1956-03-10 — Page 6

Rage G

ALL IN A DOCTOR'S DAY-

Feeling Low? It May Be Your Mind

By CEDRIC CARNE

letter came back Sharples to come in from the waiting room. looked down

Trum

the hospital: Mias Sharples has been fully investigated, but we can find no evidence of organic disease. However, aho does seem to be rather anzious.

I have received that sort of helter, like NO

muny D physleluns, countless

Stres, anxiety, worry.

timest

In

these practice кепета three cautional states are more Important than at the floating germ of 10 ciles.

for

Vogue

They lead not only 10 Lymptoms verasional back aches, 11- cidental pnina cle

--- but to actual dieNSON,

headaches,

In over 80 percent of host who suffer

duodenal from ulcer, their early symptoms can be traced back to some event affecting the patient's work, l

the health finances, or family. It is known that grie! often precedes that illness called ulcerative colitis.

of ils

my

the hospital letter on desk and suki:have good news, Miss Sharples. As I ex- pected, all the laboratory tests are negative. You do not have

beurt disease."

for the

Then these palpitations 1 get are not due to the heart?"

You have just made "No. your heart the focal point Your anxiety. It's like horse and the jockey," I con- finued. "If the horse la whip- red it will run.

So also with you and your heart. the heart that is at Your anxieties that heart run fast."

It is not fault.

It's

make the

For just as the colour of the kin changes according

to

[

otion, just as duodenal ulcer

ulcerative colitis has history of stress, so the majority who complaini

"heart of nymplom do some molional tension.

п

10

of

because

BROKEN HEART

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1956.

The Amazing George Shearing

BLIND PIANIST TURNS DOWN THE GIFT OF SIGHT

Ο

NE of the world's

most

famous blind

men hua just chosen

to remnin blind

By RUSSELL HOWE

the

an in

an

although

leading suburbam youth. For him Its Later still he had his own show American eye specialist has grim reality was something that on the BBC before joining Am- of at second- brose and his band of the time all but guaranteed he could he only heard

hand. While his brothers and Ambrose discovered Ann Shel- give him his sight back. sisten

his moved on from a brief ton, with the result that

band unsatisfactory schooling to dead-

became Britain's most Battersea-born George end jobs, early marriages and popular band, George did

who Shearing,

In seven the greybrick house around the 18-month tour with them

1041-2.

And by that time he years has reached the top of corner, George dreamed of do-

was married. the

downbent ing something different, American

The marriage started In world with his own style of Ar

Shillington Blind air raid shelter under the YWCA

In London's Great progressive jazz and whose School in Battersea, and later at building

Wands Hussell Linden Lodge School

Street during the Quintet has been called the worth Common, Shearing forgot Christmas of 1940. Today Mrs most popular instrumental aba: his father's entreaties to Trixie Shearing remembers it group in the USA, believes, to practical and learn wicker- all well enough I

dull oc- however, that his blindness work or some other

cupation reserved for the blind. helps his music-and helps He began

study hard him to

know people better music. than anyone with normal sight.

We began to talk about her different tears. recadied various other patients who had be- "heart conscious" of

protracted fol- disturbance or

become

caus

"notional we blush

Rene

The mund controls the body. "This is

for tw not surprising. verybly known our skin can

with anger, when we are embarrassed, and lowing the death of a friend or we blanch with fear.

who Indeed

thany patients from Skin discuses are suffer found to be abnormally prone Yu

xiety

conscientiouness,

EXPERIMENTS

uver-

To wital extent can emotional distinfgeon

physical CAUSE clistase?

experi Interesting ments are being conducted all

to demonstrate this the imme Recently mice were given slight electric shocks every time they were fed. The result was that they they became emotionally dis- turbed. and it was found that they were more liable to Hliness than those mice who were fed normally.

by

Sometimes metual physleal conditions can b cured Suggestion Warte have been cured by hypnosis; skin rushes made to vanish by the doctor helping the patient to adjust his emotional tendons.

I was in this frame of mind when I rang the bell for Miss

relative from heart disease.

Indecri. long ago. doctors Thought "broken heart” ап aefuml physical condition. And I in no acendent that collonu!al

expressions have meaningfully

linked emotional states with the heart, Thus the terms "heavy" "chteken hearted," heart growing weury

hemted,

the

te

"Come to think of 11, Miss Shurples admitted, "I suppose my symptoms did begin after my father died. I nursed him, do you see?"

I gaw.

PAM.

