Quantcast
NEWS: Summer Jazz Festival Guide 2008 STORES: CDs/DVDs/Vinyl/Sleeves | Downloads | Posters | Art
jazz
HOME NEWS REVIEWS ARTICLES MUSICIANS PHOTOS FORUMS
  Login   |   MY AAJ Signup  
Intro Site Map Free Daily MP3s Videos Upcoming Releases Guides Editorial Calendar Help Wanted  
Advanced
Contact Us   |   Advertise   |   For Contributors   |   For Musicians



Calendar - Venues
Teachers - Musicians



Jazz Excursion Radio



"Une Été '42 (The Summer Knows)"
Michel Legrand Trio
The Warm Shade of Memory

Listen Now






Featured Visual Artist
Scott Friedlander



Push AAJ Content
AAJ Live | RSS | Widsets

Christmas With The George Shearing Quintet

The George Shearing Quintet | Telarc Records

Discuss  

Review Redux. I was just putting the finishing touches on my January review of Christmas with The George Shearing Quintet when I read the December reviews and found that my colleague Douglas Payne had already covered this ground. I thought, “Drat, he did not miss one stylistic or compositional allusion that I heard” (with the exception of Shearing's quote of “Boplicity” in “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”). I am not going to cover Mr. Payne's ground; he did a better job than I could. However, I will share a reminiscence.

Boy Meets Jazz. In 1973, while in high school, a close friend of mine lent me two cassette tapes, The Oscar Peterson Trio The Trio and George Shearing George Shearing and the Montgomery Brothers. These recordings were my first real exposure to Jazz. I wore them both out. But, where I purchased more Oscar Peterson, I allowed George Shearing to go fallow. That is until 1998 and I never forgot that Shearing sound.

Holiday Jazz. 1995 saw the release of Oscar Peterson's collection of Christmas ditties on Telarc Jazz An Oscar Peterson Christmas (CD-83372). Telarc Jazz continues their display of Jazz caroling with the release of Christmas with The George Shearing Quintet. What both of these discs have in common is they sound like seasonal tunes interpreted by the interpreters, i.e., they both place their indelible stamp on the old tunes. The Shearing disc was immediately recognizable to me with his trademark quintet sound coupling the guitar and vibraphone. Listening to it felt like coming home.

The Gentleman of Jazz. George Shearing is a gentlemanly and urbane musician with an encyclopedic mind and a sensitive, kind heart. All of this is expressed in his holiday release. I have found few Jazz holiday discs that have worked for me, but Mr. Shearing's immediately captures the warmth of a log fire with frost on the windows and snow in the yard. “Sleighbells ring are you listenin'...” .


Track listing: Ding Dong! Merrily On High, White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, The Christmas Waltz, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Noël nouvelet, donkey Carol, I'll Be Home for Christmas, Snowfall, Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow, The Christmas Song, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman, Balulalow, Away in the Manger, It's Christmas Time.

Personnel: George Shearing: Piano and Vocals, Reg Schwager: Guitar, Don Thompson: Vibraphone, Neil Swainson: Bass, Dennis Mackrel: Drums

Style: Mainstream | Published: January 01, 1999 | More Holiday Reviews


  Discuss   Add to Google  
C. Michael Bailey believes that music is the only divinely inspired word... More about Michael...


More Articles by C. Michael Bailey
World Without End: John Coltrane, Michael Brecker, and the Saxophone...
Art Pepper: Unreleased Art, Vol. III; The Croydon Concert, May 14,...
Out of the Blues
Sylvia Bennett, Aniya, Lauren White, Perez: A Quartet of Standards
Hindson, Corigliano, Liszt/Kennedy/St. John
Romaria
Over & Over Again

More Recent Reviews
Sherman Irby - Big Mama's Biscuits Sherman Irby
Big Mama's Biscuits
Larry Karush - Art of the Improviser Larry Karush
Art of the Improviser
Anita O'Day - All The Sad Young Men Anita O'Day
All The Sad Young Men
Various Artists - The West Coast Jazz Box Various Artists
The West Coast Jazz Box
Sonny Criss - Intermission Riff Sonny Criss
Intermission Riff
Gene Ammons - Gene Ammons Greatest Hits: The 70s Gene Ammons
Gene Ammons Greatest Hits: The 70s



CD Review Search
Artist Name  
Album Title  
Record Label  
Author  
 
Most Read: CD Reviews
Last 30 Days | All Time
Most Read: Articles
Last 30 Days | All Time


 
More CD Reviews






Daniel Smith
New CD: The Swingin' Bassoon









  Privacy Policy | Dedicated Servers All material copyright © 2008 All About Jazz and/or contributing writers/visual artists. All rights reserved.