JAZZBO -- How Rhapsody in Blue Became a Legend

How did Rhapsody in Blue become one of the most recognizable pieces of American music? In January 1924, George Gershwin discovered that Paul Whiteman had effectively announced a new “jazz concerto” before Gershwin had actually written one. A few frantic weeks later, Rhapsody in Blue premiered at Aeolian Hall and changed the trajectory of American concert music. In this installment of JAZZBO, I look at the documented history behind that famous origin story — and at the places where dramatic reconstruction has to fill in what the historical record cannot tell us. We look at: • the newspaper announcement that forced Gershwin’s hand • his famous recollection of hearing the piece in the rhythms of a train • Ferde Grofé’s role in orchestrating the original version • the working title, American Rhapsody • Ira Gershwin’s connection to the final title • Ross Gorman and the famous opening clarinet glissando • the Aeolian Hall premiere • the piece’s later life in advertising, film, popular culture, and wildly different arrangements Some of the conversations shown here are dramatized. Some events are compressed or relocated for dramatic purposes. Where I know I’ve changed the historical record — such as moving Ross Gorman’s famous clarinet experiment from rehearsal to the premiere — I say so. That is part of what this channel is about: not pretending that historical drama is documentary, but asking whether the invention remains faithful to the people and events we actually know. More than a century later, Rhapsody in Blue still seems able to survive almost anything we do to it — symphony orchestra, jazz band, accordion, chamber ensemble, bluegrass, animation, airline commercials — and somehow it still sounds unmistakably like itself. JAZZBO: The George Gershwin Biopic jazzbogershwin.com @JazzboGershwin #GeorgeGershwin #RhapsodyInBlue #JAZZBO For music theory geeks (such as myself):    • "Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin (Sco...   To hear the complete Deodato version:    • 1973 Deodato - Rhapsody In Blue   (For the record, I think that had George survived into the 1950s and 1960s and given how I've come to understand him, he most likely would have come up with this himself 😁)