"It helps me

know them without the deceiving factor

outward of

ap-

nt

At Linden Lodge the musle

teacher was more broadminded than most, "You'd make a gool jazz pianist," he said one day. And the idea stuck.

pearances." Leaning back in ★ FIRST JOB

an armchair in his com- fortable New Jersey home. It helps Shearing added: me see people from the in- side."

RMED

his

even heard about since 1939 in England. Trixie had to tramp

round the agents,

spending £5 a fares alone."

and I was in taxi week

For the man who had started for 18 month with Ambrosa, and who had won the Melody- makera Popularity Poll years running, preasing.

it

wds

seven de-

"I'm going home," Shearing told his wife one day. "Decca have written; they want me to make some more records."

NOW AMONG THE JAZZ "GREATS"

nea: cat

Д

"You're not quitting Amerien

on or in frequenting the On TV he has appeared till you've given it a chance."

programme bowling alleys. He reads Trixie said at once. "You go and the Ed Sullivan

serious Biterature in make the records, then come

one of the top six-as well as little

his favourite writer and with Milton Berle, with Frankie Braille, back again. I'll stay here

Lane with Arthur Godfrey. And being Ogden Nash, but relles on work the agents."

always now the critics are al- the radio for the news. most unanimous in their praise.

★ LUCKY BREAK

"My mother and I were living in Bloomsbury, and we used to to to the shelter every night for the regular six-to-down rald. and George would come down play must nights, leaving again

Hatcher's TODAY Shearing says: "I owe #1 9.30 to play at Restaurant. Then he would

everything to Trixle. 1' br drive back through

By the bomb eternally grateful."

this he to play 28 to Shearing means that when

returned to New York he found that Trixie had in fact Axed a

hall ບ sleep.

They all talk of the "Shearing

Shearing visited England last

sound," with its strong influence year to see his

tather Philip

of classical music. Frank Sinu- Shearing, who is in a convales-

"I think cent tra comments briefly: George is just plain terrific."

home at Walworth, London. His mother died avo

years age,

AL the Shearings lovely country home,

recalls George

As for his reactions to Britisk the dificult times and the better jazz, ho says he was Impressed "live" jazz ones with equanimity. Speaking at the number of Job for him-473 Intermission still (like his wife and daughter) shows on the BBC. In America, planist at

Three Deuces

1 a.m.

"One night he came around with the man he was rooming

the with, and this man brought his

saw that she was a girl night club on fashionable 32nd wwltis a fale know Kit]. Aledge of

knew, had been waiting for Street, plano and C

chance to be introduced 10 cortilon

Shearing found

George, and I knew this would Grst

t Job

16 playing be the moment. It was, and we in the Mason's Arms in Lam- for 255. વા week winck whatever people put in the box. When, however, this led to his being offered late night stand mband playing for banquets and at dinner places, Shearing lost his pub job.

beth Shearing was born on August

the 19, 1919.

youngest of 4 Löndun coalman's nine children A few days luter- not as often *** birth"-he WAS reported

We had a long taik bind. and then she left more cheerful tham Nd ever remembered her. "

was medical neglect," Later I went into the living- Shearing's

mother toil humm everybody was when hu questioned ner in reasonably happy," I said to my

later years. She never renily wife, "half the heart doctors knew what happened. A medical In the world would be unem- guess. however, is that when ployed Now

how about the baby's eyes were washed, something to cat, dear?"

Altrie avid wi used by mistake "You haven't go1 2: heart," Instead of the usual weak neld she

"only

solution. grumbled, stomach"

....

(COPYRIGHT)

3

Being

out of

blind the

What this new

Shearing kepl usual world

self-winding chronometer

means to you...

A chronometer is a

*

'super watch"

It has been specially made. specially adjustel. and has passed stringent government tests for accuracy. Every Swiss chronometer is sold with an Official Rating Certificate showing just how it performed in these government tests. Particularly good chronometers are awarded a distinctive notation: "especially good results" printed on this certificate.

Before you buy a chronometer, look to see whether it is officially certified with "especially good results." Every Omega Constellation is Automatic, waterproof, shock-protected, antimagnetic.

You'll know' the Qmaga Constellation by the shares. try engraved on the back of ibe coit-your guarentet of an "especially good chronometre.""

of

This is how he tells the story; "For the late night jobs i had lo wear bow tie and talls, and as there wasn't time to change at the pub after Time, gentle- Men, and in any Cusc no one was there to help me,

1 used

k go to the pub ready-dressed on my band nights,

The landlord caid that falls were much too elegant for his establishment, which was Just of Lambeth Walk, I'd have to choose which tub I kept. I told him there wasn't any choice be could keep his job himself."

