Gershwin Favorites arranged by Roland Kermen

Описание: Gershwin Favorites is a medley of three dearly loved songs from the Great American Songbook.  The first comes from the eponymous Broadway show, Strike Up the Band, one of three political satires the Gershwin brothers wrote for Broadway, giving rise to the quip “Satire is what closes on Saturday night. ”A riotous blend of Marx Brothers-style madness with a good poke to the ribs of the American military-industrial complex and political institutions, this 1927 show was well received by critics but rejected by audiences. It might have been that the country was still too close to the harsh reality of World War I to be able to laugh at the foibles of politics and war. Going to war with Switzerland over the price of cheese tariffs?  Who’d ever believe that?
Written in 1934, “Summertime,” the second song in the medley was one of the first compositions George Gershwin worked on for his opera Porgy and Bess. The jazz-inspired song is a lullaby for Clara to sing to her child, and it is reprised several times throughout the opera. The versatile hit went on to be covered by thousands of artists, in every genre from disco to reggae.
The last song in the medley is “I Got Rhythm,” a toe-tapping example of using four notes of the pentatonic scale, first rising, then falling.  Listen for the syncopated rhythm of the three “I got” phrases beginning one beat after the downbeat, while the fourth phase "Who could..." rushes in to the song, starting ahead of the downbeat. The chord progression of the song's chorus is famously known as the "rhythm changes" and is the foundation for many other popular jazz tunes.