George Shearing Dies At 91

rugcat

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George Shearing, famed jazz pianist and composer has just died.

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/15/133755475/remembering-composer-of-lullaby-of-birdland

His best known composition was "Lullaby Of Birdland" a jazz staple for singers. It's one of my favorite tunes, and one I used to play at every wedding gig I did -- one of the few jazz tunes I can truly play well. Here's Sarah Vaughan's version, for those of you unfamiliar with it.

And here's Shearing's recollection of how he came to write this classic, an interesting take on the creative process:

For weeks Shearing tried to come up with something but to no avail. Suddenly one night in the middle of dinner he jumped up, went to the piano and wrote the whole thing in about ten minutes. The pianist explains, “Actually quite a lot of my compositions have come this way--very slow going for a week or so, and the finished piece comes together very rapidly, but as I say to those who criticize this method of working, it’s not that I dash something off in ten minutes, it’s ten minutes plus umpteen years in the business.”

http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-1/lullabyofbirdland.htm
 

blacbird

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I caught this news yesterday. My son, 22, is a serious jazz keyboardist (tenor sax, trumpet and drums as well, but the piano is his real forté). He went to Berklee College of Music in Boston on a big scholarship, has now decided to study languages & linguistics elsewhere.

But, to digress from the digression, I called him last night, just to chat, and told him about Shearing. He hadn't heard. Shearing is part of his jazz DNA, along with Ellington and Basie. His favorite musicians in this form are people like Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock and Ramsey Lewis (whom we got to see live about four months ago). Oh, and them Bach, Mozart, Chopin & Debussy guys from way back, too.

Not all young people are enwrapped in the current miasma of the pop music scene. We still have the legacy of people like George Shearing to thank for this.
 

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Maxx

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I caught this news yesterday. My son, 22, is a serious jazz keyboardist (tenor sax, trumpet and drums as well, but the piano is his real forté). He went to Berklee College of Music in Boston on a big scholarship, has now decided to study languages & linguistics elsewhere.

But, to digress from the digression, I called him last night, just to chat, and told him about Shearing. He hadn't heard. Shearing is part of his jazz DNA, along with Ellington and Basie. His favorite musicians in this form are people like Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock and Ramsey Lewis (whom we got to see live about four months ago). Oh, and them Bach, Mozart, Chopin & Debussy guys from way back, too.

Not all young people are enwrapped in the current miasma of the pop music scene. We still have the legacy of people like George Shearing to thank for this.

I used to have an Afro-cuban beat record of his.