Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Django Reinhardt's "Paramount Stomp"

I'm currently listening to the second disc of a two-CD Django Reinhardt set.  I'm not sure if I noticed this before or not, but I discovered that at the end of "Paramount Stomp" (starting at about 2:20), there's a quote of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.  In the Rhapsody in Blue, that phrase is in the clarinet opening (although in "Paramount Stomp" it lacks the opening trill and glissando it has in the Rhapsody), and - if I'm not mistaken - it occurs elsewhere in the Rhapsody too.

The Gershwin quotes makes a certain amount of sense since Reinhardt recorded some other Gershwin songs.  Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" is on the same disc, and the first disc in this set includes and is subtitled "Lady Be Good" (Classic Jazz Archive, Disc 1 - Lady Be Good).