August 2018 is the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth. Many classical radio stations, performance groups, and writers marked the occasion. And so did #ClassicsaDay. Bernstein was known as a composer, conductor, performer and an educator. Since #ClassicsaDay is primarily a music feed, I concentrated on the first two of those roles (and occasionally the third). […]
George Gershwin
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Jazz at 100 Hour 46: The Songbooks (1950 – 1959)
Ella Fitzgerald Songs from what came to be known as the Great American Songbook, have been part of jazz perhaps since The Original Dixieland Jazz Band began recording Irving Berlin compositions. In the 1940s, singer Lee Wiley recorded several collections of 78s, known as “albums” – a name that stuck into the LP era, focused […]
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Jazz at 100 / The Jazz Messenger – The Porgy and Bess Show
Tags: Archie Shepp, Arkestra, Ben Webster, Bill Evans, Bill Frisell, Billie Holiday, Branford Marsalis, Cab Calloway, Coleman Hawkins, DuBose Heyward, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Free Bridge Quintet, George Gershwin, Gerald Wilson, Gil Evans, Herbie Hancock, Ira Gershwin, Jimmy Smith, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Johnny Hartman, Joni Mitchell, Kurt Elling, Louis Armstrong, Mal Waldron, Mel Torme, Miles Davis, New Vision Sax Ensemble, Nina Simone, Patricia Barber, Porgy & Bess, Sammy Davis Jr., Sonny Rollins, Sun RaCab Calloway as Sportin’ Life In the mid-1930’s, George Gershwin acquired the rights to the play Porgy by DuBose Heyward, based on his own novel of 1925. Gershwin’s great American opera, Porgy and Bess debuted in 1935 with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. For some period of time, the themes of domestic violence, […]