The Complete Porgy and Bess
Encyclopedia
This 1956 recording based on George Gershwin
's opera
Porgy and Bess
was the second "complete" recording of the opera after the 1951 version
recorded several years earlier, and the first recording of the work to feature jazz singers and musicians instead of operatic singers and a classical orchestra. This technically makes the album not an opera at all.
Russell Garcia
arranged Gershwin's work for the Bethlehem Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Australian Jazz Quintet, the Pat Moran Quartet and the Stan Levey Group. Mel Tormé
sang the role of Porgy and Frances Faye
the role of Bess. The Ellington Orchestra plays "Summertime" as the overture, but does not appear elsewhere on the album.
Originally released by Bethlehem Records in 1956 (3BP-1); reissued in the 1970s (EXLP-1). Highlights from this recording released by Bethlehem as BCP 6040 and BCP 6009. On CD: Bethlehem Records #BET6028-2 (Releaseed 1994), Rhino Records #75828 (Released 1999).
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
's opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
was the second "complete" recording of the opera after the 1951 version
Porgy and Bess (1951 album)
This 1951 recording of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess was the first "complete" recording of the work from beginning to end, not a series of selections of popular songs from the work. This 1951 recording of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess was the first "complete" recording of the...
recorded several years earlier, and the first recording of the work to feature jazz singers and musicians instead of operatic singers and a classical orchestra. This technically makes the album not an opera at all.
Russell Garcia
Russell Garcia (composer)
Russell Garcia, QSM was a composer and arranger who wrote a wide variety of music for screen, stage and broadcast....
arranged Gershwin's work for the Bethlehem Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Australian Jazz Quintet, the Pat Moran Quartet and the Stan Levey Group. Mel Tormé
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
sang the role of Porgy and Frances Faye
Frances Faye
Frances Faye was an American cabaret and show tune singer and pianist. She was born to a working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City. She was a second cousin of actor Danny Kaye.-Career:...
the role of Bess. The Ellington Orchestra plays "Summertime" as the overture, but does not appear elsewhere on the album.
Originally released by Bethlehem Records in 1956 (3BP-1); reissued in the 1970s (EXLP-1). Highlights from this recording released by Bethlehem as BCP 6040 and BCP 6009. On CD: Bethlehem Records #BET6028-2 (Releaseed 1994), Rhino Records #75828 (Released 1999).
Cast
- Mel TorméMel TorméMelvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
(Porgy) - Frances FayeFrances FayeFrances Faye was an American cabaret and show tune singer and pianist. She was born to a working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City. She was a second cousin of actor Danny Kaye.-Career:...
(Bess) - Johnny HartmanJohnny HartmanJohn Maurice Hartman was an American bass jazz singer who specialized in ballads and earned critical acclaim, though he was never widely known. He recorded a well-known collaboration with the saxophonist John Coltrane in 1963 called John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, and was briefly a member of...
(Crown) - Betty RocheBetty RochéMary Elizabeth "Betty" Roché was an American blues singer, who became most famous with her cover of the song "Take the "A" Train". She recorded with the Savoy Sultans, Hot Lips Page, Duke Ellington, Charles Brown and Clark Terry.Roché was born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States...
(Clara) - George KirbyGeorge KirbyGeorge Kirby was an American comedian, singer, and actor from Chicago, Illinois.Kirby broke into show business in the 1940s at the Club DeLisa, a South Side establishment that employed a variety-show format and preferred to hire local singers, dancers, and comedians...
(Sportin' Life) - Sallie Blair (Serena)
- Frank RosolinoFrank RosolinoFrank Rosolino was an American jazz trombonist.- Biography :Born in Detroit, Michigan, Frank Rosolino studied the guitar with his father from the age of 9. He took up the trombone at age 14 while he was enrolled at Miller High School where he played with Milt Jackson in the school's stage band and...
(Jake) - Loulie Jean NormanLoulie Jean NormanLoulie Jean Norman was a famous coloratura soprano who worked with famed arranger Gordon Jenkins. Jenkins and Norman collaborated on a number of albums...
(Strawberry Woman) - Joe Derise (Honey Man)
- Bob DoroughBob DoroughBob Dorough is an American bebop and cool jazz pianist, composer and vocalese singer.He worked with Miles Davis and Allen Ginsberg, and his adventurous style was an influence on Mose Allison, among other singers...
(Crab Man) - Pat Moran Quartet (Pat Moran, John Doling, Johnny Whited, Bev Kelly)
Orchestra
- Duke Ellington Orchestra): Duke EllingtonDuke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, piano; William "Cat" Anderson, Willie CookWillie CookWillie Cook was an American jazz trumpeter.Cook grew up in Chicago and learned to play violin before settling on trumpet as a teenager. He joined King Perry's band in the late 1930s, then replaced Charlie Parker in Jay McShann's band early in the 1940s...
, Clark TerryClark TerryClark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
(trumpet); Ray NanceRay NanceRay Willis Nance was a jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer.Nance is best known for his long association with Duke Ellington through most of the 1940s and 1950s, after he was hired to replace Cootie Williams in 1940...
