Rhapsody in Blue is a 1924 musical composition for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman and written by George Gershwin, the work premiered in a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music" on February 12, 1924, in Aeolian Hall, New York City. Whiteman's band performed the rhapsody with Gershwin playing the piano. Whiteman's arranger Ferde Grofé orchestrated the rhapsody several times including the 1924 original scoring, the 1926 pit orchestra scoring, and the 1942 symphonic scoring.
William Joseph Mayerl was an English pianist and composer who built a career in music hall and musical theatre and became an acknowledged master of light music. Best known for his syncopated novelty piano solos, he wrote over 300 piano pieces, many of which were named after flowers and trees, including his best-known composition, Marigold (1927). He also ran the successful School of Syncopation for whose members he published hundreds of his own arrangements of popular songs.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1927.
The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by Carte's family for over a century. The Savoy was the first hotel in Britain to introduce electric lights throughout the building, electric lifts, bathrooms in most of the lavishly furnished rooms, constant hot and cold running water and many other innovations. Carte hired César Ritz as manager and Auguste Escoffier as chef de cuisine; they established an unprecedented standard of quality in hotel service, entertainment and elegant dining, attracting royalty and other rich and powerful guests and diners.
A palm court is a large atrium with palm trees, usually in a prestigious hotel, where functions are staged, notably tea dances. Examples include the Langham Hotel (1865), Alexandra Palace (1873), the Carlton Hotel (1899), and the Ritz Hotel (1906), all in London; and the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, Britannia Hotel in Trondheim and the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Capitalizing on their popularity, some ocean liners also had palm courts, notably the RMS Titanic (1912).
"The Way You Look To-night" is a song from the film Swing Time that was performed by Fred Astaire and composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics written by Dorothy Fields. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936. Fields remarked, "The first time Jerry played that melody for me I went out and started to cry. The release absolutely killed me. I couldn't stop, it was so beautiful."
Rupert D'Oyly Carte was an English hotelier, theatre owner and impresario, best known as proprietor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from 1913 to 1948.
Carroll Richard Gibbons was an American-born pianist, bandleader and popular composer who made his career primarily in England during the British dance band era.
"A Garden in the Rain" is a popular song. The music was composed by Carroll Gibbons, the lyrics by James Dyrenforth. The song was published in 1928. The song was first recorded by Gibbons with the Savoy Hotel Orpheans and vocals by George Metaxa, in July 1928. Gibbons took over as bandleader of the Savoy Hotel Orpheans in 1931, and the tune became his Savoy signature.
Anne Lenner was an English vocalist, who sang with the British dance bands of the 1930s and 1940s. She is most closely associated with Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Orpheans, a band who regularly played at the Savoy Hotel in London, with whom she made many studio recordings. The British bands played a softer version of the swing jazz popular in the USA during the 1930s and 1940s.
The Savoy Havana Band was a British dance band of the 1920s. It was resident at the Savoy Hotel, London, between 1921 and 1927. The band made their first live outside broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation from the Savoy Hotel on 3 October, 1923.
Alex Mendham and His Orchestra are a British dance band, led by Alex Mendham, that performs and records music from the 1920s and 1930s.
Debroy Somers was a British dance band leader.
This is a summary of 1923 in music in the United Kingdom.
Alex Mendham is an English singer, saxophonist, and bandleader. He is best known as the founder and leader of Alex Mendham & His Orchestra.
Rosalba Juliana Maria Theresa Blake, better known by her professional name Julie Dawn, was an English singer, singing with leading dance bands in the 1940s and 1950s, and making recordings and radio broadcasts. In later years she presented radio programmes.
Norman MacPhail Blair, who most often used the pseudonym Maurice Elwin in his professional work, was a British dance band singer and songwriter who was popular between the First and Second World Wars. He used over 60 different pseudonyms, both as a singer and composer, including John Curtis, Maurice Kelvin, Donald O'Keefe, Guy Victor, and Max Wynn, as well as sometimes using the name Norman Blair.
Helen Clare was a British singer who was well known in the 1930s and 1940s through her work in variety, radio, television and recording. Clare worked extensively in light entertainment, appearing on BBC Radio and recording with British dance bands. Her distinctive soprano voice saw her working with some of the biggest names of the era, including bandleaders Jack Jackson and Henry Hall. She was one of the last surviving British singers who had been active in the 1930s.
Sydney Bernard Kyte was a British dance band leader and violinist who became known in the 1930s, when he led the resident band at The Piccadilly Hotel in London's West End. Kyte made numerous recordings, and remained active into the 1950s.
