Composer of one of the best-known jazz standards, ‘Lullaby of Birdland’, George Shearing developed with his quintet in the late forties a sound in which piano, vibes and guitar blended together to produce an intimate sound which gave the group two decades of success. Born blind, he studied piano as a child and after touring Britain with an all-blind band under the leadership of Claude Hampton, joined Ambrose in the thirties and later the Ted Heath orchestra. He first recorded in 1938  for Decca, but though a regular winner of the Melody Maker poll as Best British Pianist, he only found international success when

jazz critic Leonard Feather invited him to America. Feather was also instrumental in putting together the George Shearing Quintet, which originally included Margie Hyams, Chuck Wayne, Denzil Best and John Levy, later Shearing’s manager. One of their first recordings, an instrumental version of Harry Warren’s film song, ‘September in the Rain’ was an immediate success and established the popularity of the quintet.
   In 1954 Shearing added a conga-player and in 1956 joined Capitol, for whom he recorded prolifically on his own, gaining a minor British hit with his version of the classical adaptation ‘Baubles Bangles and Beads’ and with others, including Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, which included the hit ‘Let There Be Love’, and Mel Torme. In the sixties he briefly formed a big band, before in 1967 dissolving the quintet; subsequently he has toured and recorded with a trio and duo.