Gershwin

The idea to make this recording took Enrico Fagnoni back to his childhood, and his first musical experiences of the US. He left Italy with scores of Bach, Mozart, Chopin and Rachmaninov, but found himself listening to the best jazz and ragtime musicians. He was astonished by the rhythm of their music, the acoustics of the clubs and the spontaneity of their jam sessions. He offers this new recording of the Songbook as a tribute to Gershwin’s genius.

If you are familiar with the theme, you know the bell-toned baritone of . His clarity in rendering a ballad is well applied in this album of standards. These 1992 recordings sound remarkably fresh, even though the tunes are 60-70 years old and have been recorded countless times. simultaneously presents them as cabaret performances and as art songs.

George Gershwin - The Authentic George Gershwin - Jack Gibbons (2004) {4CD Set Sanctuary Classics CD RSB 401}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.08 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 726 Mb
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© 2004 Sanctuary Classics | CD RSB 401
Jazz / Classical / Solo Piano

This plates are wonderful. I was charmed, and when I close my eyes now, I see scenes with American in Paris or Porgy and Bess but my favorite piece of music is Rhapsody in Blue. It's more than excellent is fantastic. Jack Gibbons perfectly feels the unique tone Gershwin's music, the mixture rythms of jazz with influences of impressionists and clear and beauty melodies. I'm fascinating.

George Gershwin - Rhapsody In Blue, An American In Paris, Broadway Overtures
George Gershwin, piano / Buffalo Philharmonic / Michael Tilson Thomas, dir.
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 353 MB | Full Artwork: 89 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: CBS Masterworks # SMK 42240 | Country/Year: Europe 198_
Genre: Jazz, Classical, Historical Recording | Style: Early 20th Century, Classic Jazz

The great musical border crosser of the twentieth century, George Gershwin excelled in the fields of concert music and popular song alike. The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, he was born Jacob Gershvin in Brooklyn on September 26, 1898. His father ran a great variety of small businesses, and George, in the words of the New Grove Dictionary of Music, "excelled at street sports." He also studied the piano and was introduced to the European classics by his teacher, Charles Hambitzer…

Did the world need to hear Gershwin played by a viol consort, with an occasional recorder tootling along? If so, then why not Purcell accompanied by a jazz piano? The idea of combining the two composers in one performance is an attractive one, and the mix of vocal and instrumental pieces by each composer here is intelligently grouped. Arranger and leader Jay Bernfeld offers several parallels. Both composers were, in the broadest sense, urban sensations and musical-theater composers with bigger things on their minds; both managed to complete one towering opera before dying young. He might have added more items to his list: the ground basses of Purcell's time are elaborated by their melody lines in a manner akin to, if not precisely comparable to, the structure of Gershwin's songs.

Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book (1959) {4CD Box Set Verve 539 759-2 rel 1998}
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© 1959, 1998 Verve / PolyGram | 539 759-2 | Verve Master Edition | 20bit remaster
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Standards

During the late '50s, Ella Fitzgerald continued her Song Book records with Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book, releasing a series of albums featuring 59 songs written by George and Ira Gershwin. Those songs, plus alternate takes, were combined on a four-disc box set, Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book, in 1998. These performances are easily among Fitzgerald's very best, and for any serious fan, this is the ideal place to acquire the recordings, since the sound and presentation are equally classy and impressive.