Greatest Music Stories Never Told : 100 Tales from Music History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy by Beyer Rick

Author:Beyer, Rick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

“PICTURE ME UPON YOUR KNEE,

WITH TEA FOR TWO AND TWO FOR TEA,

JUST ME FOR YOU AND YOU FOR ME, ALONE!”

—“TEA FOR TWO”

Babe Ruth, the way Red Sox fans would like to remember him—in a Boston uniform.

1924

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY!

Nothing like a little pressure to inspire a masterpiece

George (left) called his piece “American Rhapsody.” His brother Ira (right), the wordsmith in the family, came up with a far better title, finding inspiration in one of his favorite paintings: James Whistler’s Nocturne in Blue and Silver.

Ira Gershwin opened the New York Herald one January day and read that his brother George was working on a “jazz concerto” that would premiere in just a few weeks.

That was news to George Gershwin.

Bandleader Paul Whiteman was putting on a concert billed as “An Experiment in Modern Music,” grandly announced as an effort to bring jazz to the concert hall. He had talked to Gershwin about contributing something, but Gershwin didn’t think anything definite had been agreed upon. The whole thing had slipped from his mind.

Now he was on the spot.

The twenty-five-year old composer was busy working on a new musical called Sweet Little Devil, and other projects were piling up. There wasn’t enough time! Whiteman pleaded with him to write a simple score—an arranger could orchestrate the rest. So Gershwin frantically wrote out a piece, sending each page to arranger Ferdinand Grofe as it was done. He was so pressed for time he never got to the solo piano parts—he would just improvise them at the concert.

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