34-561: White Satin is a 1960 studio album by the George Shearing quintet and orchestra, arranged by Billy May . Side 2: The cover of this LP appears in The Beatles ' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night at the very beginning of a hotel room scene, in black and white, as was the rest of that movie. A bit of jazzy piano is heard as the album cover is displayed, but it's not from this record, but rather from Paul McCartney , who's noodling around on
68-403: A cover version of the same song in 1979, with vocalese lyrics describing the club at its peak. U2 references the club in the song " Angel of Harlem " with the lyrics "Birdland on 53, the streets sounds like a symphony..." The club was however, on Broadway near 52nd street, not 53rd. In the play Send Me No Flowers , George Kimball relates a story concerning a female friend who ran off with
102-504: A "bongo player from Birdland" after her husband died. The bongo player subsequently "took her for every cent". In the play Middle of the Night , the husband remembers the good old days at Birdland with his wife, in an attempt to save their marriage. Sesame Street featured a night club called Birdland, run by Hoots the Owl , which was occupied by multiple birds. William Claxton took a picture of
136-469: A big band—the Count Basie Orchestra was a regular booking. The venue had a long bar, tables, booths, and a fenced-in bullpen, several rows of folding chairs, some directly alongside a corner of the bandstand, accessible with just the $ 1.50 admission fee to the venue; a drink could be carried there by an adult, but teenagers were admitted there, too. Irving Levy and Morris Levy were the main owners but
170-420: A few years. Along with dozens of musical stars of his day, Shearing appeared on ABC 's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom in 1959 . In 1953, he had appeared on the same network's reality show, The Comeback Story , in which he discussed how to cope with blindness. In 1970, he began to "phase out his by-now-predictable quintet" and disbanded the group in 1978. One of his more notable albums during this period
204-501: A house with his second wife, singer Ellie Geffert. This gave him the opportunity to tour the UK, giving concerts, often with Tormé, backed by the BBC Big Band. He was appointed OBE in 1996. In 2007, he was knighted. "So", he noted later, "the poor, blind kid from Battersea became Sir George Shearing. Now that's a fairy tale come true." He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1992 when he
238-535: A more traditional style of jazz, rather than the "way-out" artists. In 1965, Goodstein closed Birdland. The premises was taken over by Lloyd Price , an R&B and rock-and-roll singer who re-dedicated the venue and named it the Turntable. A new Birdland Club, initially owned by John R. Valenti, opened in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1985, at 2745 Broadway at 105th Street, and presented emerging artists to
272-524: A neighborhood audience . In 1996, Valenti moved the club to West 44th Street, west of Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan where it features a full weekly schedule of performers. These have included Michael Brecker , Pat Metheny , Lee Konitz , Diana Krall , Dave Holland , Regina Carter , and Tito Puente . It is the club where Toshiko Akiyoshi 's jazz orchestra played its final concert on December 29, 2003. As mentioned above, she had also played at
306-440: A piano in the hotel room. George Shearing Sir George Albert Shearing OBE (13 August 1919 – 14 February 2011) was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records , MGM Records and Capitol Records . Shearing was the composer of over 300 songs, including the jazz standards " Lullaby of Birdland " and " Conception ", and had multiple albums on
340-404: A piano technique known as "The Shearing Sound", or "Shearing voicing", a type of double melody block chord , with an additional fifth part that doubles the melody an octave lower. With the piano playing these five voices, Shearing would double the top voice with the vibraphone and the bottom voice with the guitar to create his signature sound. This piano technique is also known as "locked hands" and
374-536: A tribute concert to the recordings of Shearing. Ann Odell transcribed the recordings and taught Paravicini the parts, as well as being the MD for the concerts. Lady Shearing also endorsed the show, sending a letter to be read out before the Watermill Jazz Club performance. Shearing was married to Trixie Bayes, with whom he had his only child Wendy, from 1941 to 1973. Two years after his divorce he married his second wife,
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#1732852161063408-561: The Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. Born in Battersea , London , Shearing was the youngest of nine children. He was born blind to working-class parents: his father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains in the evening. He started to learn piano at the age of three and began formal training at Linden Lodge School for the Blind , where he spent four years. Though he
