Elder Music: Summertime

For me, one of the most irritating developments in online security is the practice of being asked to supply answers to such questions as one’s favorite movie or song. What stunted imagination has only one favorite? So when I’ve forgotten a password and need to go through the security rigmarole to retrieve it, I’ve forgotten not only the password but which favorite I chose for that website.

My musical preferences are many but with a select few, I am a voracious collector of interpretations. In the old days of vinyl, tape and CDs, this was an expensive minor hobby which also involved a lot of media changing and skipping through sides to hear several versions of a song one after another. Then the miracle of MP3s came along and in my Napster slut days, before that service was shut down, my collection of many versions of favorite songs grew exponentially.

Perhaps because there are vast expanses of cold, white stuff out my windows with no letup in view for several months, I’ve chosen Summertime today. It is the best-known song from Porgy and Bess which premiered on Broadway in 1935, and is sung in all three acts of the Gershwin folk opera – I’ve been listening to Summertime all my life.

It is obvious that this song appeals to many more people than just me - there are 2155 recordings listed at AllMusic and I have only 83 on my computer. (Oy vey, how will ever catch up? At least, these days, I can purchase single tunes online instead of entire albums.)

Because I’ve cleaned up my act since my long nights of Napster downloading, I’m limited to legal versions online for posting here and many of my favorites - such Miles Davis's instrumental take from his 1958 album of Porgy and Bess - are not available for embedding, although you can listen to it here. Still, the range of interpretation and styles of Summertime I did find is satisfactory if not as wide as my collection.

I don’t expect you to listen to all seven of these, but perhaps in sampling you’ll find something you like that you haven’t heard before or in a long time.

After its release on Janis Joplin’s final album with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Summertime became a staple of her concerts and this one has the bonus of Jimi Hendrix. [4:24 minutes]

In the same 1960s era as Janis’s many performances of Summertime, pioneer jazz stylist Bill Evans and his trio recorded this instrumental version. (My god, they’re young.) [5:47 minutes]

No Summertime collection can be called respectable without Billy Holliday who latched on to the song at about the same time it premiered. If Lady Day, in this long-ago style and arrangement, doesn’t rip out your heart, then – well, it’s not still beating. [2:56 minutes]

It breaks my heart that I don’t have Kathleen Battle for you. Her clear, silvery soprano reduces me to tears and a classically trained voice gives Summertime a very different dimension from jazz and pop versions. Cecily Nall as a substitute for Battle, however, is hardly shabby. [3:52 minutes]

God only knows how many times and in duet with how many other performers Ella Fitzgerald sang Summertime. I have six versions in my collection. This one is from a concert in Berlin in 1968. [3:43 minutes]

Here’s a country-style rendition recorded for television in 1992, from guitarist Chet Atkins with singer/songwriter and sometime actor Jerry Reed who died just last year. [4:27 minutes]

Is there any other harmonica player to match Larry Adler? Well, maybe one or two, but that’s all. In his early 80s, he recorded an album of Gershwin songs, including Summertime, and in concerts to promote the album, he played the song on harmonica and piano simultaneously. In this video that masterfully edits together three performances, you get to hear him do that as it moves from Adler with a full orchestra to him on both instruments and ending in duet with violinist Itzhak Perlman. [3:43 minutes]

Remember way up at the top of this post where I complained about not being able to remember which favorite song or movie I typed in answer to a security question? A geeky type recently gave me a brilliant suggestion: just choose a word, any word, and use it for my answer to any question every time - a computer doesn't know the difference.

I think I'll use summertime.

Comments

[zuleme]

and the livin is easy...

sigh

15 degrees and well over three feet of snow on the ground.

[Kay Dennison]

I grew up with a father who loved Gershwin and loved to sing. "Summertime" was a favorite of his and is one of mine. Thank you for sharing all these renditions -- especially the ones by Ella who is my favorite jazz singer.

[Virginia]

It was great listening to these. I'm glad I'm not the only person who collects different interpretations of the same song. Re the Kathleen Battle version, I remember hearing a soprano sing Summertime when I was still in high school. It was of those cultural exchange progams that used to come into the schools. I don't even remember the singer's name. But I remember how perfect, how goose-bump, throat-filling perfect, it is to hear this song from a beautiful soprano voice.

[la peregrina]

Thanks, Ronni, that was very enjoyable.

Funny thing, I saw Larry Adler in Music For Millions (1944) on TCM a short while back. I have never been a big fan of the harmonica because, to my ears, it is very close to the sound of fingernails on a blackboard and almost unpleasant. In the movie Mr. Adler played Clair De Lune- my, my, my, what a revelation.

[Joan Angellar]

I love the one by Kenny G.

[Cop Car]

The Decca version, with Anee Brown as Bess, pleasured my ears just yesterday--as I was driving about town. That is one of the CDs in my car's player. And, yes, we played "Summertime" in orchestra, back in the early 1950s.

[George P]

Ronni,

The "fair use" provision of the Copyright law allows you to legally record a copy of any song for your personal use as long as you don't sell it or provide a copy to anyone else. Napster was shut down by the Feds because people were sharing music (multiple copies were being made), thereby violating the Copyright law.

To avoid any copyright violation, I use a shareware software program named GoldWave that allows me to record anything that is processed through the sound mixer on my PC (there are many other similar programs available). So, as long as I can get the audio to play on my PC, I can record it and save the resulting audio file in a number of formats, including mp3. Then, by loading these files onto my mp3 player and/or recording them on CD, I can play them just about anywhere I choose.

Frequently I record music and other audio from a number of Internet radio stations, YouTube videos, music channels on my cable service, and other sources that I can access with my PC. In fact, it'd be very easy for me to record the audio from the music videos you included in this post.

So, to legally increase your music collection without having to pay for each song, this is the way to go. Granted, because the recording is done in real time, using this method requires a bit more time and effort than just paying for and downloading a song. But, for me, the money I save makes it worthwhile.

Unless there's a particular single I want to record, I usually just choose the music source and set the length of time I want to record, then go about doing other things, including working on my PC, while everything is automatically recorded during that time period. Later, I delete the recordings I don't want to keep.

Feel free to ask questions if you'd like to know more.

[Darlene]

Unfortunately I am having trouble with DVds and the download keeps interrupting the DVD every second. Until I figure out how to fix it I will have to wait to hear the versions. I do love Ella Fitzgerald and Bill Evans so I imagine I would like their versions best.

I have an old album from the soundtrack of the movie Porgy and Bess and I think it was Jessie Norman who played Bess and sang Summertime. (I can't dig the album out to confirm because it is stored on the bottom of my cabinet and I am not supposed to bend over.) Whoever it was, sang it best.

[Tabor]

What an interesting process listening to all versions. Truly a lovely classic to be able to touch so many artists in different ways.

[chancy]

I love the suggestion to use one word for all passwords. What a neat idea. I tend to lose passwords all the time so that would make life easier.

[Peter Tibbles]

Summertime, eh?
That sure doesn’t butter my parsnips with 8 days in a row over 100 degrees F here in Melbourne (and 4 days over 110).
I vote for “Winter Wonderland”

[Sheila Halet]

Ronni - I keep a special password notebook for all my stuff...but one word - wow that is cool. Nice sharing of the Summertime music...that is one of my pieces that I play on the piano...oye vey as we say with "sans gloves" because I sometimes think my audience is deaf.