Jazz Pianist George Shearing Dies
from Jazz Times:
George Shearing, the British jazz pianist and composer who wrote the bebop standard “Lullaby of Birdland,” died on Monday, February 14 in New York City, where he had resided for many years. The cause of death was heart failure. He was 91.
The writer Alyn Shipton, who helped Shearing write his memoirs, said that Shearing had a remarkable memory. “He could reproduce whole records from memory, accurately catching the nuances of Fats, Tatum, Bud Powell and Erroll Garner among others,” said Shipton. “But his real talent was, firstly to conceptualize the ‘Shearing Sound’ – transferring the Glenn Miller orchestral voicings to piano, vibes and guitar, and secondly to apply an instantaneous musical wit and imagination to everything he did. One of his favorite party tricks which I saw him do many times was to play the Irish folk song ‘Kerry Dance’ and weave into it the ‘Kyrie’ from Bach’s B Minor mass. George particularly liked that because it was a verbal pun on Kyrie and Kerry and a musical pun on mixing genres. He loved puns and wordplay and his conversation was peppered with them.”
Continue reading at Jazz Times.
New York trombonist Doug Beavers comes to Seattle to co-lead a band with trumpeter Thomas Marriott for a special night of music. Featuring an all-star band including Marc Seales on piano, Evan Flory-Barnes on Bass and Dvonne Lewis on drums, Beavers and Marriott will be featuring compositions written especially for the occasion. Not to be missed!
Guitarist Brad Shepik mines a lode of styles on his compositions. Shadow and light play through his music, and he is not averse to opening the door to let a swath of sunshine in. The mood is never static, the wheel of invention is constantly churning out ideas that surprise and delight.
There is no question that women musicians have, and continue to play, a major role in jazz—from composers and band leaders such as Maria Schneider to renowned pianist Marian McPartland,—but few make their mark as saxophonists. Roxy Coss is a New York-based saxophonist who, with her self-titled debut, joins the likes of Anat Cohen, Mary Fettig, Tia Fuller, and Karolina Strassmayer, as a saxophone voice with which to be reckoned. On her debut, Coss—on tenor and soprano saxophones, as well as flute—offers up eight superb originals, performed by her sextet.
