of-the-road here and mention the obvious. Nat King Cole Sings George Shearing Plays. I've had that record for a very long time and always liked it. I'll hand over again now to the experts.

[Ian Thumwood]

I wanted to add my thoughts about the passing of Sir George Shearing.

Just as is the case with Dave Brubeck, I think Shearing represented an approach to jazz that managed to capture the public imagination in a way that is now almost totally alien with the way that jazz is presented these days. There are few musicians in today's jazz scene who can say that the same although I would suggest that someone like Pat Metheny is as near a comparison as you can get although I think Esperanza Spalding definately has the capability to do the same. Maybe EST are a better , contemporary comparison even if they never quite managed to engage the popular mainstream / non-jazz audience. My piano teacher was a fan and used to regularly tell me that he actually knew him when he played like Count Basie and would go to listen to Shearing play at a jazz club in London during the war that was also popular with American musicians. I wonder if this might have been Feldman's Club - shame Trevor isn't around to confirm this. For the generation of pianists who grew up as swing eventually evolved into Be-bop, Shearing was very highly regarded by his countrymen. Certainly, he was regarded with much more affection by my teacher than any other UK pianist.

Calum made a really intriguing point about jazz pianists on another thread last week about the "cocktail" influence on jazz piano and how this has seemingly dogged much jazz piano from the time of the excellent Nat Cole through to players like Bill Evans. Shearing is probably the easiest culprit to single out in this respect and seeing that the sound of piano / vibes / guitar all playing in unison almost represents the aural definition of "Lounge " music, it is not difficult to appreciate why. Even more than Brubeck, much of Shearing's work seemed to go out of it's way to be popularist and even if one of the archetypal sounds of "Cool Jazz" eventually mutated almost into easy listening music, there is no denying Shearings' mastery of his instrument nor the difficulty in making four chordal instruments play in sync like that. Perhaps the jazz -buyig public weren't quite as exacting in their tastes as is the case these days when the whiff of popularity is often percieved as being bad despite the musical quality of the results. For my piano teacher's generation, Shearing was seen (especially in this country) as one of the bestin an era that would have included Monk, Errol Garner, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson and Bud Powell.

I think it is also worth mentioning that, for all the almost hagiographical comments written on this and the old BBC board about Tubby Hayes, Joe Harriott or Mike Osbourne, George Shearing's approach to playing the piano had more influence on his fellow jazz musicians than any other soloist this country has produced perhaps until the arrival of guitarist John McLaughlin in the late 60's. The "locked hand" style of harmony and his use of colour can be said to have stretched throughout the 1950s' right down to the likes of Bill Evans. Until the arrival of Evans, I would guess that Shearing would have been a huge draw for those pianists more inclined to experiment with harmony. Being based in the States would have also have been a huge benefit.

Whilst I am not really a fan of Shearing's more commercial output, I think he was a player who got better as he matured and there are recordings that I have heard on programmes like JRR where he has played with the likes of Stephane Grappelli or Mel Torme where the playing is judged to perfection. These performances are almost like mini-piano lessons. I never saw him play or met him but felt that he always came across as a gent and a musician in the fullest sense of the word. RIP, Sir George.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Red Garland is the one who (apart from Jamal) often gets dumped on with the "cocktail" charge.

I've been somehow listening to him a lot lately.... there's a lot of understated steel in there amongst the cream. Ck/out the Prestige sides with Coltrane and Donald Byrd (Soul Junction etc.) and his trios with Doug Watkins etc. And the classic 1957 date with Art Pepper, Chambers and Philly JJ. Nothing cocktail there.

hic!

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

very appreciative musical commentary from Ethan

http://dothemath.typepad.com/

...actually they could have used the Shearing Quintet albums as a soundtrack for Mad Men, that faux hip middle class audience packing the clubs and buying drinks quicker than Niagara ....was his $ target .... and why shouldn't he go for it ... as Ethan says he put down some serious stuff, and having made his pile got adventurous again, the duets with Torme are master-classes ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

er just scored Jazz Moments, Shearing Trio with Vermel Fournier, and Israel Crosby (Crosby's last recording apparently) .... a fiver for mp3 on amazon .... a happy jazbo high on shopping adrenaline boosts ...

[Tenor Freak]

Funny you should mention Mad Men, because there's been naff all jazz in it so far apart from one scene where they put on Sketches of Spain at a beatnik party (I've watched all four seasons). They're in 1965 now, and nary a peep of Trane to be heard....

[burning dog]

How much does jazz influence cocktail piano? There is some out and out light music played but cocktail pianists are often jazz musicians making a crust. Ancient ones often sound like Shearing, Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner, Garland and Ahmad Jamal, slightly less olduns have a post Bill Evans influence.

I doubt any Cocktail pianist influenced Bill Evans, unless one counts Erik Satie It's the other way round!

[Ian Thumwood]

Burning Dog

If you read Volume 4 of John Mehegan's jazz piano books (he was an associate of Teddy Wilson and one of the first people to earn a reputation teaching jazz) there is a chapter which considers jazz harmony and deals with the aspect of "A" and "B" style voicings. Mention is obviously made of Chopin and Debussy and how harmony in jazz was so indebted to these composers around he early 60's when this book was written. Much of Mehegan's analysis of harmony , from recollection, is done in relation to an analysis of Bill Evans' piano playing and there is a transcription of "Peri's scope" to illustrate this with all the various voicings highlighted. The text goes on to explain that, in popular music, these ideas were initially worked out by a "lounge" pianist called Cy Walter. Here is a clip of him playing backing behind a singer:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_q0-Wn1ucI

Whilst this pianist's attack is totally alien to Bill Evans' playing, you can definately see a relation with some of the types of chords he used.

It addition to Walter, Evans was influenced by Milt Buckner, the lock-handed styled pianist who played with Lionel Hampton's band and who enjoyed popularity with the public in the 40's. There was an interview with Benny Golson on the BBC where he said that when Evans' first arrived on the scene he was extremely corny and did indeed play in the style of Buckner but that he quickly managed to find his own voice. However, I think it is safe to conclude that Evans was definately influenced by cocktail piano playing before he discovered Sonny Clark who had a more significant impact on his approach to jazz.

[burning dog]

So Bill Evans was influenced first by Milt Buckner, a jazz pianist, and then shared the same influences (Frech Impressionism) as the more subtle and tasteful cocktail pianists. Doesn't make him a cocktail pianist "gone jazzy", He may have been directly influenced by a few of them but most jazz musicians are influenced by popular music in it's widest sense, consciously or not. Lounge pianists seem to be either of the locked hands approach or Impressionist. I expect most of them listen or listened to jazz and classical and were schooled as such, they aren't pub singalong pianists. Cocktail and Lounge music doesn't exist in a vacuum. (Just be thankful they dont play like Elton John in his ballad moments). I don't know why they are so often disparaged. It's when they are recorded with strings and choirs it's often appaling.

[burning dog]

If many people heard this in a cocktail bar they'd just think it was "nice".

In my experience a lot of people brought up on (for example) Heavy metal and Harcore punk dismiss everything else as lift music whether it's quiet and thoughtful or just bland

[listen2counterpoint]

What a master of musicianship and spontaneity old 'Lullaby of Birdland' was. I was fortunate to be involved with a performance of his Songs and Sonnetts not that long ago, having only heard them briefly before, and was struck by the sheer musicality and quality of musical instinct that they possess - and from a composer/artist who didn't write much choral music. I had the beautiful setting of [I]Who is Sylvia [I][from that same set rolling around in my head after hearing the sad news of GS's death.

One of the true greats.

L2C

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

BILL EVANS ~ "A guy is influenced by hundreds of people and things and all show up in his work. To fasten on any one or two is ridiculous. I will say one thing, though. Lennie Tristano's early records impressed me tremendously. Tunes like 'Tautology,' 'Marshmallow,' and 'Fishin' Around.' I heard the fellows in his group building their lines with a design and general structure that was different from anything I'd ever heard in jazz."

BN.