The Shearing Piano

George Shearing

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The Shearing Piano Review

by Ken Dryden

This is one of the earliest releases to feature George Shearing exclusively as a solo pianist, and the CD reissue of the long unavailable LP adds ten previously unissued tracks. He is rather surprisingly low-key on most of these interpretations, even though they are mostly ballads, possibly because of Capitol's original marketing concept. "Stella by Starlight" is especially odd, starting off rather dreamy and evolving into more of an arrangement that sounds as if a classical pianist is making a crossover recording. Many of the other songs have long since disappeared from the jazz scene (if any of them were regularly played) since the original record came out in the 1950s; they include long forgotten songs such as "Guilty," "Friendly Persuasion," "High on a Windy Hill," and "Sigh No More." The newly added material includes a version of "My Funny Valentine," which has a rather unusual bassline and later hints at various classical composers, especially Mozart. Music by Rachmaninov is incorporated into his arrangement of "Tenderly," and a theme by Poulenc is worked into "On the Street Where You Live"; there's also an interpretation of Debussy's "Reverie." Although this isn't a very representative release from George Shearing's considerable discography (spanning over a half century), it should not be condemned because it doesn't sound like his better-known jazz recordings. As long as one isn't expecting Shearing's typical locked hands and often humor-filled style that's heard on most of his releases, this CD should please any jazz fan who is in the mood for something mellow.

Track Listing

Title/Composer Performer Time Stream
1
Stella by Starlight
Ned Washington / Victor Young
George Shearing 05:48 SpotifyAmazon
2
On the Street Where You Live
Alan Jay Lerner / Frederick Loewe
George Shearing 02:54 SpotifyAmazon
3
Guilty
Harry Akst / Gus Kahn / Richard A. Whiting
George Shearing 03:17 SpotifyAmazon
4
Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)
Dimitri Tiomkin / Paul Francis Webster
George Shearing 02:51 SpotifyAmazon
5
For Every Man There's a Woman
Harold Arlen / Leo Robin
George Shearing 02:37 SpotifyAmazon
6
It Might as Well Be Spring
Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rodgers
George Shearing 05:11 SpotifyAmazon
7
High on a Windy Hill
Alex Kramer / Joan Whitney
George Shearing 03:03 SpotifyAmazon
8
If
Stanley Damerell
George Shearing 02:51 SpotifyAmazon
9
A Tune for Humming
Frank Loesser / Stephen Sondheim
George Shearing 02:55 SpotifyAmazon
10
Sigh No More
Noël Coward
George Shearing 04:08 SpotifyAmazon
11
My Funny Valentine
Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers
George Shearing 03:58 SpotifyAmazon
12
In the Still of the Night
Cole Porter
George Shearing 03:05 SpotifyAmazon
13
So Would I
Johnny Burke / James Van Heusen
George Shearing 03:17 SpotifyAmazon
14
Tenderly
Walter Gross / Jack Lawrence
George Shearing 05:55 SpotifyAmazon
15
Can't We Be Friends?
Paul James / Kay Swift
George Shearing 02:33 SpotifyAmazon
16
It Never Entered My Mind
Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers
George Shearing 03:18 SpotifyAmazon
17
Memories of You
Eubie Blake / Andy Razaf
George Shearing 04:26 SpotifyAmazon
18
Don't Explain
Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog, Jr.
George Shearing 02:31 SpotifyAmazon
19
Homesick, That's All
Gordon Jenkins
George Shearing 02:27 SpotifyAmazon
20
Reverie
Claude Debussy
George Shearing 04:53 SpotifyAmazon
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The Shearing Piano

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