Quotation
Life is a lot like jazz. . . it’s best when you improvise. . .
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Biographical
George Gershwin (born Jacob Gershowitz - Gershovitz was probably changed to Gershvin by an immigration official when his father arrived from Russia) (September 26, 1898 - July 11, 1937), American composer. Composed both for Broadway and for the classical concert hall, his music contains elements of both. Many of his compositions have been used in cinema, and perhaps many more are famous Jazz standards: songbooks have been recorded by Ella Fitzgerald (memorable 3 discs recording for Verve, with Nelson Riddle's orchestra), Herbie Hancock and several other singers or players. His most famous works include: Rhapsody in Blue, (1924), a symphonic Jazz composition for Jazz band, piano, and orchestra; the Piano Concerto in F* (1925); An American In Paris, a tone poem with elements of Jazz and realistic sound effects; Porgy And Bess, an opera (1935); (from the book by Dubose Heyward), a folk opera about African-American life, which contains the famous aria Summertime. Three Preludes, (1936), for piano. Brother of Ira Gershwin, lyricist, with whom most of his works were made. In 1910, the Gershwins had acquired a piano for Ira's music lessons, but George took over, successfully playing by ear.
He tried out various piano teachers for 2 years, then was introduced to Charles Hambitzer - who became his mentor (and would remain so until Hambitzer's death in 1918). Hambitzer taught George conventional piano technique, introduced him to the European masters, and encouraged him to attend orchestral concerts (at home following such concerts, young George would attempt to reproduce at the keyboard the music he had heard). He achieved wide success with his first song Swanee. In 1924, George collaborated with his brother on a musical comedy, Lady Be Good. It included standards as Fascinating Rhythm and The Man I Love. Comedy was follwed by Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1927 & 1930), Girl Crazy (1930) and Of Thee I Sing (1931) - the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize. It was in Hollywood, while working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies, that George Gershwin collapsed and, on July 11, 1937, died of a brain tumour. He was not quite 39 years old. The Gershwin estate continues to bring in significant royalties from licensing the copyrights on Gershwin's work. The estate supported the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act because its 1923 cutoff date was shortly before Gershwin had begun to create his most popular works. The copyrights on those works expire in 2007 in the European Union and between 2019 and 2027 in the United States of America. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on George Gershwin.]
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