Blinded by ac- cident as a baby, the 34-year - old ninth son of a Lon- don coal-merchant

The job didn't last, however, and the Shearings were in debt ugain before the next one caine. along at a new Broadway Jazz centre called the Clique, where several bands were engaged keeping the bop fons Jitter- bugging.

ไม

some

Things might have stagnated again when a lucky break came for Shearing. A record com- pany docided

do 10 spontaneous recordings at the is now a successful Clique, and George was on the pianist to the tinkling tune of £35,000 a year

C

stand with Q clarinettist, drummer and A bass player when they called The clarinet- tist, Buddy de Franco. had to drop out because his own cord contract excluded from working panies.

IC-

him for other com-

pre-

with an English accem, with most Jazz broadcasts are record- the worm toncs of Cockney ed. George was worried. how- breaking through now and over, to see that musicans' union again, Shearing can joke about rulings in both countries the errors be makes through clude an exchange of orchestras. blindness, When photographer Ed Silverman made a sugges- "Art and science and medicine Неп about D pose, Shearing should be completely universal," chuckled: "Don't ask me-1 can he says. "The last two are, and make some good shots of the all the arts except jazz music, wall."

Symphony orchestras can travel. Something should be done about If I wanted to play in Eng- land I should have to go us a music hall act, I could take an Bccompanist but not my whole

★ SELF-TAUGHT

Braille

ft.

HEARING'S plano is covered Quintet."

with the bulky

I told Shearing everyone volumes of Bach's fugues, and wanted to know if it was really across one well is his new and true that he had turned down enormous hi- record player an operation to give him sight, with amplifier and double loud-

"It's true. Under no circum- speaker. The speed positions are marked by tiny copperhead stances would I ever submit to the rails

whatever for Shearing's

operation, sensitive an fingers to and, and Mrs Shear- chances of success. It isn't that person isn't ing and his daughter Wendy I think a sighted

as capable of judgment With a couple of quick tele- Ann say only he can operate its phone calls Shearing replaced complicated controls properly.

blind man, but I do feel the blind him "on, the hop" with vibra

more capable harp player and a guitarist. In

no judging the inside qualities this unexpected way. the musical instruction since he other human beings and that's Quintet was born.

was 10 and had to teach him- a precious gift I don't want to self harmony and counterpoint, lose. The eight sides recorded that he played the first movement of day proved popular, and soon Schubert's A Minor Symphony

Although he has bad

13 Д

that

of

of

were married in 1941 in typical wartime wedding. We drove round to Bloomsbury Re- Elster Office and found it wasn't Shearing then began to study there. A land mine had hit 11 Braille music more carefully, the day before. We opent and today he is glad, for al- whole day trying to and where though there is very little jazz the Registrar lived-she had in Braille and he has to rely been bombed out of two ndd- Shearing found himself on the with the Rochester Civle Sym-MANY OFFERS

and

on his four-sighted musicians resses-and then we found disc jockey's lists and with

phony Orchestra last year for reading the new numbers, was the Miss Haldane who contract to make several more now plays only classics in hia knowing Braille enables him to rmed in the house next to records. His "September in the leisure hours, spend most of his leisure hours oural So we just went round Rain" made the hit parade, as with his favourite composer, after tea and were married in did "The Nearness of You." The Bach, or his wife's, Debussy. the front parlour."

From the age of 18, Shear- ing's career moved fast.

"I joined the band Wimbledon player called Lark

of

Fals

★ RECORD YEAR

most popular of all his record

1 however, Later in the war

Shearing inge to date,

ironically enough his " Only late lamented met the Walker, one of the greatest Jazz Have Eyes For You.” a planists of all time, at a Lon. Bill don fam session.

Fats heard the blind man and we did one-night

play and liked what he heard. dance stands until we gol Q "Man

should Jack Hylton booking.

People

you "America." began to hear me play and sat in

on sume jam sessions. Later Glenn Miller and Sam Leonard Feather, Britain's lead- Donahue, in Europe with their ing jazz critle, launched me in bands to play to CT camps, con- the British press, and this led firmned this impression. to a BBC contract.

Remembering the conversation

★BOMB HIT

"WHEN the war began I was playing on "Bandwagon," the Arthur Askey-Richard Mur- doch show.