(trumpet, violn); Quentin JacksonQuentin JacksonQuentin "Butter" Jackson was an American jazz trombonist. In the early stage of his career he worked with Cab Calloway and was in the Duke Ellington Orchestra...
, John Sanders, Britt WoodmanBritt WoodmanBritt Woodman was a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his work with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus....
(trombone); Russell ProcopeRussell ProcopeRussell Procope , an American clarinettist and alto saxophonist, was known best for his long tenure in the reed section of Duke Ellington's orchestra, where he was one of its two signature clarinet soloists....
(clarinet, alto saxophone); Jimmy HamiltonJimmy HamiltonJimmy Hamilton was an American jazz clarinetist, tenor saxophonist, arranger, composer, and music educator, best known for his twenty-five years with Duke Ellington....
(clarinet, tenor saxophone); Johnny HodgesJohnny HodgesJohn Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges was an American alto saxophonist, best known for his solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years, except the period between 1932–1946 when Otto Hardwick generally played first chair...
(alto saxophone); Paul GonsalvesPaul GonsalvesPaul Gonsalves, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his association with Duke Ellington. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves played a 27-chorus solo in the middle of Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue"...
(tenor saxophone); Harry CarneyHarry CarneyHarry Howell Carney was an American swing baritone saxophonist, clarinetist, and bass clarinetist mainly known for his 45-year tenure in Duke Ellington's Orchestra. Carney started off as an alto player with Ellington, but soon switched to the baritone. His strong, steady saxophone often served as...
(baritone saxophone); Jimmy WoodeJimmy WoodeJimmy Woode was a jazz bassist. His father, also named Jimmy Woode, was a music teacher and pianist who played with Hot Lips Page...
(bass); Sam WoodyardSam WoodyardSam Woodyard was an American jazz drummer.Woodyard was largely an autodidact on drums, and played locally in the Newark, New Jersey area in the 1940s. He gigged with Paul Gayten in an R&B group, and then played in the early 1950s with Joe Holiday, Roy Eldridge, and Milt Buckner...
(drums) - Australian Jazz Quintet: Dick HealeyDick HealeyRichard Owen Healey was a New South Wales politician, ABC Sports Broadcaster and Minister of the Crown in the cabinets of Sir Robert Askin, Tom Lewis and Sir Eric Willis. From 1973 to 1975 he was Minister for Youth and Community Services, when he was made Minister for Health, which he held until...
(alto saxophone, flute); Erroll Buddle (tenor saxophone, bassoon); Jack BrokenshaJack BrokenshaJohn Joseph "Jack" Brokensha was an Australian-born American jazz vibraphonist.Brokensha was born in Nailsworth, Adelaide, South Australia. He studied percussion under his father, and played xylophone in vaudeville shows and on radio...
(vibraphone); Bryce RohdeBryce RohdeBryce Benno Rohde is an Australian jazz pianist and composer. He was strongly influenced by George Russell's musical conceptions....
(piano); Jimmy Gannon (bass); Frank CappFrank CappFrank Capp is an American jazz drummer.Capp was born August 20, 1931 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He began playing with Stan Kenton starting in 1951 and remained with Kenton for some time. Later he joined Neal Hefti's group. He often accompanied Peggy Lee on some of her road dates and...
(drums) - Stan Levey Group: Conte CandoliConte CandoliSecondo "Conte" Candoli was an American jazz trumpeter based on the West Coast. He played in the big bands of Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Dizzy Gillespie, and in Doc Severinsen's NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show. He played with Gerry Mulligan, and on Frank Sinatra's TV specials...
, (trumpet); Frank RosolinoFrank RosolinoFrank Rosolino was an American jazz trombonist.- Biography :Born in Detroit, Michigan, Frank Rosolino studied the guitar with his father from the age of 9. He took up the trombone at age 14 while he was enrolled at Miller High School where he played with Milt Jackson in the school's stage band and...
(trombone); Richie KamucaRichie KamucaRichie Kamuca , was an American jazz tenor saxophonist born in Philadelphia.-Musical career:Like many players associated with West Coast jazz, Kamuca grew up in the East before moving west around the time that bebop changed the prevailing style of jazz...
(tenor saxophone); Sonny ClarkSonny ClarkConrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark was an American jazz pianist who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom.-Biography:...
(piano); Leroy VinnegarLeroy VinnegarLeroy Vinnegar was an American jazz bassist.Born in Indianapolis, the self-taught Vinnegar established his reputation in Los Angeles during the 1950s and 1960s. His trademark was the rhythmic "walking" bass line, a steady series of ascending or descending notes, and it brought him the nickname...
(bass); Stan LeveyStan LeveyStan Levey was an American jazz drummer. Born in Philadelphia, Levey is considered one of the earliest bebop drummers, one of the very few white drummers involved in the formative years of bebop and accepted as one of bop's most important drummers, along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach...
(drums) http://www.jazzdisco.org/bethlehem/1956-dis/c/
External links
- Production notes from the Jazz Discography Project