Shearing was born in the Battersea area of London, United Kingdom. Congenitally blind, he was the youngest of nine children. He started to learn piano at the age of three. After limited training and extensive listening to recorded jazz, he began playing at hotels, clubs and pubs in the London area, sometimes solo, occasionally with dance bands. In 1940, Shearing joined Harry Parry's popular band and became a star in Britain, performing for the BBC, playing with Stéphane Grappelli's London-based groups of the early 1940s, and winning seven consecutive Melody Maker polls.
In 1946, Shearing established himself in the United States. In 1955, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Leading a quintet (piano with guitar, bass, drums and vibraphone), which over the years included Cal Tjader, Margie Hyams, Denzil Best, Israel Crosby, Joe Pass and Gary Burton, Shearing had a succession of hugely popular records including September In The Rain and his own composition, Lullaby Of Birdland (1952). His style, including the joint playing of the melody by piano and vibraphone, was also widely copied, becoming part of the idiom of pop music, so that his records from that period now sound far less innovative than they did at the time. Later, Shearing played with a trio, as a solo and increasingly in duo. Among his collaborations have been sets with the Montgomery Brothers, Marian McPartland, Brian Torff, Jim Hall, Hank Jones and Kenny Davern.
In the 1970s, Shearing's profile had been lowered considerably, but upon signing with Concord Records in 1979, Shearing found himself enjoying a renaissance.
Over the years, Shearing has also collaborated with singers including Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Ernestine Anderson, Carmen McRae, and most notably, Mel Tormé, with whom he performed frequently in the late 80s and early 90s at festivals, on radio and for recordings.
Recently, Shearing collaborated with the John Pizzarelli Trio to create the album The Rare Delight of You, which garnered extremely good reviews. The album cover, featuring Pizzarelli and Shearing posing in front of a solid blue background, was designed to resemble the cover of Nat King Cole Sings George Shearing Plays, a legendary jazz recording with which it shares some similarities in style.
Shearing's interest in classical music resulted in some performances with concert orchestras in the 1950s and 1960s, and his solo's frequently draw upon the music of Debussy and, particularly, Erik Satie for inspiration. Shearing also made a recording with the classical French horn player Barry Tuckwell.
Shearing wrote a number of jazz arrangements of hymn tunes for the organ in collaboration with organist Dale Wood, that have been published in sheet music form.
(2) For a long stretch of time in the 1950s and early '60s, George Shearing had one of the most popular jazz combos on the planet -- so much so that, in the usual jazz tradition of distrusting popular success, he tended to be underappreciated. Shearing's main claim to fame was the invention of a unique quintet sound, derived from a combination of piano, vibraphone, electric guitar, bass, and drums. Within this context, Shearing would play in a style he called "locked hands," which he picked up and refined from Milt Buckner's early-'40s work with the Lionel Hampton band, as well as Glenn Miller's sax section and the King Cole Trio. Stating the melody on the piano with closely knit, harmonized block chords, with the vibes and guitar tripling the melody in unison, Shearing sold tons of records for MGM and Capitol in his heyday.
The wild success of this urbane sound obscures Shearing's other great contribution during this time, for he was also a pioneer of exciting, small-combo Afro-Cuban jazz in the '50s. Indeed, Cal Tjader first caught the Latin jazz bug while playing with Shearing, and the English bandleader also employed such esteemed congueros as Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, and Armando Peraza. As a composer, Shearing was best known for the imperishable, uniquely constructed bop standard "Lullaby of Birdland," as well as "Conception" and "Consternation." His solo style, though all his own, reflected the influences of the great boogie-woogie pianists and classical players, as well as those of Fats Waller, Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner, Art Tatum, and Bud Powell -- and fellow pianists long admired his light, refined touch. He was also known to play accordion and sing in a modest voice on occasion.
Shearing, who was born blind, began playing the piano at the age of three, receiving some music training at the Linden Lodge School for the Blind in London as a teenager but picking up the jazz influence from Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller 78s. In the late '30s, he started playing professionally with the Ambrose dance band and made his first recordings in 1937 under the aegis of fellow Brit Leonard Feather. He became a star in Britain, performing for the BBC, playing a key role in the self-exiled Stéphane Grappelli's London-based groups of the early '40s, and winning seven consecutive Melody Maker polls before emigrating in New York City in 1947 at the prompting of Feather. Once there, Shearing quickly absorbed bebop into his bloodstream, replacing Garner in the Oscar Pettiford Trio and leading a quartet in tandem with Buddy DeFranco. In 1949, he formed the first and most famous of his quintets, which included Marjorie Hyams on vibes (thus striking an important blow for emerging female jazz instrumentalists), Chuck Wayne on guitar, John Levy on bass, and Denzil Best on drums. Recording briefly first for Discovery, then Savoy, Shearing settled into lucrative associations with MGM (1950-1955) and Capitol (1955-1969), the latter for which he made albums with Nancy Wilson, Peggy Lee, and Nat King Cole. He also made a lone album for Jazzland with the Montgomery Brothers (including Wes Montgomery) in 1961, and began playing concert dates with symphony orchestras.
