JAZZ virtuoso George Shearing, who was born blind in Britain to working class parents only to achieve world renown as a pianist and a composer in the US, died on Monday aged 91.

"Sir George Shearing passed away in New York this morning (Monday) of congestive heart failure," his agent Dale Sheets said.

Shearing wrote almost 300 jazz songs, but was perhaps best known for his 1952 Lullaby of Birdland in homage to saxophone legend Charlie "Bird" Parker.

"Shearing's main claim to fame was the invention of a unique quintet sound, derived from a combination of piano, vibraphone, electric guitar, bass and drums," his profile on www.allmusic.com said.

Born in Battersea, London, in 1913, his father was a coal delivery man and his mother cleaned trains for extra cash to help raise George and his eight siblings.

Shearing strove to overcome his blindness from an early age, learning to play at the age of three on a family piano that was missing several keys.

In his 2004 autobiography Lullaby of Birdland, he recalled his early attempts to experiment with music, throwing bottles from an upstairs window: milk bottles for classical, beer for jazz.

Shearing, who admitted being influenced in his early years by American jazz pianists like Art Tatum and Fats Waller, received some music training as a teenager at the Linden Lodge in London.

Beginning his career as a fill-in at a London pub at the age of 16, Shearing was soon a huge hit. He was given his own 15-minute BBC show and topped the Melody Maker magazine poll for best jazz pianist seven years in a row.

On receiving his knighthood in 2007, he said: "I don't know why I'm getting this honour. I've just been doing what I love to do."

He is survived by his wife Ellie and daughter Wendy.