POP AND JAZZ REVIEWS : Shearing, Williams at the Wadsworth

An evening with George Shearing and Joe Williams is always a pleasure, and Friday’s concert at the Wadsworth Theater was no exception.

Shearing, playing with bassist Neil Swainson, opened the bill with a program that has been honed over the years to a sharp edge: a couple of be-bop tunes--”Bird Feathers” and “Donna Lee”--a few ballads, a middle groove tune or two, and a healthy sprinkling of Shearing’s droll, shaggy dog humor.

This time around, however, there was a noticeable discrepancy between Shearing’s up-tempo bop lines, which occasionally sounded stumbling and imprecise, and his far better controlled, smooth- flowing ballad playing. He was at his best with a subtle, interior harmonic probing that transformed his solos on “The Heather on the Hill” and “Why Did I Choose You?” into impeccable examples of mature jazz improvising.

Williams has evolved into a strikingly imaginative artist in his 70s. Always a superb blues singer, he recalled his early triumphs with a hard-driving set of classics from his Basie years. More surprising was the way his ballad work, like Shearing’s, has become filled with inner riches. With songs such as “I Didn’t Know About You” and, especially, “Here’s to Love,” Williams made a convincing case for consideration as one of the finest male jazz singers in the world--and a more impressive interpreter of the American popular song than the now-rediscovered and much-touted Tony Bennett.