Bridge Records' Symphonic Jazz: Ferde Grofé and George Gershwin brings to American audiences state-of-the-art recordings featuring some of the most important American concert literature in instrumentation relatively few have heard. This material -- music by Ferde Grofé and George Gershwin -- is "important" because it represents the most successful and seamless fusion of American Popular Music elements and classical concert music in history. While one cannot be blamed for feeling that Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is ...
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Bridge Records' Symphonic Jazz: Ferde Grofé and George Gershwin brings to American audiences state-of-the-art recordings featuring some of the most important American concert literature in instrumentation relatively few have heard. This material -- music by Ferde Grofé and George Gershwin -- is "important" because it represents the most successful and seamless fusion of American Popular Music elements and classical concert music in history. While one cannot be blamed for feeling that Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is overexposed, many other outstanding works that arose out of Paul Whiteman's desire to combine the music that saved his life with the concert idiom that represented his roots have received comparatively little attention. This legacy has likewise been obscured by the practical necessity of symphony orchestras to reshape such symphonic jazz, initially written for expanded dance bands with saxophone sections in addition to strings, into a scoring made to suit their standard configuration. In such...
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