The Concerto in the Newspaper
A new MacArthur fellow explains why a chef cooks on stage during his album, and the first recording of "Rhapsody in Blue" turns out to have been cut back to front. On The Bridge, a newspaper tells George Gershwin he is writing a jazz concerto, and he has about five weeks.
LioraA MacArthur fellow explains why he put a chef on the bandstand. Today's record sits in a government archive, free to play. Later, New York, 1924, and the concerto Gershwin read about in the paper. It's Sunday. Let's go.
LioraIt's Sunday, October 11th. This is The Daily Quintet. I'm Liora. Five stories from the world of jazz, in about ten minutes. Here we go.
One. The Lead: Immanuel Wilkins, the youngest of the 2026 MacArthur fellows
LioraImmanuel Wilkins is twenty nine, and NPR calls him the youngest person to receive a 2026 MacArthur fellowship, the award people know as the genius grant.
He was on All Things Considered yesterday evening, and spent most of seven minutes on method. A lot of the work, he said, is spending time with the archives. Mining the ruins his own self. Sometimes, in his word, masochistic, because the subject matter is grotesque.
Now the part worth the segment. For live performances of his album "Blues Blood," Wilkins put a chef on stage, cooking a meal.
LioraHe wanted a piece about ancestral memory, about things passed down a bloodline that have no physicality to them. He was thinking about the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and what Africans could not bring with them to the Americas. Food, he said, is another one of those immaterial archives.
What was it like up there? Really strange. Being able to smell food being made on stage, he said, dissolves the bandstand in a beautiful way, where it is not about performance anymore. It feels like no one is watching you.
Two. Listen to This: The Library of Congress National Jukebox streams both sides of the first "Rhapsody in
LioraToday's record is the one tonight's story is about.
The Library of Congress National Jukebox holds both sides of the first recording of "Rhapsody in Blue." Recorded June tenth, 1924, in New York. Issued as Victor 55225. Paul Whiteman, leader. Gershwin, composer, and Gershwin again on piano. Ferde Grofe, arranger. The Library's whole summary of it is four words. Orchestra and piano soloist.
Here is the tip, and it is in the catalog, not the music. The two matrix numbers run backwards. Part one is C-30174, take one. Part two is C-30173, take two. The second half was cut first. So play part two first sometime. That is the order the session happened in.
LioraOne new one. Blue Note put out a Julian Lage single on Friday, "Aberdeen," from the sessions for "Scenes from Above," with John Medeski on organ and piano, Jorge Roeder on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums.
Now go back one hundred two years. Tonight on The Bridge: New York, January 1924. George Gershwin forgot he owed Paul Whiteman a piece, until a newspaper said he was writing one. Then he had about five weeks to make "Rhapsody in Blue." Silas has the story.
Three. The Bridge: George Gershwin forgot he owed Paul Whiteman a piece
LioraOne true story from this music's history, every day. Silas tells it, I ask the questions. Silas, where are we?
SilasNew York, the first days of January 1924. George Gershwin is busy with a new musical called Sweet Little Devil. Months ago, the bandleader Paul Whiteman asked him to write a piece for a concert he was planning. One historian calls Whiteman the biggest name in popular music at the time. Gershwin has forgotten all about it.
LioraHe forgot a commission from the biggest name in popular music?
SilasCompletely. Then, on January 4th, the New York Tribune runs a small news item. By one account it reads, "George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto." One magazine dates it a day earlier, so even the date is in dispute. The story goes that his brother Ira spots it and brings it to George during a game of pool. That part is legend. What's on record is that George is surprised Whiteman never kept him informed. And the concert is about five weeks off.
LioraFive weeks. For a concerto.
