English label
Sounds of Yesteryear
's
The Genius of George Gershwin
is a two-disc collection of historical recordings of
Gershwin
's music made between 1918 and 1931, though most of it is concentrated in the years 1926-1928. The first disc,
George Gershwin
at the Piano, contains many to most of the studio recordings that
made as a pianist, although it does not include the recordings he made as accompanist to
Fred
and
Adele Astaire
and does include
Nat Shilkret
's 1929 waxing of
"An American in Paris,"
a date to which
only made a minimal contribution. The second disc is titled The Bands Play
, and includes a wide variety of 1920s and early-'30s jazz and dance orchestras playing songs from various
shows. Many of the groups heard in this part of the collection are English, which sets it apart from similarly themed domestic U.S. collections of this kind. The transfers are very quiet, but a little constricted and below par for such reissues; however, listeners who cannot bear even the slightest trace of 78-rpm surface noise will be more than satisfied. It is an inexpensive collection, and the cheap-looking generic cover graphic might be a little off-putting to advanced
collectors; it makes it look like this is collection of faceless, anonymous orchestrations of
standards that no one would want. Nevertheless, the inclusion of such gems as
the Savoy Orpheans
' version of
"Fascinating Rhythm"
or
's 1931 take on the
rarity
"Delishious"
may well make
desirable, even if one already has the contents of the first disc many times over. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis