| Porgy and Bess: A Jazz Transcription
A two-part special from Riverwalk!
Part 1 Uplink 9/16
The Jim Cullum Jazz Band’s highly acclaimed original jazz transcription of George Gershwin’s great American folk opera, Porgy and Bess. Award-winning baritone, the late William Warfield (above), who was most famous for his highly memorable role as Porgy, narrates our version in an encore performance. In the mid-1920s, DuBose Heyward, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, wrote his greatest success: the novel Porgy. He painted a fascinating story of love and honor, based on familiar characters from the Charleston waterfront scene. In 1926, George Gershwin read Porgy and fell in love with the story. He immediately wrote to Heyward asking him to collaborate on an opera based on the novel. Gershwin was tremendously excited about the prospect of developing the themes and characters of Porgy for an American opera. In 1930 Gershwin received a commission from the Metropolitan Opera to write a grand opera, one distinctly American. He was free to select the libretto. While Gershwin was impressed with the Met's offer, he knew that the venue would present some formidable problems: He wanted to do Porgy and it would require an all-Negro cast. The Met's doors were closed to Negro performers; not one was on its roster. For three years, Gershwin delayed the decision while he searched for another story. Nothing suited his needs like the Porgy story, and neither he nor Heyward wanted it done in blackface, as was the practice of that time. The composers of Show Boat, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, made an attractive offer to Heyward for the musical rights--the famous Al Jolson was to play Porgy. Kern, Hammerstein, and Jolson planned to turn the book into a musical comedy using a cast in blackface. The pressure forced both Gershwin and Heyward, who intuitively knew the potential of Porgy, to announce in October of 1933 the composition of a folk opera based on the Heyward book to be performed on Broadway with an all-Negro cast. It would be produced by the Theater Guild, which had produced Heyward's highly successful stage play. Neither Heyward nor Gershwin could anticipate the challenges and exhilaration the task would provide. Late in 1933, Gershwin began to work on Porgy and Bess. He visited Carolina churches, nightclubs, and prayer meetings, immersing himself in the culture. Meanwhile, Heyward and Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics. Gershwin’s score brilliantly combines popular and classical forms, bringing together elements of opera, jazz, and folk music. Gershwin himself said in the New York Times in 1935:
To Gershwin’s great disappointment, Porgy and Bess opened at New York's Alvin Theater on October 10, 1935 to mixed reviews and closed in less than six months. He died in 1937, at the age of 38, before Porgy and Bess became recognized as one of the great artistic accomplishments of American culture this century. One of the foremost interpreters of the role of Porgy was the late American bass-baritone William Warfield. He sang the part in the renowned 1952 revival of the opera, which eventually toured as far afield as Russia. The Jim Cullum Jazz Band began creating an original jazz transcription of Porgy and Bess in late 1984. Most of the arranging was done by the band’s pianist, John Sheridan. The work premiered with highly favorable reviews at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio in October, 1985, and went on to be recorded for compact disk by CBS Masterworks in 1987. (The CD is now out of print). Shortly thereafter, Jim Cullum invited William Warfield to perform with the Jazz Band as narrator in their live performances of the work. This was an ongoing role for Mr. Warfield throughout the 1990s until his passing in 2002. RIVERWALK JAZZ IS MADE POSSIBLE BY
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 Here
are tune lists for these shows:
 Porgy
& Bess, The Complete Opera (1993, directed by Trevor Nunn).
Starring Willard White as Porgy, Cynthia Haymon as Bess, and Damon Evans as
Sportin' Life.
On the Web: The Complicated Life of Porgy and Bess by James Standifer An Interview with William Warfield by John Ardoin
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