442-580: The United States, where his harmonically complex style mixing swing, bop and modern classical influences gained popularity. One of his first performances was at the Hickory House. He performed with the Oscar Pettiford Trio and led a jazz quartet with Buddy DeFranco , which led to contractual problems, since Shearing was under contract to MGM and DeFranco to Capitol Records . In 1949, he formed
476-410: The club was operated by Oscar Goodstein, who took tickets and tended the bar. In the late 50s, he moved his post to the back hallway where he could compare the trays from the kitchen with the order tickets. Some lucky few could spend the wee hours chatting with him and reading letters musicians like Charlie Mingus sent to him. Goldstein called Mingus a prolific writer. The name was carried through into
510-641: The feature of caged finches inside the club. The venue attracted other jazz musicians who also made recordings there. This includes Art Blakey 's February 1954 gigs resulting in the A Night at Birdland albums, most of John Coltrane 's Live at Birdland , the Toshiko – Mariano Quartet's Live at Birdland , and Count Basie 's Basie at Birdland . Dizzy Gillespie , Thelonious Monk , Miles Davis , Louie Bellson , Bud Powell , Johnny Smith , Stan Getz , Lester Young , and many others made appearances. George Shearing 's standard " Lullaby of Birdland " (1952)
544-689: The few remaining jazz clubs in the area. Johnnie Garry , the production coordinator and historian for the Jazzmobile project, managed the club in the early 1960s. In June 1964, Birdland filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York Federal Court. Goodstein was president of the club at the time. Creditors included Goodstein himself ($ 22,490), NLP Restaurant ($ 12,275), and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan ($ 3,500), who had been booked through International Talent Associates . In an effort to stem losses in 1964, Birdland began to feature jazz artists that played
578-564: The first George Shearing Quintet, a band with Margie Hyams ( vibraphone ), Chuck Wayne (guitar), later replaced by Toots Thielemans (listed as John Tillman), John Levy (bass), and Denzil Best (drums). This line-up recorded for Discovery, Savoy, and MGM, including the popular single " September in the Rain " (MGM), which sold over 900,000 copies in the United States alone with global sales in excess of one million; "my other hit" to accompany " Lullaby of Birdland ". Shearing said of this hit that it
612-478: The jazz critic Leonard Feather . On August 25, 1959, Miles Davis was beaten by a New York City policeman on the sidewalk in front of Birdland, during a performing engagement at the club. During the 1950s, Birdland also became a fashionable place for celebrities to be seen, with Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner , Gary Cooper , Marlon Brando , Marilyn Monroe , Sugar Ray Robinson , Marlene Dietrich , Joe Louis , Judy Garland and others as regulars. Irving Levy
646-448: The jazz organist Milt Buckner is generally credited with inventing it. In Shearing's later career he played with a more conventional piano technique while maintaining his recognisable improvisational style. In 1956, Shearing became a naturalised citizen of the United States. He continued to play with his quintet, with augmented players through the years, and recorded with Capitol until 1969. He created his own label, Sheba, that lasted
680-508: The label with Mel Tormé . This collaboration garnered Shearing and Tormé two Grammys , one in 1983 and another in 1984. Shearing remained fit and active well into his later years and continued to perform, even after being honoured with an Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. He never forgot his native country and, in his last years, would split his year between living in New York and Chipping Campden , Gloucestershire, where he bought
714-466: The line: "Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, we have something special down here at Birdland this evening"; Pee Wee Marquette's opening announcement from Art Blakey's first Birdland album in 1954. Their second album " Broadway & 52nd " (1997) was named in reference to the location of Birdland. Weather Report released their most commercially successful hit entitled " Birdland " on the album Heavy Weather in 1977. The Manhattan Transfer recorded
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#1732852161063748-599: The original Birdland. The Birdland Big Band was created in 2006. Birdland was frequented by many of the writers of the Beat generation . Reference to Birdland is made in Jack Kerouac 's novel On the Road : "I saw him wish a well-to-do man Merry Christmas so volubly a five-spot in change for twenty was never missed. We went out and spent it in Birdland, the bop joint. Lester Young was on
782-691: The singer Ellie Geffert. He was a member of the Bohemian Club and often performed at the annual Bohemian Grove Encampments. He composed music for two of the Grove Plays . With Nat King Cole ' With Nancy Wilson With others Birdland (New York jazz club) Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway , just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan ,
