Summertime - Piano Improvisation
  • Classical music composed by George Gershwin at the moment I live in Germany and here the summer is nearly always much humid one (RAIN), I hatred this type of summer and I have tried this my version of "Summertime" what mean's for me this 2007 German much rain summer.

    Many of his compositions have been used on television and in numerous films, and many became jazz standards. The jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald recorded many of the Gershwins' songs on her 1959 Gershwin Songbook (arranged by Nelson Riddle). Countless singers and musicians have recorded Gershwin songs, including Fred Astaire, Louis Armstrong, Al Jolson, Bobby Darin, Art Tatum, Bing Crosby, Janis Joplin, John Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Madonna, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, Marni Nixon, Natalie Cole, Patti Austin, Nina Simone, Maureen McGovern, John Fahey, The Residents, Sublime, and Sting.

    About the composer:
    George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose early death brought to a premature halt one of the most remarkable careers in American music. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are universally familiar. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin. George Gershwin composed music for both Broadway and the classical concert hall, as well as popular songs that brought his work to an even wider public.
    Gershwin's compositions have been used in numerous films and on television, and many became jazz standards recorded in numerous variations. Countless singers and musicians have recorded Gershwin songs.

    Early life
    Gershwin was named Jacob Gershowitz at birth in Brooklyn on September 26, 1898. His parents were Russian Jews. His father, Morris (Moishe) Gershowitz, changed his family name to 'Gershvin' sometime after immigrating to the United States from St. Petersburg, Russia in the early 1890s. Gershwin's mother Rosa Bruskin had already immigrated from Russia. She met Gershowitz in New York and they married on July 21, 1895.[1] (George changed the spelling of the family name to 'Gershwin' after he became a professional musician; other members of his family followed suit.)
    George Gershwin was the second of four children.[2] He first displayed interest in music at the age of ten, when he was intrigued by what he heard at his friend Maxie Rosenzweig's violin recital.[3] The sound and the way his friend played captured him. His parents had bought a piano for lessons for his older brother Ira, but to his parents' surprise and Ira's relief, it was George who played it.[4] Although his younger sister Frances Gershwin was the first in the family to make money from her musical talents, she married young and devoted herself to being a mother and housewife. She gave up her performing career, but settled into painting for another creative outlet â€” painting was also a hobby of George Gershwin.
    Gershwin tried various piano teachers for two years, and then was introduced to Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller, the pianist in the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra. Until Hambitzer's death in 1918, he acted as Gershwin's mentor. Hambitzer taught Gershwin conventional piano technique, introduced him to music of the European classical tradition, and encouraged him to attend orchestra concerts.[5] (At home following such concerts, young Gershwin would attempt to reproduce at the piano the music that he had heard.) Gershwin later studied with classical composer Rubin Goldmark and avant-garde composer-theorist Henry Cowell.

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