George Gershwin is
easily one of the great songwriters
of the 20th century. He was
embraced by movies, the stage, jazz
players and the more "serious"
musician. His melodies have been co-opted,
reinvented, and performed in hundreds
of ways throughout the last century.
This album continues
the tradition of taking what Gershwin
initially wrote and expanding upon it
in a way that highlights both the melodies
and the performers. The arrangements
here are quite heavily influenced by
the traditions in jazz and gospel music,
and tend to be quite good. The form
is very much along the lines of a normal
jazz combo following the "head-solo-head"
form. In most of the songs this is a
nearly ideal way of hearing Gershwin’s
music. The arrangement of "They
can’t take that away from me" is
a jazz-infused, bluesy rendition that
summons forth images of New Orleans’
Bourbon Street, with the trumpet nearly
speaking the words through the variety
in timbres and inflections. "Embraceable
You" is similarly infused, although
with the bluesy introspection that harks
back to an Ella Fitzgerald recording
of the same song. "A Foggy Day"
is particularly good, with the Harmon-muted
trumpet alternating dizzying virtuosity
and blues-soaked street musician guttural
qualities that epitomise Wynton Marsalis
at his finest.
The only disadvantage
is that the listener eventually begins
to miss the rest of the combo. While
many of the songs were originally written
strictly for piano and voice, after
decades of hearing this type of recording
either with an orchestral string section
or with a jazz quartet, one can miss
the walking bass line and drum set.
For the majority of the album this is
a minor complaint, as the listener is
apt to have heard many vocal arrangements
of Gershwin for voice and piano that
have been similarly set. In fact, with
the slower, more heart-felt tunes, a
full combo could seem less intimate
and cluttered. However, as the tempos
increase and the pianist’s left hand
attempts to take the place of the bass
line in arrangements of "It Ain’t
Necessarily So" or "But Not
For Me" one wonders that the two
men, both so obviously talented and
knowledgeable about these tunes, did
not also recognize the limitations that
the chosen instrumentation has and compensate
with the addition of one or two more
players.
Taken as a whole, however,
this is a fine collection of familiar
songs arranged and performed in unsurprising
but very competent ways. As is generally
the case with above-average Gershwin
recordings, this album will find its
mark with both lovers of classical and
jazz music, and is definitely worth
the time spent listening.
Patrick Gary
Juraz Bartos, Trumpet 