AVAILABILITY
www.sanctuaryclassics.com
Volume
1: 1918-25
Swanee (1918)
Come to the Moon (1918)
I was so young (1918-19)
Tee-oodle-un-bum-bo (1919)
Nobody But You (1919)
Limehouse Nights (1919)
Drifting Along With The Tide (1921)
Rhapsody in Blue (adapted Gibbons )
(1924)
Oh Lady Be Good (1924)
Fascinating Rhythm (1924)
Hang On To Me (1924)
I’d Rather Charleston (London Production,
1926)
The Man I Love (1924)
The Half Of It, Dearie, Blues (1924)
So Am I (1924)
Kickin’ The Clouds Away (1925)
Concerto in F (Slow Movement – adapted
Gibbons) (1925)
Volume 2: 1925-30
Sweet And Low-Down I and II (1925)
That Certain Feeling I and II (1925)
Looking For A Boy (1925)
When Do We Dance (1925)
Irish Waltz (1927)
Do, Do, Do (1926)
Someone To Watch Over Me (1926)
Clap Yo’ Hands (1926)
Maybe (1926)
Three Preludes (1927)
Meadow Serenade (1927)
My One And Only(1927)
‘S Wonderful/Funny Face (1927)
He Loves And She Loves (1927)
An American In Paris (transcribed Dal,
adapted Gibbons) (1928)
Liza (1929)
Strike Up The Band (1929)
Embraceable You (1930)
I Got Rhythm I and II (1930)
Volume 3: 1931-37
Of Thee I Sing (1931)
Jilted (1931)
Second Rhapsody (arranged Gibbons) (1931)
For You, For Me. For Everyone (Op. Posth.)
Cuban Overture (arranged Gibbons) (1932)
Isn’t It A Pity (1933)
Variations on I Got Rhythm (1934)
Porgy and Bess Suite (Catfish Row )
(1936)
They Can’t Take That Away From Me (arranged
Gibbons) (1936)
Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off (arranged
Gibbons) (1936)
Our Love Is Here To Stay (1937)
Volume 4: The Hollywood Years
Girl Crazy Overture (1930)
French Ballet Class (1936)
Dance Of The Waves (1936)
Slap That Bass (1936)
Walking The Dog (1936)
I’ve Got Beginner’s Luck (1936)
They All Laughed (1936)
They Can’t Take That Away From Me (1936)
Shall We Dance (1936)
By Strauss (1936)
I Can’t Be Bothered Now (1937)
The Jolly Tar And The Milkmaid – 2 versions
(1937)
Put Me To The Test (1937)
Stiff Upper Lip (1937)
A Foggy Day (In London Town) (1937)
Nice Work If You Can Get It (1937)
Thing Are Looking Up (1937)
I Was Doing All Right (1937)
Love Walked In (1937)
Repackaged and presented
as four slimline discs in a (roughly)
double CD-sized slipcase, Jack Gibbons’
comprehensive Gershwin edition is back.
We can argue over the provocative word
Authentic if we like but it’s
better to dump the semantics and listen
to the music. The four discs were originally
issued over a five-year period by ASV,
in which form many admirers will have
encountered them.
They encompass transcriptions
of Gershwin’s discs and piano rolls,
the latter often a minefield when it
comes to matters of interpretation,
though here obviously proving of inestimable
value. Volume 3 centres on Gibbons’
arrangements – principally from the
film music, the Catfish Row ‘Porgy and
Bess’ suite, orchestrations and various
works written for two pianos. The final
volume is devoted to film music – The
Hollywood Years.
Let me first say that
the indefatigable Gibbons has explored
this body of work with the sensory acuteness
of a bat and the excavatory fearlessness
of a Howard Carter. Nothing seems to
have escaped him and he has absorbed
the idiom with uncanny verisimilitude.
These are generally very enjoyable discs
but too much, at once, is not the way
to listen. This is especially true of
the first two discs which have their
fair share of masterpieces but also,
to be frank, one or two longeurs no
matter how vivaciously Gibbons digs
into them. He shows even in an early
number such as the 1918-19 I was
so young the full range of virtuosity
in an arrangement that fuses drama with
drive to considerable advantage. But
it’s Drifting Along With The Tide
that shows the full panoply of Gibbons’
lordly pianism – scintillating stuff.
Occasionally I felt that the original
ASV recording set-up wasn’t quite optimal
for this type of playing. In the fourth
volume for example Thy All Laughed
hardens unattractively – though little
can stop Things Are Looking Up
from sounding chock full of lyric feeling.
It’s good to hear the
piano roll adaptations as much as the
vogue for Limehouse Chinoiserie. But
amongst the most compelling moments
are the big pieces – the Cuban Overture,
Concerto in F (slow movement), Rhapsody
in Blue and the Catfish Row suite. Here
we hear Gibbons at his finest - if elsewhere
he can tend to force the issue, to play
just that slightly too hard, the larger
canvases allow him greater metrical
and dynamic freedoms and he utilises
them appropriately.
The notes are by Gibbons
– is there anything Gershwinesque to
which he hasn’t turned his hand and
ear? – and they cover the ground with
never wearying lucidity. A fine box;
maybe not always persuasive but as often
as makes no difference.
Jonathan Woolf
Jack Gibbons (piano) 