After leaving Capitol, Shearing began to phase out his by-then-predictable quintet, finally breaking it up in 1978. He started his own label, Sheba, which lasted for a few years into the early '70s -- and made some trio recordings for MPS later in the decade. In the '70s, his profile had been lowered considerably, but upon signing with Concord in 1979, Shearing found himself enjoying a renaissance in all kinds of situations. He made a number of acclaimed albums with Mel Tormé, raising the singer's profile in the process, and recorded with the likes of Ernestine Anderson, Jim Hall, Marian McPartland, Hank Jones, and classical French horn player Barry Tuckwell. He also recorded a number of solo piano albums where his full palette of influences came into play. He signed with Telarc in 1992 and from that point through the early 2000s continued to perform and record, most often appearing in a duo or trio setting. Shearing, who had remained largely inactive since 2004 after a fall in his New York City apartment, died of congestive heart failure at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital on February 14, 2011. He was 91. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi
I got rhythm
George Shearing Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
This is my philosophy
To see me through the day
To scare my cares away
All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
All God's Chillun got swing
Maybe haven't got money
All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
For to push away the blues
Yeah !
All God's Chillun got trouble
Trouble don't mean a thing
When they start to go ho ho ho de ho
Troubles bound to go 'way, say!
All God's Chillun Got Swing.
The song "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" by George Shearing & Mel Torme speaks to the universality of music to lift and inspire people in tough times. The singer in the song reminds listeners that the groove and feeling of a song can make all worries disappear. The opening lines indicate that the singer has a personal philosophy that they use to get through the day and "scare [their] cares away." This philosophy is then revealed in the chorus: "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm / All God's Chillun got swing." The idea is that anybody can possess rhythm and musicality, regardless of their financial status or possessions.
The second stanza further reinforces this idea of rhythm as a great equalizer: "Maybe haven't got money / Maybe haven't got shoes / All God's Chillun Got Rhythm / For to push away the blues." This verse is essentially saying that nobody is exempt from life troubles and woes, but music can lift anyone's spirits. The final stanza takes this sentiment even further by claiming that when all the "chillun" start to sing and dance in unison, their troubles are bound to vanish.
Overall, the song is a testament to the power of music and rhythm to unite people across any divide. It suggests that rhythm is a universal language that anyone can speak, and that it has the potential to bring us all together to leave our troubles behind.
Line by Line Meaning
Chillun', listen here to me
Children, pay attention to me
This is my philosophy
Here is what I believe
To see me through the day
To help me get through each day
To scare my cares away
To make my worries disappear
All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
Everyone has rhythm, thanks to God
All God's Chillun got swing
Everyone has musical style
Maybe haven't got money
Some people don't have wealth
Maybe haven't got shoes
Some people don't have footwear
All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
Despite their lack of possessions, everyone still has rhythm
For to push away the blues
To alleviate sadness
Yeah !
Yes!
All God's Chillun got trouble
Everyone has problems
Trouble don't mean a thing
Problems aren't significant
When they start to go ho ho ho de ho
When they start to sing joyfully
Troubles bound to go 'way, say!
Their troubles are sure to disappear
All God's Chillun Got Swing.
Everyone has their own unique musical style
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Thomas "Fats" Waller
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@KawhackitaRag
One good thing about the "Rhapsody" being on the Duo-Art reproducing piano system is that it's more or less a binary-type expression system that works very quickly with (to my knowledge) no "crescendo" effect in the system. So it is fairly faithful with a wider range of chosen tempos for the roll playback.
This is to contrast with the Welte system, which is all crescendos and decrescendos, and the Ampico system which has a mix of both elements.
In the systems with crescendo functions in the expression, the roll has to be set at JUST the right speed (and the piano in good shape / timing checked by a technician before a serious recording is made), since when the roll tells the piano to get louder or softer (slowly or quickly), it has to do so at a predictable speed.
If the tempo of the roll is set too fast or slow for a Welte or Ampico (or certain other systems), the expression (whose timing happens at a couple of fixed speeds), will "land" on the correct dynamic at the WRONG time, so that the WRONG notes will be too loud or too soft due to the roll timing (notes) being off from the expression timing.
With Duo-Art, within reason, the roll can be sped up or slowed down and as long as everything is in good working order and working rapidly, the expression can still keep up with the timing of the notes so that the correct notes get the correct dynamics.
This is actually why the early Red Welte system has NO tempo lever... all rolls play at a fixed factory-determined paper speed to ensure that the timing of the expression doesn't get away from the timing of the notes. So, different tempos chosen by the artist show up MORE as different note lengths / spacings in the Welte rolls than in many later systems where they will ask the user to set a particular roll tempo (paper speed) and then have the timing of the expression adjusted by the person arranging the expression tracks (on the master roll at the factory), to match that paper speed.
By contrast, the Duo-Art system has the most extensive hand-controls for hand expression of any major reproducing system, so you can turn off the Duo-Art expression and also put your own interpretation into the roll, like a regular 88-note piano.
@weidmann0501
When he was young he said, "I have so many tunes in my head it will take a hundred years to write them down."
He died at 37 yrs.
@dropwizerorders501
Such a loss. I just finished a short book called, "George Gershwin: An intimate portrait", that is fascinating. He was a remarkable talent.
@classicaldeb
So sad.
@Kimllg88
Sad.
@lucaberardi4557
Almost 39 YO, 1898-1937
@paolo6219
I thought he died at 39
@charlesoshea4803
We can only imagine the marvelous songs we never heard because he passed on too young. RIP.
@JohnWilson01
Exactly. I rencently worked up his Prelude 1 for piano and it was definitely one of the hardest pieces Ive ever played.
@0restes
We wuz ROBBED! 🎵 😭
@ianaspinall3234
And not just songs.Im convinced that had Gershwin lived a long full life he would have been America's leading composer of Songs, Symphonies,Operas, Concertos and Chamber Music.No question about that.