Summertime
Love Walked In
The Music Of George Gershwin
David Rose and His Orchestra
M-G-M Records E3123
From the back cover: George Gershwin was truly one of the most remarkable musical personalities American has produced. He started on Tin Pan Alley, cut a swath of glory in the musical theatre and musical films, and wound up as one of the most original of this country's "serious" composers. At the time of his death in 1937, he was still turning out memorable "pop" songs and yet proving, as his friend Ferde Grofe put it, "that the better elements of jazz could be incorporated into art music and be the basis of a series of symphonic creations typically expressive of our nation."
Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., on September 26, 1898. He didn't begin formal study of music until he was thirteen. Then, it is reported, he heard a schoolmate play some familiar little classical selection at a school assembly. It struck some responsive chord and the lad decided to investigate music more closely. He sought out the youthful musician and persuaded him to pass on a bit more of his knowledge. In a few short weeks, he was practicing the piano at the home of another friend. Before long, the family was forced to install their own piano and start George off on regular lessons.
By the time he had reached sixteen, the future composer was already qualified for a professional job in music. He became a "song plugger" in the publishing house of J. H. Remick and Company. Some of the singers and dancers of the day to whom the young man showed his company's wares report that they were often so taken with his unusually effective demonstrations – especially pianistically – that they would sometimes wind up with half-a-dozen or so songs they hadn't wanted in the first place.
He placed his first song for publication in 1916 – a ditty with the rather lengthy title When You Want 'Em You Can't Get 'Em, When You've Got 'Em You Don't Want 'Em. Shortly. another composer the impressive sum of twelve dollars. After that a lean period ensued. Gershwin continued to write songs, but there were few takers for his efforts. He began searching around for a steady job. The Dillingham-Zeigfeld show, Miss 1917, had an opening for a rehearsal pianist at the time and he was hired. His contact with theatrical circles lead in two short years to a commission for him to write his first show score. The project was a revue, La, La, Lucille, and it was produced in 1919.
That same year, 1919, saw the introduction of the composer's first really big hit song. It was Swanee, a number interpolated at the last minute into a show called Sinbad, which starred the fabulous Al Jolson.
For the next five years, from 1920 to 1925, Gershwin wrote music for the annual editions of George White's Scandals. And then started the string of musical shows which included Sweet Little Devil; Primrose; Lady By Good; Tell Me More; Song Of The Flame; Tip-Toes; Oh Kay!" Funny Face; Strike Up The Band; Rosalie; Treasure Girl; Show Girl' Girl Crazy; Delicious; Of Thee I Sing (the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize); Pardon My English; and Let Them Eat Cake. Among the many wonderful films for which Gershwin provided scores are Shall We Dance?; Damsel In Distress; and Goldwyn Follies. It was the last-named motion picture which was occupying him when he died suddenly in Hollywood on July 11, 1937. His last song, Love Walked In, lay before him at his desk when he collapsed.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Gershwin's career was his symphonic and operatic activities. It all began in 1924 when Paul Whiteman, "The King Of Jazz", decided to bring a symphonically-scaled jazz orchestra to Aeolian Hall, one of New York City's more hallowed concert halls. He approached Gershwin to write something in symphonic style which still retain the flavor of jazz. Gershwin responded, in three short weeks, with the wonderful original Rhapsody In Blue.
At the premiere in February, 1924, he himself essayed the piano part with the Whiteman Orchestra. the reaction to the piece was sensational – and world-wide. In Europe, "serious" composers began aping the Gershwin piece, usually with less-than-palatable results but always with eagerness and fascination.
Gershwin's next important symphonic effort was the wonderful Piano Concerto In F which was introduced by the composer as soloist with the Symphonic Society of New York under the direction of Walter Damrosch on December 3, 1925. At the time, Dr. Damrosch summed up Gershwin's contribution to the world's music through the Rhapsody and the Concerto when he said:
Various composers have been waling around jazz like a cat around a plate of hot soup, waiting for it to cool off, so they could enjoy it without burning their tongues, hitherto accustomed only to the more tepid liquids distilled by cooks of the classical school. Lady Jazz, adorned with her intriguing rhythms, has danced her way mourned the world, even as far as the Eskimos of the North and the Polynesians of the South Sea Isles. But for all her travels and her sweeping popularity, she has encountered no knight who could lift her to a level that would enable her to be received as a respectable member of then musical circles.
George Gershwin seems to have accomplished this miracle. He has done it boldly by dressing this extremely independent and up-to-date young lady in the classical garb of a concerto. Yet he has not detracted one whit from her fascinating personality. He is the Prince who has taken Cinderella by the hand and openly proclaimed her a princess to the astonished world, no doubt to the fury of her envious sisters.
Gershwin's other great contributions to the world of serious music include the opera Porgy And Bess, the Three Preludes For Piano, the tone poem An American In Paris, the Second Rhapsody, and Cuban Overture. Samples of three of these scores, An American In Paris and Porgy And Bess (in form of the ever-popular Summertime) plus themes from Rhapsody In Blue appear in this album.
As to the vital statistics on the other selections recorded here: The Man I Love and Fascinating Rhythm come from the show score Lady Be Good!; I've Got A Crush On You is from Strike Up The Band; Embraceable You is from Girl Crazy; Liza is from Ziegfeld's Showgirl; Love Is Here To Stay (along with the previously mentioned Love Walked In) was originally spotlighted in Goldwyn Follies; Somebody Loves Me is from George White Scandals of 1924; and Someone To Watch Over me is from Oh Kay! Many of these numbers were heard recently in the MGM Technicolor musical An American In Paris (selections from the sound-track are available on MGM Records).
Embraceable You
Someone To Watch Over Me
Love Is Here To Stay
Liza
Love Walked In
Fascinating Rhythm
Somebody Loves Me
I've Got A Crush On You
An American In Paris
Summertime
Rhapsody In Blue
The Man I Love
