JAZZ : George Shearing: Onward and Upward

George Shearing, the British-born pianist who recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of his American residency, has reached almost every prestigious peak to which an artist can aspire, but he is not ready to relax on his laurels.

It is not enough that he has earned countless awards for his contributions to jazz, plus several honorary degrees and respect from his peers as pop and symphony performer and composer (“Lullaby of Birdland”). Reluctant to slow down, the 68-year-old Shearing is enthusiastically active in more musical areas than ever.

A recent visit to Hollywood to play at the Vine St. Bar & Grill found him in singularly good spirits, playing with unbridled verve, happy with his new bassist, the Canadian virtuoso Neil Swainson, and looking forward to a year of new challenges. Some of the items on the Shearing agenda:

Shearing and Shakespeare--”About three years ago I set three Shakespeare sonnets and two Shakespeare songs for a choral concert in St. Paul, Minn.--just me and the bass player and 38 voices. Now I want to amplify that idea sixfold, adding enough music to make an entire album, some of it jazz oriented, some in the (Shakespearean) tradition.”

Shearing and the symphony--”I still do as many of these dates as I can fit into the schedule. I have a date set with the Cincinnati Symphony, for which Ray Brown will play bass. Mel Torme and I are doing a Gershwin concert at the Hollywood Bowl Aug. 26 and 27 with the Philharmonic; also I have two big concert tours with Mel booked for 1989.” (The Shearing-Torme partnership yielded two Grammy-winning albums on Concord Jazz Records in 1982 and ’83.)

Shearing and singing: “I sent Carl Jefferson of Concord Jazz a review of my singing at the Carlyle in New York, but Jeff doesn’t want me to sing on records, even though I’ve done a couple of vocals that I thought came out pretty well. I know I can interpret a lyric, and I’ve got my intonation under good control, with Ellie’s help.” (Shearing’s wife, Ellie, is a professional group singer.)

Shearing and sidemen: “We’re going to the Maksoud Plaza in Sao Paulo (Brazil) for two weeks in June. Don Thompson will rejoin me on bass and is writing some band charts. It’s kind of exciting, because there will be a 12-piece band; so Don can put in some Gil Evans-type sounds and some Brazilian rhythm. Also, it’s only one show a night, five days a week, so I’ll find it relaxing.”

Shearing recently reinstituted a major reunion when Joe Pass, the virtuoso guitarist, played with him at Blues Alley in Washington. After touring with the Shearing Quintet in 1965-66, Pass went on to become a world-class solo recitalist. “We’re planning to do some more things together--in fact, I hope Joe may record with me.”

Shearing and tradition: “Last year I played a concert at Town Hall, part of it in a duo piano set with Hank Jones and part of it leading a Dixieland band, which was a real departure. I’ve recorded an album with Hank, and I’m still hellbent on doing a Dixieland album.”

Shearing and society: Gerald Ford was the first President to invite the Shearings to the White House; they have returned several times, usually for state dinners honoring foreign dignitaries.

Ellie Shearing elaborates: “Nancy Reagan invited pianist Vladimir Feltsman to perform at the White House not long after he left Russia. George and I were just there as guests. By the way, Feltsman’s encore was a rag. While we were walking out, down the White House steps, I said to George, ‘Well, we had a good time and neither of us dropped any bricks; I think now we’re ready to take on the queen.’ This was on a Sunday. The following Thursday the phone rang and we learned that George and Mel Torme were invited to the Royal Command Performance in London!”

George added: “The show consisted of 2 1/2 hours of rock, five minutes of introductions and acknowledgements, and exactly five minutes for me and Mel. We did ‘It Might as Well Be Spring.’ Well, you know, you do it for the honor.

“When we were preparing to be received afterward (by Queen Elizabeth II), I was told that the directive is: Do not extend your hand until the queen extends hers. I said, well, either somebody’s going to have to cue me or she’ll have to wear a bell. . . . But somebody did cue me,” the blind musician said.

Shearing’s encounter with the queen took place more than 30 years after he acquired American citizenship. Before arriving in the United States he had already reached the heights of his profession in England, but his first year in New York found him starting from scratch; it was not until the formation of his quintet in 1949 that he burst into the national consciousness.

The quintet stayed together almost 30 years. Ironically, what most observers see as his most dazzling level of individual creativity came in the last decade, as he played accompanied simply by a bass player.

He remains close to old friends in England, going back about once a year. He is loyal, too, to causes involving the handicapped.

“I wrote a letter to the New York Times, which it published, to emphasize the necessity for more space in the library for the blind and physically handicapped. Well, we wound up with a million dollars plus in state funds.

“There’s an organization in Boston called the National Braille Press. I said to them, ‘You people have been putting out some great books about computers for the blind. How about getting us an index of area codes in Braille so we don’t have to worry other people about that?’

“They suggested I write to AT&T;, which I did, and the people at AT&T; said, ‘Thank you for bringing this to our attention.’ They decided to underwrite the whole thing--complete books of area codes and related consumer information will be out shortly.

“As I told them, after they’d spent so long reaching out and touching somebody, how about reaching out and touching everybody ?”