Art & Creativity Quote by George Shearing

There is no romanticism here about the “golden age” of jazz - just a working musician taking a clear-eyed inventory of the moment and cashing the check while it’s available. Shearing’s line lands because it treats success as weather: it can shift without warning, and you don’t argue with a good forecast. You play the gig.

The intent is pragmatic, almost defiantly unsentimental. When he says demand is “greater than it has ever been,” he’s not crowning a new era so much as naming a pocket of opportunity - certain rooms, certain audiences, certain circuits that still want what he does. That “in certain areas” matters: it’s the quiet admission that the broader industry is uneven, even hostile, but the smart move is to follow the current rather than mourn the tide.

The subtext is the veteran’s survival doctrine. “Precarious” isn’t a complaint; it’s a rule of the trade. Coming from someone who lived through swing’s collapse, bebop’s ascendance, rock’s takeover, and the long churn of changing formats and gatekeepers, the line reads like a warning to younger musicians who confuse artistry with stability. Shearing frames momentum as something you actively harvest: “make it while you can.”

Contextually, this is late-career realism in a business that rarely rewards longevity. He’s defending hustle as dignity - not selling out, not nostalgia, just professional acuity: the ability to recognize when your sound is in demand and to meet it at full strength.