That Shearing Sound

Shearing was born in 1919 in the Battersea area of London. Congenitally blind, he was the youngest of nine children. His father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains at night after caring for the children during the day. His only formal musical education consisted of four years of study at the Linden Lodge School for the Blind. While his talent won him a number of university scholarships, he was forced to refuse them in favor of a more financially productive pursuit: playing piano in a neighborhood pub for the handsome salary of five dollars a week! Shearing joined an all-blind band in the 1930s. At that time, he developed a friendship with noted jazz critic and author Leonard Feather. Through this contact, he made his first appearance on BBC radio.

In 1947, Mr. Shearing moved to America where he spent two years establishing his fame on this side of the Atlantic. The Shearing sound commanded national attention when, in 1949, he gathered a quintet to record September in the Rain for MGM. The record was an overnight success and sold 900,000 copies. His reputation was permanently established when he was booked into Birdland, the legendary jazz spot in New York City. Since then he has become one of America's most popular performing and recording artists. In 1982 and 1983, he won Grammy Awards with recordings he made with Mel Torme. Mr. Shearing was the subject of an hour-long television documentary entitled The Shearing Touch presented on ITV in the UK, which could be seen in the United States on the Bravo channel.

In May 1975, he received an honorary doctor of music degree from Westminster College in Salt Lake City. In May 1994, he was awarded another honorary doctorate in music by Hamilton College in upstate New York. He received the prestigious Horatio Alger Award for Distinguished Americans in 1978, and a community recreational facility in Battersea, south London, was named the George Shearing Centre in his honor.

In May 1993, he was presented with the British equivalent of the Grammy-the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement. In June 1996, Mr. Shearing was included in the Queen's Birthday Honors List and was invested later that year by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his "service to music and Anglo-U.S. relations." He was presented the first American Music Award by the National Arts Club, New York City, in March 1998.

Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan have invited Mr. Shearing to play at the White House. He also performed at a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. He is a member of the Friars Club and the Lotos Club in New York and the Bohemian Club in San Francisco.

In the summer of 1999, he celebrated his 80th birthday in England, where he played to a sold-out house at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. Appearing with him were the BBC Big Band, the strings of the London Symphony, Dame Cleo Laine, and John Dankworth. BBC Radio 2 presented a two-and-a-half-hour Salute to Shearing in honor of his birthday.

Mr. Shearing and his wife, Ellie, divide their time between an apartment in New York and a cottage in the English countryside. He can often be found in the Cotswolds, taking long walks, enjoying "bangers and chips" at his favorite pub, or sitting in the garden listening to his beloved cricket and tennis matches. An avid fan of both sports, he and Ellie can often be seen at Lords Cricket Ground, Wimbledon or the U.S. Open. However, their favorite kind of evening consists of a quiet dinner at home with friends followed by a serious game of bridge.

But occasionally, during breaks in his busy schedule, both at home and abroad, he follows his own personal belief: "Why should a man work when he has the health and strength to lie in bed?"