Exploring Diverse Genres

“Summertime” was chosen to explore melodies from diverse genres to develop versatility. I encourage others to master these melodies to develop tone and expression. This wider range of repertoire broadens the ability to interpret a phrase as a result.
This is a great vocalisation ie. using words to aid expressing a musical line. The lyrics are:

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy’s rich and your ma is good-lookin’
So hush little baby, don’t you cry
One of these mornings, you’re goin’ to rise up singin’
And you’ll spread your wings and you’ll take the sky
But ’til that mornin’, there’s a-nothin’ can harm you
With daddy and mommy standin’ by
One of these mornings, you’re goin’ to rise up singin’
And you’ll spread your wings and you’ll take the sky
But ’til that mornin’, there’s a-nothin’ can harm you
With daddy and mommy standin’ by

By singing and feeling the way through the musical line the player is able to give musical emphasis and space where needed.
Performing this melody encourages the player to ease into the phrase creating a soulful and expressive mood. This creates from the first note a sense of a mother rocking her baby to sleep on a hot balmy night in Charleston. It explores creating an illusion of time and space in playing. Whilst it is technically simple, musically it is not so easy.
“Summertime” from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess is one of the one most popular songs in the Great American Songbook. ( a compilation of the most important and influential American popular songs and jazz standards from the early 20th century.)
Porgy and Bess is based upon the novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward. Published in 1925, the novel was first adapted for the stage in 1927 by the author’s wife, Dorothy Heyward. The play, in turn, inspired George Gershwin’s Porgy, which he called “an American folk opera.”
DuBose Heyward collaborated with Ira Gershwin to craft the libretto for Porgy and Bess, spending time together in Charleston, South Carolina, to research African American communities and their music. The lyrics to “Summertime” are by Heyward. His only lyrics during his lifetime were those he wrote for Porgy.

 “Summertime” is similar to an African American spiritual, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” A printed score of the song was available in print as early as 1899.
The melody of the first printed version of “Motherless Child” only bears superficial similarities to “Summertime.” The most significant difference is the key. “Summertime” sounds dark and doleful, in part, because it’s in a minor key. This printed version of “Motherless Child” is in a major mode (with a few blue notes thrown in at the end). I think the only relevance of this is the fact we need to keep in mind the African American Spiritual and slavery when we are interpreting and feeling this song musically. We have to bend the pitch and get right under a phrase expressively to capture the hot balmy night and a mother singing her child to sleep.
Paul Robeson, recorded the song in the 1930s. In his version, we could easily replace the words to “Motherless Child” with those to “Summertime” to hear how the original tune was subtly changed.

Summertime was made popular in part by the “First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald, in her iconic duet with Louis Armstrong, “Summertime” is an earthy reflection on the hot Charleston summer. Clara, a young mother, sings to her baby in an attempt to lull him to sleep in the evening twilight.

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. This was the recording that inspired me to record “Summertime”. I wanted to capture the sultry musical line and sense of time standing still Ella creates.