In Brief

* * * 1/2 George Shearing, “Lullabye of Birdland,” View/Video ($29.95). This video, shot at the Paul Masson Winery in Saratoga, Calif., last September, is a splendidly photographed 53-minute recital with first-rate sound. Shearing’s sensitive easy-listening ballads are superbly backed by his bassist, Neil Swainson, but the highlights are three jazz standards, all displaying the pianist’s flawless assimilation of the be-bop idiom: “Freedom Jazz Dance,” by Eddie Harris, Miles Davis’ “Donna Lee” (wrongly credited to Charlie Parker) and Parker’s “Moose the Mooch.” Shearing’s chatter between tunes could have used some editing; the feeble puns are simply not funny.