The Way We Were - George Shearing

 

Superstar

The Way We Were

George Shearing

The Quintet and Amigos

Produced by MPS Records at the MPS Studios in Villingen

Recording and Mixing: Hand Georg Brunner-Schwer

Assistant Director: Willi Furt

Executive Supervision & Cover: Baldhard Folk

MSP Stereo MC 25351

1974

From the back cover: There are those who argue (and I admit freely to having been among them from time to time) that a quarter of a century is a long, long time to keep a jazz group together and an even longer time to keep your sound intact, when all around you are changing theirs and blaming it on rock. But there is another and valid side to this argument, namely that any instrument combination that can sustain itself, through all the vicissitudes of pop music and jazz over that period, must have something inherently meaningful for a large segment of the world's population. Not that George Shearing has been impervious to change. As far back as 1954 he began using a Latin percussionist, Armando Peraza, who remained with him for a decade. On various other occasions he has conducted such experiments as working with an organist, dispensing with the guitar and vibes, and of course, in a number of albums, surrounding himself was a larger orchestra. Through all these changes, the Shearing sound has remained as precise and tasteful as ever, smooth and mellow on the ballads for those who want it that way, live and pulsing on the up tempos and particularly on those involving some sort of Latin Beat.

For the present album, George assembled a group that was quite unusual in its constitution. Two of his regular sidemen were used: Rusty Jones on Drums and bassist Andy Simpkins, the latter a veteran of the Shearing entourage since the late 1960s (Andy was part of the Shearing trio on George's first MPS album, Light, Airy And Swinging.) TO them he added two outstanding Laint-American musicians, both familiar figures on the West Coast scene, Chino Valdes and Carmelo Garcia. Rounding out the personnel with the complementary guitar and vibes were two German musicians, Sigi Schwab and Heribert Thusek respectively. What struck me immediately on listening to the tapes was, first, that the uniquely distinctive Shearing blend has been maintained, yet along with this identity there is diversification, through the use of pop tunes in a Latin treatment that reaches out a various points into the borderline of jazz, rock, folk and classical music.  On some tracks, notably Marvin Hamlisch's The Way We Were with its interesting 12/8 treatment, and Killing Me Softly, the essence is pure Shearing all the way. On several, there are devices long associated with George and used with particular ingenuity here. For example, the fugue-like interlude in Elanor Rigby sets this version apart from any other interpretations I have heard of the Lennon-McCartney standard. (This, incidentally, is the senior citizen among the tunes performed, dating back to 1966. It's closely followed by Do You Know The Way To San Jose and Aquarius, both 1967 products.)

The Shearing facility for keeping a good groove going and sustaining it all the way to the end is noticeable especially in the outgoing vamp of San Jose, the percussion fade on The World Is A Ghetto and the remarkable finale on Superstar which suddenly (and quite spontaneously during the recording session) switched from bolero to baroque.

The interpretation of Brain's Song is short, sweet and as beautiful as this stunning Michel Legrand melody would lead you to expect. Stevie Wonder's You Are The Sunshine Of My Life is decorated, at either end, by a series of fascinating piano-guitar breaks based on augmented intervals. Finally, Alone Again (Naturally) sounds as if it had been designed as an Afro-Cuban or Latin-American work.

In fact, George Shearing and his associates have succeeded in bringing these relatively new tunes into his own fold and making them all sound as if they had belonged there originally. It becomes irrelevant that most of the tunes at the time of their first popularity were vocals. In couple of instances, it seems to me, the melodies were stronger than the lyrics, but whether this was the case or not, George has managed, as has been his wont for Lo these many years, to distill something very personal and personable out of each work, and bring to all these pop hits a quality that sets them in a different category from the objectives of those who first put them on the charts.

A word should be added in praise of the recording. The Shearing sound is a very special and potentially elusive mix. It was captured with complete fidelity by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer at his MPS Studios in Villingen.

George deserves nothing but the best in committing of his work to tape and disc. Clearly on this occasion it has been accorded him, enabling us to hear this admirable assemblage of musicians the way they were, the way they are. – Leonard Feather (Author of The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the 60s, Horizon Press)

The Way We Were

Do You Know The Way To San Jose

Killing Me Softly

The World Is A Ghetto

Superstar

Eleanor Rigby

Brain's Song

Aquarius

You Are The Sunshine Of My Life

Along Again (Naturally)