Editing George Shearing (section)

==Early life==
Born in [[Battersea]], [[London]], Shearing was the youngest of nine children. He was born blind to working-class parents: his father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains in the evening. He started to learn piano at the age of three and began formal training at [[Linden Lodge School|Linden Lodge School for the Blind]], where he spent four years.<ref name="AAJ">{{cite web |url=http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/georgeshearing |title=George Shearing Biography |publisher=allaboutjazz.com |access-date=7 March 2016}}</ref>

Though he was offered several scholarships, Shearing opted to perform at a local [[public house|pub]], the Mason's Arms in [[Lambeth]], for "25 bob a week"<ref name="Sound">{{cite web|title=George Shearing (interview with Les Tomkins): "How I Found the Sound" from the National Jazz Archive|url=https://nationaljazzarchive.org.uk/explore/interviews/1622934-george-shearing-interview-1?q=george%20shearing|access-date=26 March 2021|website=National Jazz Archive| date=18 March 2020 }}</ref> playing piano and [[accordion]]. He joined an all-blind band, Claude Bampton's Blind Orchestra, during that time, and was influenced by the records of [[Teddy Wilson]] and [[Fats Waller]].<ref name="AMG"/> Shearing made his first [[BBC]] radio broadcast during this time, after being befriended by [[Leonard Feather]], with whom he started recording in 1937.<ref name="AAJ"/>

In 1940, Shearing joined [[Harry Parry]]'s popular band. Around 1942 he was recruited by [[Stéphane Grappelli]] (domiciled in London during [[World War II]]) to join his band, which appeared at Hatchets Restaurant in [[Piccadilly]] in the early years of the war, and subsequently toured as "the Grappelly Swingtette" from 1943 onward.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Balmer |first1=Paul |title=Stéphane Grappelli: A Life in Jazz | date=2003 |publisher=Bobcat Books| isbn=9781847725769 |pages=130–134}}</ref> Shearing won six consecutive Top Pianist ''[[Melody Maker]]'' polls from this time onward.<ref name="Gelly">{{cite book |last1=Gelly |first1=Dave |title=An Unholy Row |year=2014
|publisher=Equinox Publishing |isbn= 978-1-84553-712-8 |page=12}}</ref> Around that time he was also a member of [[George Evans (bandleader)|George Evans]]'s Saxes 'n' Sevens band.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}