Live Jazz from Club 15 dates from 1966 in the Blue Room of the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas and presented by the CBS Radio Network. The
George Shearing Quintet here includes
Hagood Hardy on vibes,
Joe Pass,
Bobby Whitlock, and John Garron on drums. Sound quality is not the finest, but it is more than passable on this semi-legal recording. The program is mainly standards with a few originals tossed in for good measure.
Shearing's group is in true, elegant, lightly swinging form here, especially on
Irving Berlin's "Be Careful It's My Heart,"
Lennon and
McCartney's "Yesterday," and the truly and always beautiful original "Lullaby of Birdland."
Shearing completists -- and there are many -- will be especially interested in the disc because of the time period and the unusual lineup.
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Thom Jurek, Rovi