OTR has quite a few significant birthdays on his calendar this week. The honor today is reserved for "The King of Jazz," Paul Whiteman. He was the most popular band leader in the U.S. during the Roaring Twenties. Whiteman encouraged many talented artists and composers through his interest in fusing jazz with other musical styles. He also sponsored several concerts featuring experimental music. For one of these concerts, he prodded George Gershwin into composing some "new music." The composition was Rhapsody in Blue. Whiteman premiered the piece at the Aeolian Hall in New York in 1924 with Gershwin at the piano.
Today, Rhapsody, is beloved throughout the world, but Whiteman is all but forgotten as the man behind the music. We need to correct that. After all, he did give early exposure to some of the best, including Bing Corsby, Mildred Bailey, Bunny Berigan, Jack Venuti, Bix Beiderbecke, and Jack Teagarden.
Here's an important interview with Whiteman about Gershwin and the creation of Rhapsody. This is a very recent YouTube post running 9:36 - well worth every second - including about three 3 minutes of music.
It wouldn't be right to let Whiteman's birthday pass without an opportunity to hear his celebrated orchestra performing one of their hits. This was Crosby's first number one record. The year was 1928.
Bet you tapped your foot.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment