A Salute To George Gershwin

One hundred years ago this month, a man was born who would give American jazz it's place among the world's most respected sounds.

George Gershwin began studying music early on. As a teen-ager, he turned his talent to the publishing mills of New York's Tin Pan Alley - where songwriters made the hit parade in the days before singers rolled their own.

While working as a piano pounder, plugging other people's songs, Gershwin managed to get one of his own noticed by the great Al Jolson.

It was a song called Swanee. And how they loved it. How they loved it.

That song, with lyrics by Irving Caesar, led Gershwin to a composing job for a famous musical revue. Then, it was on to musical comedy, with his brother Ira providing most of the lyrics. Along the way they wrote the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Of Thee I Sing.

Gershwin's love for the music that made his reputation then moved him to take jazz and blues out of the music halls and into the concert halls, with pieces such as, Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and the folk opera, Porgy and Bess.

All before his death at the age of 38.

George Gershwin, a fascinating player in America's fascinating rhythm.

©1998 CBS Worldwide Corp. All rights reserved