After pianist
George Shearing's longtime association with Capitol ended in 1969, he formed his own Sheba label and started to gradually de-emphasize his quintet. On the fifth of Sheba's seven LPs , the
George Shearing Quintet (with the exception of a specially assembled group gathered for an MPS record in 1974) is heard on records for the final time. The music is typically easy listening with three- to five-minute versions of such songs as "I'll Never Smile Again," "Over the Rainbow," "Moonray" and current pop songs "Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun" among others. With vibraphonist
Charlie Shoemake and guitarist
Ron Anthony in the group, the
Quintet was not without interest, but it was clearly running out of gas.