George Shearing Music To Hear CD

 Shearing always gives good value.
It's always a pleasure to hear George Shearing playing anything. This CD is a nice one and I consider it was very good value - but compared to others of his solo piano recordings I don't think it represents his best output. Shearing is one the most creative and prolific of performers doing beautifully crafted music for as long as I can remember. I bought his LPs back in the early 1960s. This CD is oddly named "Music to Hear" and it leaves me wondering what else are you supposed to do with performed music but listen to it? The first track is also on "Favorite Things" CD and is a tongue-in-cheek respectful slap on the back for Brahms as he plays "Takin' a Chance on Love" in the style of Brahms throughout. Grand block chords and a hymn-like progression of harmonies show how well Shearing adapts popular jazz compositions and plants them in the classical genre just for fun. It's a very neat idea neatly created. "The summer knows" is given a sweet and sublime treatment where he never plays louder than lovely. "Children's Waltz" is clearly an arrangement intended to give that French Debussy/Satie feel to it and is pretty rather than poetic. The ticking-clock atmosphere captures the child-like effect that the title suggests so it achieves its object perfectly. George's playing here is reminiscent of the late Bill Evans with a singularly thoughtful approach to the music. It seems to slow your heart rate down, so I recommend a track like this as a stress-buster. "Change Partners and Dance" I was not so keen on. Though its saving grace was the choral harmonies that had me thinking of the vocal arrangements of Gene Peurling with "Singers Unlmited" and their approach to the same composition recorded in the 1970s. The track laboured a bit and took rather a long time to make its point. The Middle 8 bars slowed to a halt and I began to think it was George being rather self-indulgent. A clever arrangement nonetheless with some really smart Shfortzando pedal work at the end proving what a master of control over the "voice" of a piano George Shearing is. "WAVE" is a lovely composition and was Henry Mancini's favorite Latin composition. I didn't like the treatment of it as an extended rubato introduction leaving me hoping he would soon launch into a latin Bossa Nova but possibly because in solo piano performance it's very difficult to do a bossa nova without the catchy off-beat drumming and the heart-beat of the bassline to bouy it along. George decided to send it into a Swing number and in my opinion "Wave" doesn't suit being swung. Jobim would turn in his grave! George even lapsed into Stride style playing on this one. I didn't think that was appropriate or at least it didn't work for me. "What kind of fool am I" Most of this track was done Rubato and I wished it had gone into a fixed tempo much earlier. Instead, Shearing worked the Antony Newley classic up into something highly untypical for him - a rather heavy-handed melody line out of character with the piece. It then lapsed into Classical cock-a-snook at Chopin mode, for a time and he indulged in some counterpoint which was very clever but it very soon got irritating. "Love Story" This was given a classical style again pointing out to the listener how close the composition is to classical music and this one sounds like Handel Concerto. Shearing was back in lounge-pianist mode here and it began to sound like someone paid to sit and become the background music to talking over dinner. This is what we used to call "wallpaper music" in the 1960s. This is very distinct from his late-night club sound that he made so popular then by using Piano Vibes & Guitar in swing unison and a Bass & Drums to complete the quintet. "Dream Dancing" is a new one on me; similar to "I'm in the mood for love". This was another piece given the extended Rubato introduction. There was a staggeringly good Tatum impersonation on this track in a couple of places as he launched into stride- piano style and gave us good value cooking it along in the way we've come to expect from Shearing. "I Predict" was a very pleasant piece with rich harmonies and a superb treatment of the melody. "This is all I ask" is also rich textured harmony with some juicy obscure chords that gave the piano a fitting orchestral approach reminiscent of the big bands of the 1950s such as Gill Evans' band. I think this is the best track on the CD. "Beautiful Love" is ponderous and in a kind of prelude style with an intro that is very meditative. It turns out to be a classical exploration that proves how good the composition is but just when I was beginning to really enjoy it, the track ended at a short two and a half minutes. "Alfie" finally was the oddest track on the CD. Rubato to start with and delivering waves of goose-bump making harmony welling up from the bass and tenor upwards like a mountain spring. Most of the track gushes like this but suddenly there's a complete change of personality near the end and Shearing opens the flood-gates for no apparent reason than self-indulgence. OK we know that Alfie was enigmatic but this wasn't delivered as film music. I wonder did Shearing get bored with this piece? The shouting almost grotesque treatment led to an ending that was so over the top it sounded bad tempered. But looking back I enjoyed the majority of the CD and I'm glad I bought it. I do play My Favorite Things album more than this one, as well as My Ship - both of which are Solo albums and in my opinion better examples of the Shearing Magic. This one has its merits and should be in anyone's collection who likes everything that Shearing does.
Submitted by Mr Laurie Prior (County of Devon in the UK)
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