George Shearing Plays "The Continental"

In 1947, George Shearing emigrated to the United States where he found a gig at the Hickory House among other places in New York City. His own mixture of classical, jazz, swing and bop which made him an immediate hit with patrons of various night clubs around the city. He joined up with the Oscar Pettiford trio before organizing his own quartet, taking as his mold the Benny Goodman Quartet with Buddy DeFranco playing clarinet which led to contractual problems as Shearing was signed to MGM and Buddy was signed to Capitol Records. This state of unfortunate circumstances was righted for Shearing when he founded his first quartet consisting of vibist Margie Hyams, Chuck Wayne on guitar (later replaced by Toots Thielemans who known then as John Tillman), and John Levy on bass and Denzil Best on drums. This group made many inspiring records for the Discovery, Savoy and MGM label including the enormously popular version of "Summertime" MGM which sold over 900,000 copies and which Shearing refers to as "my other hit" to counterbalance "Lullaby of Birdland." In 1956, Shearing became a citizen of the United States and continued to record for Capitol until the late 1960's. His genius for writing music and arranging lush mood music albums made him one of the best known and loved musicians of his time. By 1969, he left Capitol Records and recorded music for his Sheba label which lasted for only a few years.

A SPECIAL APPEAL FOR AFFICIONADOS: Margie Hyams is the vibes soloist on this recording of "The Continental." She continued to play in public until she decided to get married in 1950 at the age of 27. Anybody have any clues to what she has been doing all this time? I last heard a few years back that she had been on the faculty of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.