Paul Whiteman - Birth of Rhapsody in Blue (CD)

All Music Guide

This is one album that should be known by its subtitle, "Paul Whiteman's Historic Aeolian Hall Concert of 1924." That was the concert at which bandleader Whiteman, with composer George Gershwin at the piano, premiered "Rhapsody in Blue." But the rhapsody came at the end of a program in which Whiteman was attempting to demonstrate the worthiness of jazz music to stand with classical and popular music. To do so, he included everything from early jazz pieces to hits of his own, such as "Whispering," and from classical works to the newly written "A Suite of Serenades" by Broadway operetta composer Victor Herbert. But it was Gershwin's work that proved the concert's point and made it historic. Oddly enough, the original arrangement never seems to have been recorded until now (a later symphonic arrangement became common). Conductor Maurice Peress has gone back to the original charts used at the performance and referred to other sources in reconstructing a version of the entire concert, which... runs 79 minutes on this disc. Pianists Ivan Davis and Dick Hyman deserve and receive prominent credit, but so does an excellent, dedicated ensemble who render the Whiteman music vibrant and give some indication of why he was the most popular musical figure of his age. - William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read more Less