zcd9807z

Gershwin in London Town
A Celebration of George Gershwin's Centenary

The Berkeley Square Society Band
Directed by Alan Gout

with Guest Singers Bernadine Pritchett & Paul Thornley

ZZCD 9807
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**Sound Clips**

The Music of George Gershwin ..........

1.	Swanee	3.01
2.	I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise	3.44
3.	Sunday In London Town	2.08
4.	The Man I Love	3.12
5.	Somebody Loves Me	3.44
6.	Someone To Watch Over Me	2.48
7.	He Loves And She Loves	3.25
8.	I’ve Got A Crush On You	3.19
9.	Embraceable You	4.10
10.	But Not For Me	3.47
11.	Isn’t It A Pity	3.57
12.	By Strauss	3.10
13.	They Can’t Take That Away From Me	2.26
14.	They All Laughed	3.28
15.	Walking The Dog	2.37
16.	Slap That Bass	2.58
17.	A Foggy Day	4.02
18.	Love Is Here To Stay	5.18

DDD Total Time = 62:22 - Air-Edel Studios, London - 1998

"George Gershwin, writer of SWANEE?": these were the welcoming words of the customs officer to the 24-year-old composer arriving at Southampton in 1923. Already an experienced musician with several years "piano pounding" and song composing behind him, he had been doing the scores for George White's Scandals since 1920, being very taken with the Paul Whiteman Band's version of I'LL BUILD A STAIRWAY TO PARADISE in the 1922 season.

This was George's first trip abroad and he wrote to his brother Ira that the customs officer's words had momentarily "taken me off my feet . . . I could not have hoped for a more pleasant entrance into a country. Nevertheless it was not all plain-sailing in England as, at the opening night of his and Charles Grey's new show The Rainbow, including SUNDAY IN LONDON TOWN, one of the actors stepped out of character to berate Americans for their adverse effect on the British stage. Despite this, Gershwin returned in 1924 after Rhapsody in Blue. The success of this 'jazz concerto' commission from Whiteman had given a boost to his ever-growing fame and self-confidence. This was reflected in his next London venture, Primrose, which gave him considerable scope for composing entr'actes and ballets, as well as nearly 20 songs some of which, with lyrics by Ira, he had shown the foresight to bring with him. Reputedly he even did some of his own orchestrations and, such was the show's London success, its score was his first to be published in full.

George Gershwin was one of the great piano improvisers. Any good song ideas that came up were jotted into his notebooks for perfecting later; eventually exclusively with his brother as lyricist. They enjoyed a mutually beneficial influence: composer adapting his music to the rhythm of the words and lyricist provoked into conjuring up ingenious verbal and textual felicities to match pre-existing tunes. Ira, being one himself, was highly appreciative of other masters of the English language and remained an admirer of W. S. Gilbert all his life, knowing the Savoy Operas almost by heart. On spying a pair of Edwardian old men one gloomy day, when things were not going well, he affectionately suggested they were Gilbert and Sullivan coming to fix the show.

THE MAN I LOVE started as an improvisation at the ship's piano during the 1924 return voyage. This 'orphan' song never found a secure place in any show, unlike SOMEBODY LOVES ME, still going strong in the 1924 Scandals. It had to be rescued from probable oblivion by Edwina, Lady Mountbatten getting the Berkeley Square Orchestra to play it regularly in London. She had asked for an autographed copy after hearing George play it at a New York party. After it had become a huge hit in Europe in many pirated versions the publishers thought it worth promoting seriously.

This intimacy with the aristocracy was indicative of George's social reputation. He achieved a parallel celebrity in Europe to that which he enjoyed in America; mixing effortlessly with high society, as well as working easily with his various show collaborators including Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse who, along with the Gershwins, the Astaires, Noël Coward and many more, were part of the 1920s transatlantic theatre crowd. George had no trouble adapting to this jet- (or rather, ocean liner-) set life though, as with Coward, what brought the talent to fruition was a lot of hard work.

This was exactly what was required on his 1925 visit with a symphonic commission to fulfil. Acquiring several composition textbooks, he jotted down ideas for the new piece. The resulting piano concerto has stood the test of time far better than the show he came to do. Tell Me More is almost completely forgotten.

In 1926, between the Liverpool try-out and London opening of the British version of Lady, Be Good!, he fitted in his customary visit to Paris. Paul Whiteman, so called "King of Jazz", irritated Gershwin with his strange speeds for Rhapsody in Blue at a Royal Albert Hall concert, after which event the composer's dudgeon was not assuaged by discovering the theft of his no doubt expensive and elegant overcoat and hat. He made some recordings in London and rekindled his friendship with Noël Coward's theatrical chum Gertrude Lawrence. Back in New York Oh! Kay was concocted for her, and her rendition of SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME amply justified the writers' choice of star.

Several shows, including Funny Face, with HE LOVES AND SHE LOVES, kept the Gershwins in New York in 1927. Needing a holiday, the 1928 trip was largely social. A music publishing business meeting at Chappells, a stone's throw from Berkeley Square, seemed to consist mainly of admiration of the new Mercedes imported by Vincent Youmans, composer of Tea for Two. Also present, apart from the brothers Gershwin, were Jerome Kern, over for Show Boat, Max Dreyfus of T. B. Harms, the publisher who employed both Kern and George in their early days, and Robert Russell Bennett, master orchestrator of many of their shows. Where did they all go for lunch?

The Gershwin entourage caught Gertie's last performance of Oh! Kay before a European grand tour which was the apex of George's social and musical celebrity this side of the Atlantic. Having already met Stravinsky and Ravel in New York, he added Walton, Prokofiev, Milhaud, Poulenc, Léhar, Kurt Weill (later to work with Ira) and Berg to his ever widening circle. The rest of the year was devoted to Treasure Girl, including I'VE GOT A CRUSH ON YOU, and his European souvenir, An American in Paris.

The hectic life of Broadway shows and symphonic composing continued unabated. Girl Crazy of 1930 included EMBRACEABLE YOU, BUT NOT FOR ME.

ISN'T IT A PITY is a survivor from Pardon my English, 'a headache from start to finish.' Ira's retrospective verdict was inadvertently a cruel irony as it was the headaches that were portents of George's final, fatal illness.

After his opera Porgy and Bess in 1935, musical-comedy song writing resumed in 1936 with a revue song, BY STRAUSS. The Gershwins then went West for another crack at Hollywood during what was to be the last year of George's life. The many hits in Shall We Dance, including THEY CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME, THEY ALL LAUGHED, the little instrumental, WALKING THE DOG and SLAP THAT BASS, showed no waning powers despite the latent brain tumour; quite the contrary. The brothers revisited their old haunts one last time, at least in spirit, with A FOGGY DAY (IN LONDON TOWN) for Damsel in Distress. LOVE IS HERE TO STAY was the last song they wrote together. It appeared posthumously in 1938 in The Goldwyn Follies. George Gershwin had died on 11 July 1937, to be outlived by his elder brother by eight more years than the span of his own lifetime - a mere 38 years.
© Alan Gout