George Shearing at Home

JazzKnight Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: George Shearing at Home

You know how it is; you’re cleaning out the attic, or a closet in a seldom used room, and you find something that has been overlooked for years, and it’s a treasure. That’s what happened to bassist Don Thompson, shortly after pianist George Shearing died in 2011. Thompson found tapes, in a drawer, that he and Shearing had recorded back in 1983, while working a six-week job at a New York jazz club. The two artists often spent afternoons in Shearing’s apartment, “playing just for fun.” One day they rented microphones and pre-amps and, using a four track reel-to-reel recorder that Shearing had, laid down a few tracks: no studio, no audience and no contract pressure to contend with.

This album contains the results of that session.

Shearing was one of the true jazz giants. Born blind in 1919, in England, he began to play the piano at age 3. He worked in pubs, playing both piano and accordion, and became well known in England via numerous appearances on BBC Radio. He met and recording with Leonard Feather while still in his 20s, then emigrated to the United States in 1947, where he gained immediate fame.

His style was unique, often described as “Shearing’s voicing.” He utilized a “locked hands” approach, often credited to pianist Milt Buckner. Shearing was one of the early artists to combine jazz with classical melodic lines. And my, he was prolific; he’s credited with more than 300 compositions, and he released well over 100 albums during his career. He still was working in his 90s, and his awards are legion: he was knighted in 2007. 

As he put it, “The poor blind kid from Battersea became Sir George Shearing.  Now that’s a fairy tale come true.”

This album contains 14 songs: four solos, and the rest duos with Thompson. Most are standards, including “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” “Can’t We Be Friends” and “I Cover The Waterfront.” Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” and Lee Konitz’s “SubconciousLee” will be familiar to jazz fans, and the program is rounded out with Thompson’s “Ghoti” and a traditional Scottish song, “The Skye Boat.” 

I’ve never heard Shearing more lyrical, more relaxed, or better. No question, as well, that Thompson was part of bringing out the pianist’s best. This album is a true treasure!

Holiday Jazz 1998: Plenty of seasonal swing

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.17.98

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — began surveying the annual holiday jazz scene in 1997.]


Say what you will about holiday madness — the glitz, the hype, the hysterical shoppers, several dozen competing productions of The Nutcracker — but there’s no denying the appeal of holiday music.

Particularly holiday jazz.

No seasonal trauma is so great that it can’t be alleviated by a warm fire, a warmer companion and a soulful interpretation of “Silent Night” or “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” by the likes of Oscar Peterson or Dave Brubeck.

Those gentleman, of course, are the talents of Christmas Past: Their holiday CDs are established treasures at this point.

I’m concerned today with the talents of Christmas Present, and — as has been the case in recent years — the pickings are mighty impressive.

Time was, you couldn’t find any of this stuff until well into December, and it would be smooshed together into a single — frequently unlabeled — bin toward the back of most music stores. These days, the “Christmas Music” section appears in mid-November and often stretches for an entire row, with sub-headings for Pop, Country, Jazz, Spiritual and New Age.

Preparing for a round-up of this sort naturally demands that the dedicated listener — that would be me — pops the new releases onto the CD player several weeks before Thanksgiving, while praying that nobody else (except the patient and long-suffering spouse) notices. But I figure if the artists can record this stuff in mid-summer, as often occurs, then it’s no less bizarre for me to accelerate the season a bit by playing it a fortnight or two early.

Hey, it’s a dirty job...

Not that long ago, the albums in my holiday jazz collection could have been counted on the fingers of both hands. These days, I’m lucky if 10 fingers are enough to catalog the number of new entries per year. Jazz covers of familiar Christmas songs have become one of the music medium’s growth industries, but increased quantity does not — alas! — guarantee increased quality.

Even so, several of the 1998 releases quickly rose to the top of my must-play list, and Christmas with the George Shearing Quintet (Telarc CD-83438) immediately comes to mind. You can’t beat Shearing’s gentle touch on piano, and he’s ably assisted by Reg Schwager (guitar), Don Thompson (vibraphone), Neil Swainson (bass) and Dennis Mackrel (drums).

Shearing’s approach to these familiar tunes is playful: His rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” includes a prominent “Birdland” riff, and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” is played against the familiar 5/4 “Take Five” bass-line beat.

Not everything is ideal: Shearing’s rendition of the 17th century French carol “Noel nouvelet” is a bit slow and weird, and I could have lived without his vocal accompaniment on “It’s Christmas Time.” (Why do some of these musicians insist on singing???)

Such minor quibbles aside, this is a tasty little album. You won’t embarrass yourself with this on the player, no matter who shows up for dinner.