Ko

to

"I

DON'T know the colour of my wife's hair or eyes but "After I'd played In Rochester know much more important the orchestra played the things about her. Rumanian Dunces arid then I

"I'd like to see the beauty of gave the symphony audience a hot jazz recital. The sixty mem- nature. I'd love to see paintings. bers of the

I Symphony were But I could see paintings stomping time,

wouldn't have such a complete understanding of the construc- "This is the sort of thing that flon of a Bach fugue. I should like to see happen all

country. Symphony

"Look how it simplifies my

ODAY Shearing can look back over the

on ave and a half years play- needs a shot in the arm from life in show business. If I take ing with his own Quinct at such the dynamism and even from on a new musiclan I only want famous New York spots as The the commercial flavour of to know if he's a good instru- Embers, Cafe Society. Birdland jazz, and Jazz could benefit from mentalist and if he's a gentle- and Basin Street. In Chiengo he the prestige of symphony music. man. I don't misjudge him by has starred at the Bluenose, and It has far too long been some- his face. I don't care where he in San Francisco at the Black thing you go to a murky cellar comes from, what race he is." Hawk. In Hollywood he has to hear some reprobate batting he might have gone. "As it was drawn applause at the Tiffany, out."

today George believes that he hadn't had two aged parents

In

addition

the Mocambo, the Crescentio

all top flight jazz-spots. Soon he

is to carry his progressive jazz ★ LIVE SHOWS

to the strictly blues empire the Southern states.

of

No

the same

you "But you're 30-would ever lose what blindness twis laught you you were given aight?" I asked him.

to

I decided to wait until after the war it

that was not until 1940 Shearing set off for New York.

"I might, however much I only to be met with disappoint

guard against ment. The agents hadn't heard

FINGERING a phrase from a chose of him

and

the night club Today, with the heartbreak Bach toccata, Shearing says: Shearing sald. "There is no tell- Ing what it might do to ma "Then I toured Britain with owners were sceptical of an years behind them at last the "Braille music can never be as an all-blind Jazz band led by English Jazzman.

Shearings can relax in the spot satisfactory as ordinary music mentally. Claude Bampton, and Decca they all thought his blindness

"I'd like to be able to play Records signed me up. Then I was terrible handicap for light of real success. George has le to a sighted musician.

won numerous magazine popu- stoves or clets—just moved to the St Regis Quintet, publicity reasons-It made him fority polls and given three six-dot formula as for words tenus and drive the car Instead the dance band of the St Regis look more like an 'ast' than a concert tours,

of being dependent on the help touching every and you can't read direct to the of others but no, it wouldn't Hotel in London. I wanted to serious ployer,

Slates, keys because the music requires be worth it." important city in the Two of the tours were made your dingers, You have auto, silk shoots. I was in gave up and returned home. A with Count Basie and

This isn't the first offer singing memorise each bar." clover! Then a bomb hit the year later, however, found him star Bully Eckstein.

eight that Shearing has had. A place in 1940. The hotel went across the Atlantic again. This

Returning from his night club bobby-soxer offered him one of up in smoke and the job with time he was determined

Even the challenge of new stint at fivo each morning-his her eyes in a fan letter

Some to was in America

from years ago, and for good, "progressive star Dave Brubeck home is an hour's drive

à "lifer"! Ja and in the birthplace of tazz to has not dimmed Shearing's po- Manhattan Shearing sloops till Trenton State Penitentiary has Now the war in France was make a new life. Even so, for pularity and this will be his room, then handles business and made the are offer in all over and Stephane Grapelli was nil his determination, Shearing record year: he expects to gross settles down to play. In ten seriousness in several letters. To reconstituting his Hot Club de stil found things tough.

approximately £90,000.

days, he said, he had memorised George, however, there is France in exile in London. "For over a year things were

85 bars of Bach's No. 4 Fugue, world within a world in being His arrangements scil 12 George joined him for a while very bad. We had to count the

blind. He has adventured in it and later joined Ted Heath and pennies and not buy any of the sheet music and he has written Apart from playing, Shearing Frank Weirs, in both cases as wonderful things the shops were his own songs, the most popu- finds relaxation in his garden and found it to bis liking.

we hadn't gianist and orchestral arranger, full of and which

lar being "Lullaby of Birdland." pool, on long walks, in rowing

stay

11,"

there

for ever-luxury

..

After three months

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

George

that

By Lee Falk and Phil Davis

BOGG--ITS--COMING

BACK UP AT US!

.to

(COPYRIGHT)

of

D

Ω

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