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
On the Street Where You Live
George Shearing Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Down the street before,
But the pavement always
Stayed beneath my feet before.
All at once am i
Several stories high,
Knowing I?m on the street where you live.
In the heart of town?
Can you hear a lark in any other part of town?
Does enchantment pour
Out of every door?
No, it?s just on the street where you live.
And oh, the towering feeling
Just to know somehow you are near
The overpowering feeling
That any second you may suddenly appear.
People stop and stare
They don?t bother me,
For there?s no where else on earth
That I would rather be.
Let the time go by,
I won?t care if i
Can be here on the street where you live.
People stop and stare
They don?t bother me,
For there?s no where else on earth
That I would rather be.
Let the time go by
I won?t care if i
Can be here on the street where you live,
Let me be on the street where you live.
On the Street Where You Live by George Shearing is a song that is about the overwhelming feeling of being in the presence of someone that you love. The song starts by describing how the singer has walked down this street before, but now that they are walking it with the presence of the person they love, they are suddenly several stories high. The singer is experiencing an overwhelming feeling of love and joy that is putting them on top of the world. They feel elevated and their surroundings have become magical.
The second verse asks rhetorical questions about the street where the person they love lives, wondering if there are lilac trees and larks singing, and if enchantment pours out of every door. It's clear that the singer is in love and that their love is what makes the street they're walking on so special to them. They experience an overpowering feeling of joy whenever they think about their love potentially appearing, which is further emphasized in the third verse.
In the third verse, the singer talks about how people stop and stare at them, but this doesn't bother them because they are in the presence of their love and there is nowhere else they would rather be. They don't even care about the passing of time because they are content being on the street where their love lives.
This song is a testament to the power of love and how it can transform even the most mundane places into a magical experience.
Line by Line Meaning
I have often walked
I've taken this walk many times before
Down the street before,
I've been on this street previously
But the pavement always
The sidewalk beneath my feet has never changed
Stayed beneath my feet before.
It's always been a constant for me
All at once am I
Suddenly I
Several stories high,
Feel as though I'm soaring
Knowing I?m on the street where you live.
Simply because I'm on this street where you reside
Are there lilac trees
Do they have lilac trees
In the heart of town?
In the core, central area of the city
Can you hear a lark in any other part of town?
Is it feasible to listen to a lark sound in other areas?
Does enchantment pour
Is there an atmosphere of charm and magic that emanates
Out of every door?
From the entrance of all the houses?
No, it?s just on the street where you live.
It's restricted to the street where you dwell.
And oh, the towering feeling
The experience of height and grandeur
Just to know somehow you are near
Being conscious that, in some way, you are around,
The overpowering feeling
Overwhelming sensation
That any second you may suddenly appear.
You may emerge at any moment.
People stop and stare
Individuals halt and gaze
They don?t bother me,
It doesn't concern me
For there?s no where else on earth
Because there isn't any other location
That I would rather be.
I'd prefer to be anywhere else.
Let the time go by,
Let time pass,
I won?t care if I
If I disregard my worries, concerns, and anxieties,
Can be here on the street where you live.
Being here on your street is all I care about.
Let me be on the street where you live.
I want to remain on the street where you reside.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ALAN JAY LERNER, FREDERICK LOEWE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@patriciahiggins9188
Perfect
@tubesabo
really soothing and I feel so sad inside.
@snooptiger
wow. nice taste in music and profile pic.
@NorkelFjols
Huh, it starts up with a Poulenc quote. That's not something you hear every day..