George Shearing
piano
British-born pianist (1919–2011), known for his quintet and block-chord sound; Barry names him with Al Haig and Bud Powell among the pianists his generation heard as teenagers.
- mentions
- 2
- recordings
- 2
- Barry speaking
- 1
What Barry says
Barry explains that his generation became teenagers in the 1940s and grew up hearing Al Haig, Bud Powell and George Shearing, not the stride pianists that an older player like Jaki Byard absorbed in the 1930s. So, he says, they are bebop players, not stride players.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶120Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶122Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶8
In his own words
when we became teenagers, we heard Al Haig, Bud Powell, George Shearing, all these cats accompanying… These people were slightly different from the stride piano players, so we aren’t striders.
I think it was written by George [Shearing]... that’s what it said on the record... but it’s a pretty song and I’d like to play it first for the ladies
Every mention
2 moments in the recordings, 1 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Barry Harris Live In Rennes
- 8:16
Announcing She in Rennes, Barry says he thinks Shearing wrote it, as the record said.
Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland
- 38:34
Speaker unclear
After the East of the Sun duet, a speaker (probably Marian McPartland) recalls Shearing’s big hit with the tune.
In the interviews and notes
Barry sets the pianists he heard as a teenager in the 1940s, Al Haig, Bud Powell and Shearing, against the stride players an older generation learned from, and says that is why his generation are not stride pianists.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶122Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶8
De Lima codes Barry’s remark about hearing Haig, Powell and Shearing as a statement about his role models, and lists Shearing with Art Tatum, Sonny Stitt and Al Haig among musicians who influenced Barry.
Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶672Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶674Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶688
A PianoGroove teacher says the voicings now called Barry Harris voicings were made famous earlier by Shearing, and points to Shearing soloing in chords.
A member hears the so-called Barry Harris voicings in the bridge of Bud Powell’s Bouncing with Bud, and says he has also heard them called George Shearing voicings.
Christian Miller argues that drop-2 block-chord harmonisations are decades older than Barry’s scales of chords, and believes Shearing pioneered them on piano and influenced Barry; Barry’s own deeper interest, he adds, was movement.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Excellent study of Barry Harris’ chord system ¶84jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Excellent study of Barry Harris’ chord system ¶85
Building chords from a scale in Barry’s manner, a member notes that four-way close harmony, impossible on guitar, is common in big-band writing and in Shearing’s piano style, while drop-2 block chords recall Wes Montgomery.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Tom Jobim - Wave Analysis using Barry Harris Method ¶218
Replying to a post on Barry’s sixth-diminished scale, a member notes that the same exercise opens Randy Vincent’s Drop 2 book, which sets the drop-2 harmonised bebop scale beside voicings in Shearing’s block-chord style.
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.