[Dixielandjazz] Porgy and Bess Part 1 this week on Riverwalk Jazz

[Donald Mopsick]

Many of you are already aware of the Porgy and Bess projects
undertaken by Jim Cullum over a period of several decades. Jim had
long been interested in the work and took steps to adapt it for his
band in the early 1980s. Here is the story of how he got CBS records
to issue a recording of it:

http://www.riverwalkjazz.org/the-story-of-porgy-and-bess-by-jim-cullum/

The CD has never been reissued by Sony, who now owns the master.
Vintage copies can be had on amazon and eBay, but for the most part
the CD is hard to find.

Then in the early 90s he and Riverwalk Jazz producer Margaret Pick
decided to record the work for the radio series in two parts. Part 1
airs this week, Part 2 next week. The RWJ version has identical music
arrangements as the original CD, however they got the great
bass/baritone William Warfield to be the narrator for the radio
production.

Everyone knows Warfield from his acclaimed role as Joe the Dock Hand
in the 1951 MGM film of "Show Boat" (he sings "Old Man River") but you
may not know that he also played Porgy in a 1950s production mounted
on Broadway. This show also starred Leontyne Price, whom Warfield
later married and divorced.

"Porgy and Bess" with narrator Warfield was a staple of the JCJB
touring repertoire during the 1990s right up until Warfield's passing.

Here's an historical tidbit:

In the years before George Gershwin began work on mounting his great
"folk opera" based on the DuBose Heyward novel "Porgy," Jerome Kern
and Oscar Hammerstein, still basking in the success of their landmark
musical Show Boat, made an attractive offer to Heyward for the musical
rights. The popular entertainer Al Jolson was to play Porgy and the
producers planned to turn the book into a musical comedy with a cast
in blackface. Read more about the history of "Porgy and Bess" here.

http://www.riverwalkjazz.org/2012/02/16/porgy_bess_jazz_1/

which is where you can also find the link to stream this show.

mopo

-- 
http://about.me/donmopsick