GERSHWIN Songs - Sony MK37277 [IL]: Classical Music Reviews

Back in the early 1980s towards the close of the LP era, a youthful Michael Tilson Thomas recorded a series of albums devoted to the music of George Gershwin. These included An American in Paris and a very special and ingenious and vital performance of Rhapsody in Blue that had a ‘ghostly’ George Gershwin as piano soloist - or rather his performance, captured on a 1925 piano roll - with Tilson Thomas conducting the Columbia Jazz Band (CBS 76509). Another LP (M 34542) featured Tilson Thomas conducting the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in six Gershwin overtures - all performed with panache and crackling with vitality. All of these were originally recorded on CBS Masterworks and then reissued together in CD format in 2004 as Sony 93018. I must have played the Gershwin overtures LP dozens of times and it has always featured very highly amongst my favourite records. Why this long and possibly, to some, irrelevant preamble? Well, because there was another Tilson Thomas Gershwin LP that I adored and for years wanted to regain in my collection as a CD. I have only rediscovered on the Amazon.com site. It was this Sarah Vaughan Gershwin Live disc and it was well worth the wait! If you haven’t discovered the delights of this recording, then please allow me to share them with you.

The fact that this is a live programme assures sparkle and joyous spontaneity and doesn’t the LA Philharmonic respond so enthusiastically, really enjoy themselves jazzing and swinging it up. The audience clearly revels in the occasion too. The programme kicks off with a vivacious reading of the Porgy and Bess Overture followed by Sarah Vaughan’s big smoky-voiced renditions of Bess’s well-loved songs. Tilson Thomas’s orchestra is supported and contrasted by the jazz Trio of Gaffney, Simpkins and Jones

The Vaughan voice is unmistakeable, idiosyncratic, sensuous and so entirely personal in its jazzy delivery and nuances: those languid deep rolling and long-held chords, those meaningful, often sly, sometimes ironic but jazz-rhythmic repetitions and stresses. All the numbers listed above are delivered in Vaughan’s glorious inimitable style.

The programme is nicely varied. There is that cheeky sexy Do It Again - “I only met you; I shouldn’t let you ... I may say no, no, no, no; but oh oh oh, do it again ...” - Sarah sounding so innocent yet at the same time so street-wise. Tilson Thomas offers a piano accompaniment such that one might imagine Gershwin himself playing to entertain friends in his New York flat.

In contrast there is the tragedy and intense desolation that Sarah invests in My Man’s Gone Now. Mention at this point must be made of the wonderful sensitive orchestral arrangements for this concert by Marty Paich so rich and extraordinarily poignant in this number.

Paich’s work shines in the 10-minute version of The Man I Love - a veritable tour de force and one of the highlights of the album and worth its price alone. It begins with Tilson Thomas’s Chopin-esque piano introduction underpinning Vaughan dreamily humming before she hopes “Someday he’ll come along ...” (to Tilson Thomas’s less than optimistic initial answering piano chord) ... then … “I’ll do my best to make him stay ...” at which point the orchestra enters to share that slow swirling dream-world. The piano re-enters as she continues her reflections, suddenly becoming much more optimistic as the Trio joins in upbeat and Sarah is off on those jubilant, dizzy, jazzy bababibididos - presto.

A lengthy encore begins with a sensual ‘I’ve got a crrrr-u-sssshh on You’ - “I hadn’t the least notion that I could fall with so much emotion ...” And the whole ends with a misty dreamy evocativeA Foggy Day (in London Town) delivered superbly by all.

A concert of Gershwin songs not to be missed.

Ian Lace

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