Irresistible Musical Fusion: Ravel & Gershwin

By D. T. Baker

Music lovers, especially musicians, are always on the lookout for the “next big thing.” There are still a few of us around (ahem) that can remember the thunderbolt to the status quo that rock and roll was to popular music. But 40 years or so before that, jazz did the same thing.

Nailing down a concise definition of jazz will launch any number of counter claims and arguments, but Collins online dictionary’s isn’t bad. “A kind of music of African American origin, characterized by syncopated rhythms, solo and group improvisation, and a variety of harmonic idioms and instrumental techniques.”

Jazz moved from the blacks-only clubs in New Orleans and elsewhere, was homogenized to greater or lesser degrees, and made palatable to posh, hip, white audiences in New York and other American cities as the 1900s arrived. It was daring, provocative, new, and – best of all – often scandalous. In the opening decades of the 20th century, jazz elements began appearing in dance music, popular song, and even what we call “classical” music.

Word of mouth spread quickly – and both positive and negative responses fueled the fire. An early detractor likened the spread of the popularity of jazz in the U.S. to a disease. “So far many parts of the East have been spared. Washington is almost free, New York is rent in spots. Botson is only slightly Jazz. But the Middle West is in the throes – it may never know it until consciousness returns.”

George Gershwin (1898-1937) jumped on the jazz bandwagon early. The high-energy syncopated rhythms of jazz made his early Broadway scores stand out from the measured, classically conceived musicals and operettas of the day. It made him a boat-load of money, but Gershwin yearned for “legitimate” success as well as popular success. He determined that he would go to Paris to take formal lessons in western art music.

In the meantime, jazz had crossed the ocean ahead of him, and had seized hold of the Paris art scene. Always a hub for influences from around the world, Paris had already embraced musicians and dancers from Russia, and music from the Far East had enraptured listeners when it was brought to Paris at the World Expo in the late 19th century. American jazz was equally exotic to the fad-inculcated Parisians, and early adopters were soon fusing jazz to salon and concert works.

The happy collision of these unstoppable musical forces comes to life on the Winspear stage March 27-30. Guest conductor Alain Trudel returns, while pianist Élisabeth Pion makes her Edmonton Symphony debut. She is the soloist for the G Major Piano Concerto (1932) of Maurice Ravel – a piece clearly influenced by Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (1924), considered by many to be the first “jazz” piano concerto, as well as Gershwin’s Concerto in F (1925).

There is an amusing story (probably apocryphal) of Gershwin’s time in Paris, seeking out a suitable teacher. Ravel, the story goes, was one of those Gershwin contacted. But Ravel asked Gershwin how much money the American Broadway composer had made from his musicals and other works and, upon finding out, suggested to Gershwin that perhaps Ravel should be taking lessons from Gershwin.

Two years before Gershwin died (tragically young at only 39 years old), he realized his dream of creating an American jazz opera, Porgy and Bess. The ESO concert mentioned above will present a large-scale suite of music drawn from the opera, orchestrated by legendary Broadway arranger Robert Russell Bennett. The concert also features music by Morton Gould, an American from the generation after Gershwin who was similarly influenced by jazz.

Rounding out the concert is one of the most famous, and glorious, works ever written for orchestra. Written by Ravel in 1928, Boléro takes the relatively simple idea of a 16-bar phrase, repeated by the orchestra and set to a constant rhythm played on a side drum, with more and more orchestral colours added with each repeat. Written originally as a dance vehicle for Ida Rubinstein, Boléro – while displaying its obvious Spanish origins brilliantly, also has deft touches of American jazz, particularly as the spectacular climax is reached.

Throw in the brief “jazz symphony” of Morton Gould, and you have an exciting amalgam of irresistible musical fusion. All four works will make for a thrilling evening of music from almost exactly a hundred years ago, sounding as fresh and vital as they did when they were first performed.