It was weeks before the "Rhapsody in Blue" centenary, but Ethan Iverson still tore a hole in the Gershwinverse.
In a controversial New York Times opinion piece titled "The Worst Masterpiece: 'Rhapsody in Blue' at 100," the jazz pianist and composer called the classical crossover hit "corny and caucasian." And despite applause from the Black musical architects it drew from, like Art Blakey, Billy Strayhorn and Tadd Dameron, "The promise of 1924 hasn't been honored," Iverson asserted.
While a fairly even-handed read, "The Worst Masterpiece" reopened online fissures over race, genre, heritage, academia, the classical repertoire… the list goes on. (At press time, the debate's still actively raging on Jazz Facebook and the rest.)
Is George Gershwin's catchy, world-renowned fusion of European classical with jazz and ragtime really "naïve and corny"? Or is it a bridge built, a barrier busted, a bastion of unity in a fractionated world? What's most heartening is that we still care enough to argue about it.
Love it or loathe it, "Rhapsody in Blue" still pulses with life 100 years after its New York City premiere.
Enter Lara Downes, a celebrated American pianist who's given this "Rhapsody" her own spin via Rhapsody in Blue Reimagined. Out Feb. 2 via Pentatone, Downes' take reflects on immigration, American musical roots, and a whole lot more on her psyche.
"He was really, really influential in laying the groundwork for a lot of ideas about the way that things can go," Downes tells GRAMMY.com, "where you can infuse a symphony with jazz music music, but you're also letting symphonic sounds come into pop music."
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That being said, a century has come and gone, and we're in a wildly different space regarding cultural exchange and race relations than we were in Gershwin's day.
So, for Rhapsody in Blue Reimagined, Downes felt compelled to dig much deeper into its diasporic roots — like expanding its purview to include the diasporas of Central and South America, Asia, the Middle East, and many other regions intrinsic to the development of Black American music.
"We are blessed and stuck with this piece, a flawed classic that exemplifies our nation's unsettled relationship with the originators of African American music and technique," Iverson concluded.
Which is a perfect way to sum up a piece practically begging to be built upon, in more ways than one — which will ensure we'll still be talking about it in 2124. Turn up Rhapsody in Blue Reimagined — and, then, perhaps Iverson's excellent new Blue Note album, Technically Acceptable — and keep reading for a partial list of why "Rhapsody in Blue" resonates.
It Truly Is A Melting Pot
Sure, it's a cliché, but a cliché for a reason. With "Rhapsody in Blue," Gershwin gamely attempted to cross-pollinate Black and white traditions, to at least partial success.
"Rhapsody in Blue" was commissioned by Paul Whiteman, a key figure in symphonic jazz and — for good or ill — another lightning rod as regards race and the music. The title of the concert? "An Experiment in Modern Music."
"My idea for the concert," Whiteman explained in his autobiography, "was to show these skeptical people the advance which had been made in popular music from the day of the discordant early jazz to the melodious form of the present."\
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Which, to be clear, is quite the claim about early jazz — at best, contestable, at worst, offensive. But Gershwin's heart was in the right place, and the result isn't just catchy as hell, but on a certain level, admirable.
"Gershwin is well aware of what he's doing, and he really doesn't give a damn what people think," Joseph Horowitz, the author of Classical Music in America: A History of its Rise and Fall, told NPR. "He wanted to bridge musical worlds that were separate."
It's Permeated With Joy
About those catchy melodies — "Rhapsody in Blue" is absolutely stuffed with them, which lends itself to a sense of effervescent joy. (No wonder so many, with such warm memories of this music, leapt out in response to that alleged Times takedown.)
Of course, race relations in America have largely been the opposite of glowing. But as a pure listening experience — an idealized space — it's easy to get swept away in its giddy grandeur.
By expanding "Rhapsody in Blue" in more ways than one, Downes has given its disciples even more to love. Not only has she extended the composition by some 10 minutes — through sheer inclusivity of forms, sounds and colors, Downes honors the immigration that still constitutes America's essence.
Its Influence Is All Over The Place
The genre-crossing visionary perhaps most vocally influenced by "Rhapsody in Blue" is Brian Wilson: when you consider the ingredients for the Beach Boys' inimitable sound, it's right up there with Chuck Berry, surf music, Phil Spector, and the Four Freshmen.
"I must have been two or three, which meant that the record was only about a year old," Wilson wrote in his memoir of the Glenn Miller version of "Rhapsody in Blue." "When [my grandmother] played it for me, I was blown away. I was transported somewhere else."
Elsewhere, you can hear its yearning, patriotic strains throughout the works of Randy Newman — albeit often sarcastically, as in the slaver's sales pitch for America, "Sail Away." Béla Fleck transcribed it.
While Gershwin's effort wasn't universally beloved by any stretch, the likes of Maurice Ravel and Arnold Schoenberg took him abundantly seriously.
And as Downes' take on "Rhapsody in Blue" demonstrates, the 100-year-old composition is best seen as a canvas for us all to paint on, not a dead-in-the-water work trotted out in concert to fill seats.
This "Rhapsody" doesn't belong to one composer, or one set of gatekeepers; it belongs to all of us.