When I was young, I liked to hear how older people talked about the music they were into and what they liked about it. My late father had a way of making experiencing an artist; a level of a must-do thing that even if you didn’t come out the other end fully getting the same experience or feeling, you gave the music full focus and attention in the moment. Often, for my dad, it was about how the music affected the mind’s eye and inspired the imagination while you listened. This was not reserved for any particular genre but was all about how the music felt. I have this ability to mix up the senses. This always meant an array of colour and sensation from sounds and shade.
Shearing’s artistry and sound was one of my father’s favorites and, with ease, it’s also mine. Shearing’s blindness intrigued me and the way he spaced the notes of the chords he played seemed as if he was reaching for color in sound that could match what he wanted to say. That is how my father described the sound. It is how I experience Shearing’s music to this day. A never ending and purposed reaching for colour to match sound. That’s exactly the way it feels.