http://www.4shared.com/audio/4KAQYpE3/13_-_Gershwin_Rhapsody_in_Blue.html

Life is full of things to be conquered. Thus it was that littlemp3.com is on the fritz again and can't be found. So I am back at 4share.com! I do hope that nobody minds!

It is the stuff of legend. Famous band leader wants to hold a jazz concert and had ideas of using Carnegie Hall to promote his ideas. Said ideas were dashed when Carniegie Hall board of directors decided against having such a concert take place so Aeolian Hall, the former home of the New York Philharmonic, is offered and accepted. Next is the rounding up of composers who want to write music on short notice, the only ones responding being Victor Herbert, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin. Thus it was in 1924 that Paul Whiteman announced that there would be a concert mixing serious music and jazz.

That was news to George Gerswhin who dismissed Whiteman's offer as a practical joke! Now that the papers had been informed that he would be writing a work using jazz themes, George Gershwin began sweating bullets over his manuscript paper. He had never learned arranging for instruments before, so he simply improvised some themes that would make up a rhapsody. Working closely with Whiteman's chief arranger at that time, Ferde Grofe, both Gershwin and Grofe knocked together a concerto-like work that indeed is a rhapsody much as Franz Liszt's Hungarian inspired works--except that this was an American work that could not be mistaken for anything else. The concert took place with Whiteman's band in 1924 at Aeolian Hall and, after some dreadful music by Victor Herbert and Irving Berlin came this beacon of sunshine, George Gershwin's Rhapsody. But who had named the work? George and Ira's father who christened the work "Rhapsody in Blue"! The cheering after this work seemed to never cease and it hasn't yet! Thus it is that George Gershwin had his masterpiece and Paul Whiteman had his theme song!

The pianist in this performance of 1956 was "Buddy" Weed (1918 - 1999) who had worked with "Pops" Whiteman since 1939 and worked withe Whiteman until the latter's death in 1967. Weed was Whiteman's arranger and pianist and was known for his spectacular wizardry at the keyboard, playing with strength and accuracy in a fluid style. Although he retired in 1970, Weed was a much sought after arranger working on numerous tv and radio programs. He finally retired to Arizona where he occasionally fronted a trio in nightclubs and concert venues.

This performance of "Rhapsody in Blue" is special in that it uses the original band version with cuts. Weed acquits himself handsomely in this performance, Whiteman, leading this group of stars (including Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey. I can't say if Mike Pingatore is playing banjo or not) with a sensitive and light touch with an individual touch at the ending, giving it more punch and emphasis.