Re: George Shearing
George Shearing was one of the first bookings after I started working at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. He could have sold out two or three nights but his agent insisted on a minimum of FIVE in "a jazz club".
On Tuesday's opening night there were about ten people in the audience, four of whom were former members of his band; Cal Tjader, Armando Perazza, Al McKibbon and John Rae.
His first words to after he came out were, "I'd like to thank BOTH of you for coming". Then he said "What say we just get in a couple of cabs and go over to Enrico's" (a then popular sidewalk café in North Beach). He then proceeded to play a couple of great sets. He drew good crowds on Friday and Saturday and Sunday but even in the 1970s his audience wasn't going out on week nights.
For those of you obsessed with "killer drum sound" it should be noted that, in Shearing's world, drums were only re-amplified with microphones outdoors or in REALLY big indoor venues. Indeed, the drummer had to control his dynamics sometimes to the point of frustration.
With shows starting at 8 PM on the weeknights and 9 PM on the weekend his drummer arranged to come in about an hour before the doors opened each night so that he could beat the sh*t out of his drums for about half an hour and as he said "get it out of his system" so that he could play softer for two to three hours on the gig.