SilasHe takes the job anyway. He starts on January 7th and writes that date on the manuscript. On a train to Boston, where his musical is trying out, he works out the shape of it. He called it "a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America." He writes for two pianos, one part for the soloist and one standing in for the band. Whiteman's chief arranger, Ferde Grofé, comes by every day to collect the finished pages and score them for the band. Ira suggests the title, Rhapsody in Blue. Grofé finishes the orchestration on February 4th. Eight days before the concert.
LioraWhere does that opening come from?
SilasFrom the clarinet. Gershwin wrote the opening as a plain run up the scale. In rehearsal, Ross Gorman, a woodwind player in Whiteman's band, plays it as one smooth, wailing slide instead. The usual telling says he did it as a joke. Nobody has found a first-hand account of that, and one source says he was showing Gershwin what the clarinet could do. What holds up is the result. Gershwin is delighted and asks him to keep it for the concert.
LioraHow does the premiere go?
SilasFebruary 12th, 1924, an afternoon at Aeolian Hall. The concert is called "An Experiment in Modern Music." By one account, Whiteman put up $11,000 of his own money and took in just $4,000 in ticket sales. The program is built to show how far jazz has come, so it opens with Livery Stable Blues, in the style of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Rachmaninoff is in the audience. The Rhapsody comes next to last. By then the crowd has sat through twenty-three numbers, or twenty-four, depending on whose count you trust, and it's restless. Gershwin plays the solo part himself. The score even tells Whiteman to "wait for nod" before the band comes back in after a solo piano stretch.
The reviews split. Olin Downes of the New York Times wrote, "This composition shows extraordinary talent." Lawrence Gilman of the Tribune, the same paper that ran that little item in January, called the tunes "trite, feeble and conventional." He did praise the rhythms. The paper that announced the piece is the one that knocked its tunes.
LioraGershwin found out about his own concerto from the newspaper. Five weeks later, he played it. That's The Bridge. Back to today, right after this.
Four. On the Road: Straight Ahead plays two sets at Cliff Bell's in Detroit
LioraTonight, coast to coast.
Tonight's ticket is in Detroit.
Cliff Bell's has Straight Ahead, which the club's own page calls the Grammy nominated jazz group, and the first all woman jazz band signed to a major record label, Atlantic. Alina Morr on piano, Marion Hayden on bass, Gayelynn McKinney on drums, Ingrid Racine on trumpet, Kymberli Wright on vocals. Two sets, half past five and half past seven. Twenty five dollars.
Now the sweep.
In New York, the Blue Note has Robert Glasper and Lalah Hathaway as a duo, eight and half past ten. The club prints no ticket price, only a twenty dollar minimum per person.
In Chicago, the Green Mill has Soul Message, eight to midnight, ten dollars, with Chris Foreman on the Hammond B-3.
LioraIn Baltimore, Keystone Korner has AJ Ghent and His Singing Guitar at five and half past seven. Both sets are sold out, and only a streaming pass is left.
And in Austin, the Elephant Room has the Daniel Durham Quartet at eight, five dollars, with Elena Diaz singing and Daniel Raynaud on piano.
Five. One More Note: Art Blakey was born on this date in 1919, and two dollars to Birdland's emcee put his
LioraArt Blakey was born one hundred seven years ago today, October eleventh, 1919, by the National Endowment for the Arts' own file.
Here is how he got the band. Birdland, February 1954. Blue Note's Alfred Lion had booked the night as the Blue Note All-Stars. By the Library of Congress essay, Blakey handed the emcee Pee Wee Marquette a couple of dollars and told him to announce the Art Blakey All-Stars instead.
Lou Donaldson, who was on the date, says Horace Silver asked him what the heck was happening. He said: I don't know, and I'm not going to ask.
Two dollars, and the record came out with Blakey's name on it.
Outro
LioraThat's the Quintet. If today's show earned it, follow The Daily Quintet wherever you listen.
The Daily Quintet is an AI-crafted production, researched and checked by humans. Every listing you heard came from the venue or the festival's own organizer.
That's your Sunday. I'm Liora. See you tomorrow.