Search - Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Johnny Mercer :: Get Happy

Best of Shearing AND Kings Singers

Gontroppo | Bathurst, NSW Australia | 05/26/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a fantastic recording. There are interesting arrangements from some of the best popular music arrangers, including Richard Rodney Bennett, Paul Hart and Daryl Runswick, not to mention Shearing's great new 5/4 version of his best-loved song Lullaby of Birdland, which begins with a jazz version of Brahms' Lullaby.The Kings Singers are in fine form, with their flawless intonation and meticulous attention to creating a great sound.Each track features just the sextet, Shearing and a double bass (played by Neil Swainson), except for One For My Baby, which adds John Harle on saxophone. That track is one of the three terrific Daryl Runswick arrangements included on the album.Other stand-outs are: The-Half-of-It-Dearie Blues, which sounds very similar to their much earlier version of it, i.e. sensitive and sensuous.
Gershwin's The Real American Folk Song (is a rag)
Daryl Runswick's interpretations of I Got Rhythm and Anyplace I Hang My Hat
Over the RainbowIt is worth getting Amazon to hunt for this album for you: it is one of the very best of many fine albums the performers have made. Getting them together for this disc was a first-class idea."