“What is a color?”
British jazz pianist George Shearing was the ninth child born to a poor family in England. His
father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains in the evening. Blind from birth, he
attended school for the blind where he studied Braille music. Shearing turned down university
scholarships to earn a living playing piano in a pub, joining an all blind band in the ‘30s as
accordionist. (In a press conference in the ‘80s Shearing defined a gentleman as “one who
knows how to play the accordion but doesn’t.”)
Renowned for his inventive, melodic and unabashedly romantic solos, George Shearing had one
of the most popular jazz combos on the planet — so much so that, in the usual jazz tradition of
distrusting popular success, he tended to be underappreciated. A pioneer of exciting, small-
combo Afro-Cuban jazz in the 1950s.
Shearing was also known for his opposition to racism. As a matter of fact, Shearing led one of
the first integrated bands in jazz. Percussionist Armando Peraza played with Shearing from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Peraza described touring the United States with Shearing, being stopped by police, club owners refusing to let the band in, and other instances of racism. “I was with the Shearing group from 1954-1966 and recorded approx. 20 albums with him”, he recalled. “During most of my time with George, touring the U.S. was always littered with racial land mines, not always in the South. When we would travel by car, it didn’t matter what part of the country, we would constantly get stopped and ticketed by the cops because of the mix of colors inside the car. It was against the law in a lot of States for race mixing and the Shearing band was one of the first integrated groups in the business. Many times we’d show up at a gig and the club
owner, promoter or manager would freak out because they didn’t know we were a mixed race band and would refuse to let us enter the club. That’s when George would mess with these people. He would ask them what was the problem. The offender would say he can’t have Black people in his club and George would then ask “What is a color?” Since George was blind from birth, technically it was true that he didn’t know what the hell a color was, but George wanted to make the person explain their own racism to a person who couldn’t see. The person would try and always fail to logically explain it and would eventually give in and let us play, especially when George would say “If my musicians can’t enter, then neither will I.”
Music: From the 1960 album “Latin Affair” – the George Shearing Quintet with “Estampa Cubana”.
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