Cheap American Rhapsody: The Music of Gershwin (Music) (Al Kibbon, George Gershwin, Mathias Ruegg, Stephen Williams, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Shirley Horn, Joe Lovano, Ray Anderson, Art Farmer, Franck Tortillier) Price
CHEAP-PRICE.NET ’s Cheap Price
$16.98
Here at Cheap-price.net we have American Rhapsody: The Music of Gershwin at a terrific price. The real-time price may actually be cheaper — click “Buy Now” above to check the live price at Amazon.com.
| ARTIST: | Al Kibbon, George Gershwin, Mathias Ruegg, Stephen Williams, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Shirley Horn, Joe Lovano, Ray Anderson, Art Farmer, Franck Tortillier |
| CATEGORY: | Music |
| MANUFACTURER: | RCA |
| TYPE: | American 20th/21st Century Opera, Classical, Concerto, Film, Film Music, Jazz, Jazz Music, Music Theater, Musical Theater, Opera, Piano Concerto |
| MEDIA: | Audio CD |
| TRACKS: | Rhapsody In Blue, They Can't Take That Away From Me, But Not For Me, The Babbit And The Bromide, Soon, I Got Rhythm, My Man's Gone Now, Someone To Watch Over Me, Concerto In F (First Movement) |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 090266325825 |
Related Products
Customer Reviews of American Rhapsody: The Music of Gershwin
Fantastic! I don't know how anyone could have a negative thing to say about this CD. The music is not only great but the musicians are supremely talented. They just don't make many of these, which means it's a real treasure. Don't deprive yourself of the treat.
Forget the VAO, buy the CD for that one Shirley Horn track
The VAO may not be my favorite jazz band but they deserve my eternal gratitude for not adding anything to the Shirley Horn trio performing "Someone To Watch Over Me". You just can't overdub on Perfection. Shirley Horn's rendition surpasses her previous recording of the same song on Toots Thielemans' "For My Lady" CD. I bought the CD for that one track and would advise every jazz lover to do the same. I love to come home in the evening exhausted and depressed (yes, I have a lousy job) and put on that one track and feel my mood change for the better. Maybe you should be trying it too...
Too respectful, or not respectful enough?
My introduction to the VAO was through their superb Ellington tribute. Hoping for something of equal energy, I bought this one as well, and have been disappointed. I suspect the problems with it are not so much with the VAO as with the Gershwins. Great as they were, George and Ira simply did not swing in the manner of most of Matthias Reugg's inspirations (Ellington and Mingus chief among them) -- the resulting sense of disengagement is palpable; the band's capacity for swinging hard and harder is mostly conspicuous by its absence. The choice of tunes does not help, either. They are either the over-familiar (eg "Rhapsody in Blue") or the deservedly forgotten (eg "Babbit and The Bromide," which is essentially a novelty song, and a very dated one at that; the dead-pan delivery does nothing to enliven it). As with most great music, the truly great Gershwin songs (eg "Someone to Watch Over Me") remain truly great no matter how they are treated -- Ruegg's arrangements certainly do them no harm, but bring out little that is profound, new or revealing. The VAO is always a virtuosic band of unbelievably skilled players -- which is no less true here than on other records. What's missing is the sense of committment one felt in the Ellington tribute. I wonder if Ruegg or his band really care about this music; perhaps they did at one time, but their care seems to have faded into little more than competance. That's not good enough -- and so Three Stars (all of them for skill, none for heart).