Artist: Abbie Mitchell
Author: George Gershwin/DuBose Heyward
Label: Musicmasters
Year: 1935
Casted as Clara in the initial version of Porgy And Bess. Rehearsal recording for this Gershwin opera, introduced by George Gershwin himself (on cd Gershwin Performs Gershwin: Rare Recordings 1931-1935). The première in Boston, September 30th 1935, was not recorded. First recording: white Helen Jepson (10.23.1935 - Victor). It's all in the book about Summertime by Jimmy Tigges and Paul Groenendijk: Moed Gevraagd Bij De 834ste Versie (Panta Rhei). Marie's lullaby (Eia Popeia) from Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck influenced Summertime's hazy chords. Gershwin was a fan.
Covers:
Helen Jepson [first recording]
Billie Holiday [top 20 US]
Sidney Bechet [first hit for Blue Note]
Anne Brown [Bess in the original opera cast for Decca; frequently regarded as the original]
Tommy Dorsey [vocal: Frank Sinatra]
Drifters [vocal: Clyde McPhatter]
Mahalia Jackson [in medley with Motherless Child, her graceful way to commemorate Emmett Till, murdered one year before and also from Chicago]
Armand Mestral [as C'est l'été]
Sarah Vaughan [remixed in '02 (UFO Remix)]
Miles Davis [on concept album Porgy And Bess]
Loulie Jean Norman [in film Porgy And Bess]
Beatles [in Hamburg with Lu Walters and Ringo Starr from The Hurricanes as singer and drummer, replacing Pete Best; first recording of the real fab four; only nine copies pressed and only one survived, probably in Paul's private collection; in '68, during sessions for the white double album, another attempt was made]
John Williams [als C'est l'été]
Herbie Mann [Live At The Village Gate]
Rick Nelson [with a riff repeated by Deep Purple in Black Night]
Atmospheres [instrumental demo with Robbie van Leeuwen]
Sandra Reemer [as Sluimer Zacht]
Mystères [with Mariska Veres, pre Shocking Blue]
Billy Stewart [novelty hit version; top 10 US]
Sonny & Cher [B-side of Little Man]
Shake Spears [hit B; re-issued in '78 when it entered the local top 10 (top 20 NL)]
Big Brother & The Holding Company [vocal: Janis Joplin; J.S. Bach intro by Sam Andrew]
Paul McCartney [on Choba b CCCP]
Link Protrudi & The Jaymen [ex Fuzztones]
Sublime [as Doin' Time, small hit US; holds a Herbie Mann sample while also using Summertime's opening line and melody; remixed frequently]
Herbie Hancock [vocal: Joni Mitchell; sax: Wayne Shorter]
Hubert Laws & Morcheeba [on Red Hot + Rhapsody]
Bobby Womack & The Roots [as Doin' Time]
Elbow [outro The Bones Of You]
Willie Nelson [title track lp]
Lana Del Rey [as Doin' Time (see under Sublime's cover)]
Joanne Shaw Taylor [with oe Bonamassa]
Joni Mitchell [At Newport]
Vaudevilles, musical theatres, movie theatres, concert houses, George Gershwin had left his mark everywhere when in 1935 opera houses were added to that list. That was the year he and his brother Ira adapted black author Edwin DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy for the opera stage. Porgy discribes the life and times of a black fishing community along the Carolina coast. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II had also showed intrest in that same script. They wanted to adapt it for a musical and it was this plan George Gershwin wanted to top. His opera idea teased author Heyward and he even helped writing the libretto. To work himself into the project, Gershwin went to live for months on Folly Island before the South Carolina coast, in the midst of an Afro-American Gullah community, searching for rootsy musical inspiration. Blacks on these coastal islands lived less integrated than the ones on the main land. They didn't speak English properly. Their language was more of a mixture with Angolan elements, which helped accentuate the opera's authenticity. Porgy And Bess, that's what we're talking about, is the story of a cripple in love with a beautiful woman, but it all turns out sour: she gets hooked on cocaine and follows her dealer to New York, leaving Porky clueless behind. Not an evident story line, certainly not in mid thirties America, when segregation was still the name of the game. Blacks starring in an opera was at least hard to swallow for the average opera buff. Othello at least had his face shoeshined, but these Porgy & Bess blacks were real! What's more: Gershwin was known for his merry musicals, and so one expected a Gilbert & Sullivan kind of approach. But he came up with a serious opera and that's why it wasn't an overnite success. It wasn't a failure either, but reactions were not overwhelming at first. That didn't bother George Gershwin, who knew sooner or later his opera would hit. He was right, although he didn't live to see that day. George died two years after the première. Neither did the individual songs from Porgy & Bess hit at any time; very strange that is. Opening song Summertime for instance, known throughout the world in thousands of versions, made the US top 10 only once, with novelty act Billy Stewart; his rolling R gimmick kept all the big names in showbusiness behind, and the lesser one's too.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)