George Gershwin: The Visionary Architect of Symphonic Jazz and Modern Popular Song
George Gershwin stands as one of the most culturally monumental and transformative figures in 20th-century music, permanently dismantling the rigid boundaries between elite European classical traditions and the raw, syncopated vitality of American jazz. Possessing a prodigious melodic gift and an innovative harmonic language, he single-handedly legitimized vernacular Black musical expressions on the global concert stage. From his early days pounding pianos in commercial sheet-music districts to his sweeping folk operas, Gershwin captured the frantic, multi-cultural heartbeat of modern urban America. His timeless catalog not only established the technical framework for the Great American Songbook but also forever changed how musicologists and mainstream audiences alike conceptualized the crossover potential of orchestral composition.
George Gershwin was an American pianist and modern classical composer whose contributions to popular music fall within the realm of jazz. Gershwin was the first classical musician or composer who embraced the new 20th-century music of jazz and melded it with classical music.
Gershwin was born Jacob Gershowitz in Brooklyn, New York, in 1898, to Russian/Ukrainian parents. He studied piano from age ten under the tutelage of classical pianist Charles Hambitzer, who would remain Gershwin’s mentor until Gershwin was around 20 years old.
Gershwin began his music career upon dropping out of high school at age 15, finding work as a songwriter of pop tunes in New York City’s famed Tin Pan Alley. His first successful song was the ragtime hit, “Rialto Ripples,” in 1917. Two years later, he penned the famous song “Swanee,” which would become a huge hit for Al Jolson. Gershwin also produced piano rolls for player pianos for the Aeolian company.
Gershwin began writing jazz songs in the early twenties with lyricist Buddy DeSylva and his brother, Ira Gershwin. The team’s early songs included “Oh, Lady Be Good” and “Fascinating Rhythm.” These classic songs were followed by “Funny Face,” “I Got Rhythm,” and “Of Thee I Sing.”
In 1924, Gershwin wrote the jazz-infused modern classical masterpiece, “Rhapsody in Blue.” This famous work was introduced to the world by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in a New York City performance. Gershwin then headed to Paris with the ambition of furthering his classical training but was rejected by several prospective mentors, including Maurice Ravel. While in Paris, Gershwin penned another jazzy classical masterpiece, “An American in Paris,” which made its debut at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 1928.
In 1929, Gershwin turned his attention to Hollywood and the burgeoning film industry that required his musical talents to write scores. He wrote the score for the film “Delicious” in 1929, but was upset when much of the music he wrote was scrapped by the film’s producers.
Gershwin, embittered by the treatment of the Delicious score, switched his efforts back to classical music and wrote the American folk opera masterpiece, “Porgy and Bess,” which contained some of Gershwin’s most brilliant compositions, including “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “I Got Plenty of Nuttin’,” and “Summertime.” Porgy and Bess was a commercial failure at the time but has since become a staple of American opera and popular music.
Gershwin returned to Hollywood and wrote film scores, including the one for the Fred Astaire musical, “Shall We Dance.” In 1937, Gershwin died suddenly from the effects of a brain tumour.
Gershwin’s music is best heard on the following collections: “Rhapsody in Blue/An American in Paris: New York Philharmonic” (1959), “S'Marvellous: The Gershwin Songbook” (1994), and “The Essential George Gershwin” (2003).
Technical Catalog Spotlight: Rhapsody in Blue / An American in Paris: New York Philharmonic (1959)
This landmark stereo recording stands as an absolute high-water mark for mid-century orchestral audio engineering. Under the baton of a legendary conductor-pianist, the performance masterfully captures the kinetic, blues-inflected nuances of Gershwin's grandest concert works. The production features a wide, spacious acoustic environment that lets the famous opening clarinet glissando and taxi-horn soundscapes resonate with crystal-clear fidelity. It serves as an authoritative historical reference work, introducing his foundational symphonic jazz architecture to the modern high-fidelity listener.
- Released: 1959
- Label: Columbia Masterworks
- Producer: John McClure
- Core Personnel: Leonard Bernstein (Conductor, Pianist), The New York Philharmonic
- Key Tracks: Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris
Technical Catalog Spotlight: The Essential George Gershwin (2003)
Serving as an indispensable historical retrospective, this comprehensive multi-disc collection neatly bridges Gershwin's dual worlds of theater pop and high-art classical composition. The anthology includes pristine remasters of original 1920s and 1930s vocal interpretations alongside definitive broadway studio tracking from his legendary songbook collaborations. The release holds massive academic weight, providing reviewers and musicologists with a flawless chronological audio time capsule of his rapid creative evolution.
- Released: September 2003
- Label: Columbia Records / Sony Classical
- Producer: Archival Reissue Staff
- Core Contributors: George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Fred Astaire, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis
- Key Tracks: Summertime, I Got Rhythm, Fascinating Rhythm
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