816-471: The stand, eternity on his huge eyelids." Birdland is also referenced in Emmett Grogan 's novel Ringolevio. "From the get-go, Birdland became one of his favourite haunts." George Shearing 's jazz standard " Lullaby of Birdland " (with lyrics later added by George David Weiss ) refers to the club. Sarah Vaughan 's 1954 version was a hit. In 1993, Us3 released the single " Cantaloop ", which opens with
850-661: The venue in 1949 from Joseph "Joe the Wop" Catalano. They adopted the name "Birdland" to capitalize on the profile of Charlie "Yardbird" Parker . The club was originally scheduled to open on September 8, 1949, but this was moved back to December 15 following difficulties in getting a liquor license. The opening night was "A Journey Through Jazz", consisting of various styles of the music up to that point, played by Maxie Kaminsky , Hot Lips Page , Lester Young , Charlie Parker , Harry Belafonte , Stan Getz , and Lennie Tristano , in that order. Parker played very few jobs at Birdland. This
884-597: Was The Reunion (1976), made in collaboration with bassist Andy Simpkins and drummer Rusty Jones , and featuring Stéphane Grappelli , the violinist with whom he had debuted as a sideman decades before. Later, Shearing played in a trio, as a soloist, and increasingly in a duo. Among his collaborations were sets with the Montgomery Brothers , Marian McPartland , Brian Q. Torff , Jim Hall , Hank Jones , Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Kenny Davern . In 1979, Shearing signed with Concord Records , and recorded for
918-531: Was "as accidental as it could be." At this time, the novelist Jack Kerouac heard him play in Birdland , and later described the performance in his 1957 novel On the Road as "his great 1949 days before he became cool and commercial." Shearing's interest in classical music resulted in some performances with concert orchestras in the 1950s and 1960s, and his solos frequently drew upon the music of Satie , Delius , and Debussy for inspiration. He became known for
952-530: Was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979. A revival began in 1986 with the opening of the second nightclub by the same name that is now located in Manhattan's Theater District , not far from the original nightclub's location. The current location is in the same building as the previous headquarters of The New York Observer . Irving Levy (1923–1959), Morris Levy , and Oscar Goodstein – along with six other partners – purchased
986-428: Was named in the club's honor. The club's original master of ceremonies, the diminutive, four feet tall Pee Wee Marquette , was known for mispronouncing the names of musicians, if they refused to tip him. The disc jockey Symphony Sid broadcast live on WJZ early in the club's existence. Later broadcasts organized in the 1950s with the musicians’ union were relayed across network radio with announcers and guests like
1020-459: Was not because his drug addiction caused problems for the management, but (according to Gene Ramey ) Goodstein said, "He was continually wanting money." Ramey had persuaded Goodstein to let Parker perform at Birdland with his band on a pair of Monday nights in 1954. The neon sign at the front of the club read, "Birdland, Jazz Corner of the World". The venue seated 500 people and had bandstand space for
1054-632: Was offered several scholarships, Shearing opted to perform at a local pub , the Mason's Arms in Lambeth , for "25 bob a week" playing piano and accordion . He joined an all-blind band, Claude Bampton's Blind Orchestra, during that time, and was influenced by the records of Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller . Shearing made his first BBC radio broadcast during this time, after being befriended by Leonard Feather , with whom he started recording in 1937. In 1940, Shearing joined Harry Parry 's popular band. Around 1942 he
White Satin - Misplaced Pages Continue
1088-616: Was recruited by Stéphane Grappelli (domiciled in London during World War II ) to join his band, which appeared at Hatchets Restaurant in Piccadilly in the early years of the war, and subsequently toured as "the Grappelly Swingtette" from 1943 onward. Shearing won six consecutive Top Pianist Melody Maker polls from this time onward. Around that time he was also a member of George Evans 's Saxes 'n' Sevens band. Shearing immigrated to
1122-434: Was stabbed to death at the club on Sunday, January 26, 1959 (after midnight January 25) while the group of trombonist Urbie Green was performing. The body was discovered in the rear of the club, near the service area. The stabbing had apparently occurred unnoticed by the patrons. Irving's younger brother, Morris, took over Irving's role in the club, and from 1959 through the early 1960s, the club enjoyed great success as one of
1156-468: Was surprised by Michael Aspel while performing at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club . In 2004, he released his memoirs, Lullaby of Birdland , which was accompanied by a double-album "musical autobiography", Lullabies of Birdland . Shortly afterwards, however, he had a fall at his home and retired from regular performing. On 14 February 2011, Shearing died from heart failure at 91. In October 2011, Derek Paravicini and jazz vocalist Frank Holder performed
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