backtothefuture - Posted - 02/05/2009:  10:16:03

Just got done watching "Rhapsody In Blue" on TCM....the bio of George Gershwin.

It showed Paul Whiteman, the jass band leader conducting the title song, recreating the premiere at Aeolian Hall in NYC back in 1924. My late father told me that he skipped school to attend the world premiere, which was a matinee on February 12. (oooops...just caught my "jass" spelling above...which was how jazz was originally spelled).

The movie itself not very historically accurate, as are most biopics. I was particularly annoyed by the fact that it did not even MENTION the composer/arranger Ferde Grofe. Without Grofe, Gershwin's symphonic jazz music would not have existed and been the same. Aside from this.....the MUSIC was wonderful !!!

But back to the banjo.

I always loved the old Paul Whiteman 78's and I now know why. They all had that ever present, driving banjo beat throughout every recording.

Although I knew the banjo played a prominent part in his music, I just didn't know it was given the royal treatment of center stage. I assume this was due to the fact that it played the constant rhythm and had to be heard equally by all members of the group.

The photo above was from the movie, granted, where things are always dramatized, but the photo below shows an actual stage shot (not of the Rhapsody In Blue performance) of his group, with the banjo still in the foreground.



Anyone else like the old Whiteman style music?

.

Dennis

Tango_grass - Posted - 02/05/2009:  10:25:07

Is that Earl??

Great post! and cool shots. I don't think I've ever actually heard Banjo though in Rhapsody in Blue. Am I missing it? or was it used in some of the other arrangements?
But it is interesting to think of that high driving banjo as the rhythm behind such a big band.

Chris,

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Edited by - Tango_grass on 02/05/2009 10:25:28

Ronnie - Posted - 02/05/2009:  10:28:15

Banjoist Mike Pingatore, the highest payed member of the band. I have several Whiteman 78's. Some of them are Columbia potato head records.

www.bobbythompsonbanjo.com

Edited by - Ronnie on 02/05/2009 10:57:26

SeldomRight - Posted - 02/05/2009:  10:58:47

Looks like nobody wanted to sit near the banjo player except the drummer!

Steve

banjer5 - Posted - 02/05/2009:  12:47:59

FWIW It is my understanding that George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess is the only music of its type ever written with banjo in the composers original score. The tune? "I've got plenty of nothin'"

Fast Freddy the engineer says: Throttle in RUN 8 and highball, then don''t look back, something might be gainin'' on ya. 73,s de K5BGZ

Edited by - banjer5 on 02/05/2009 12:51:05

trapdoor2 - Posted - 02/05/2009:  13:23:44

Count me in as another Whiteman/Pingatore fan. You're right, the movie isn't all that factual but the Banjo was a big part of early Jazz.

I also have a bunch of Whiteman 78's. Have you seen Whiteman's movie, "King of Jazz"? It is a hoot.

Whiteman kicked off the carrers of a huge number of great musicians. Bing Crosby, Bix, Venuti, Trumbauer, Teagarden, etc, etc. Since he was such an icon, you often see his influence (esp. his stylized head) in art deco design. Of course, you also see him show up in cartoons of the era (like Bugs Bunny, etc.).

===Marc

edit: I'm not so sure about "I got Plenty o' Nuttin'". Porgy and Bess wasn't acutally scored until the mid 1930's when people like Gershwin Ferde Grofe were already regularly scoring banjo parts for jazz. I wouldn't be surprised if "Show Boat" didn't have banjos scored in there...and it predates Porgy by a decade or two.

"If banjos needed tone rings, S.S. Stewart would have made them that way."

Edited by - trapdoor2 on 02/06/2009 06:44:10

backtothefuture - Posted - 02/05/2009:  13:41:16

Marc...yes ! King of Jazz was great. VERY early Technicolor, too.

And FWIW, as far as Gershwin "scoring" the music for whatever instruments.....it's MY understanding that he did not do any scoring. It was all Ferde Grofe. I don't believe Gershwin ever learned how to score music.

.

Dennis

Ronnie - Posted - 02/06/2009:  06:56:11

Remember Mechanix Illustrated Magazine and "Uncle" Tom McCahill who wrote reviews of new cars in the 1950's? He and Paul Whiteman were buddies. He like to give Paul joy rides in cars he was test driving. Pictures of the two of them were in almost every issue of the magazine.

www.bobbythompsonbanjo.com