Artist: George Shearing

Sir George Albert Shearing, OBE  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 titles, including the jazz standards "Lullaby of Birdland" and "Conception", and had multiple albums on the  Billboard  charts  during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s.

In 1940, Shearing joined Harry Parry's popular band. Around 1942 he 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 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 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 immensely popular single "September in the Rain" (MGM), which sold over 900,000 copies; "my other hit" to accompany "Lullaby of Birdland". Shearing said of this hit that it was "as accidental as it could be." 

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 a piano technique known as "The Shearing Sound", 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 the jazz organist Milt Buckner is generally credited with inventing it.)