RHAPSODY IN BLUE at 100

George Gershwin's RHAPSODY IN BLUES premiered at New York's Aeolian HALL on a program billed as "An Experiment in Modern Music," the much-anticipated concert held by Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra drew a packed audience. The excited audience included many top line vaudevillians, concert managers and Tin Pan Allevites who came to have a look at the new jazz novelty. Also at the happening were , composers young and old, , symphony and opera stars, flappers, cake-eaters, and a mixed up higgledy-piggledy of the 1924 "in-Crowd" . Who else would show up to a 2PM show! On this episode of AMERICAN GROOVES we recreate part of the program as well as offer, in it' 8 minute version , the first ever recording of the Rhapsody from 1924 featuring the composer, George Gershwin on piano!