Rhapsody in new: Pianist and the Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra celebrate the centennial of Gershwin’s classic

‘Rhapsody in Blue,” George Gershwin’s groundbreaking blend of jazz sounds and classical music structure, was subtitled “An Experiment in Modern Music” when it debuted in New York City on Feb. 12, 1924.

Almost exactly 100 years later, the experiment continues. A new adaptation of “Rhapsody in Blue” by Camas jazz pianist K.J. McElrath will anchor a pair of Gershwin-celebration concerts this weekend by Vancouver’s Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra, with guest singers Alexis Hamilton and Pamela Jordan.

Founded by Sammuel Hawkins in Vancouver in 2016, the tuxedoed-and-tailed Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra specializes in delivering the vintage hot-and-sweet jazz of the 1920s and early 1930s. (“Ne Plus Ultra” is French for “no greater than,” that is, the greatest of all.)

McElrath confessed that he’s fantasized about leading a performance of “Rhapsody” for most of his life. He immersed himself in the life of George Gershwin, consuming multiple biographies and even writing an unproduced screenplay about him.

McElrath said his first run at the piece didn’t go well. He was 18, performing a solo rendition for a girl he wanted to impress (and her mom).

“I didn’t have the skills,” he said. “I stumbled through it. It’s a very advanced piece.”

Ever since then, McElrath has been looking forward to a rematch. During the COVID-19 pandemic, McElrath and Ne Plus Ultra bandleader Hawkins started forming a plan for this 100th anniversary concert, and McElrath began practicing hard. There wasn’t much else to do while stuck at home, he said.

“I spent two years relearning the piece,” he said.

If there’s some kind of spirit up there, McElrath mused, that spirit wants him to play “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Respect the music

A native of Ogden, Utah, McElrath first visited the Northwest during a college choir tour and decided he had to move here. While he quickly got busy as a local lounge-and-cabaret pianist, joining a hard-driving jazz group just wasn’t in the cards for him.

“Most didn’t find me very cool or stylish,” he said.

McElrath had gotten swept up in the ragtime-revival trend unleashed by the 1973 film “The Sting,” which only claimed to star Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The real star of the film, McElrath said, was the soundtrack: Scott Joplin’s earworm of a ragtime classic, “The Entertainer.”

“I was 13 and I saw it 10 times just to hear that song,” McElrath said.

“The Entertainer” led McElrath directly to ragtime and stride — the fun, fast, friendly yet technically dazzling piano styles of the earliest 20th century.

McElrath said he’s always been partial to Great American Songbook standards and what’s now called “trad,” or traditional, jazz — in which you can recognize the melody and understand the improvisation.

“I have a problem with jazz singers who think they’re cooler than the music,” he said. “I make sure to respect the composer.”

McElrath’s deep respect for the Gershwin brothers (composer George and lyricist Ira) is obvious as he describes their complex relationship and Ira’s key role in helping George develop and revise his musical ideas.

“Ira was shy and retiring, but he was absolutely central to George’s work. They bounced ideas back and forth,” McElrath said. “Ira had melodic ideas too.”

While “Rhapsody in Blue” is an instrumental piece, these centennial concerts will feature plenty of Ira Gershwin’s lyrics, as guest singers Alexis Hamilton and Pamela Jordan deliver Gershwin brothers classics like “I’ve Got Rhythm,” “Love is Here to Stay” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.”

Idea man

Like Ira Gershwin, McElrath is a man of many ideas. In addition to his musical career, he’s worked as a search engine optimization writer and a schoolteacher of subjects from music to social studies. In addition to his screenplay about Gershwin, he’s the prolific author of many romance-and-adventure genre novels published in e-book format by Club Lighthouse Publishing.

McElrath’s “Three Lost Girls” series is a fantasy pastiche starring Wendy Darling (of “Peter Pan”), Dorothy Gale (of “The Wizard of Oz”) and their therapist, Dr. Alice (of “Alice in Wonderland”), who find themselves in various unlikely historical settings.

“A lot of people have had a lot of fun with those three girls, so I thought I’d try pulling them together,” McElrath said. “I’m always interested in history. It’s my big sandbox to play in.”

Instant classic

The story behind “Rhapsody in Blue” begins after George Gershwin was already writing for Broadway and hanging out with musical royalty like Paul Whiteman, the leader of a popular band who was nicknamed “King of Jazz.” But Gershwin declined Whiteman’s initial challenge to compose an experimental piece blending classical and jazz music for an upcoming concert.

That didn’t stop erroneous news hitting the press that Gershwin was already working on the piece. Word also started spreading that a different experimental concert was racing to be first. That was all the ambitious Gershwin needed to start working furiously on his own masterwork, a piece that would cement his reputation as a serious composer with his own uniquely modern style, like Ravel or Stravinsky, McElrath said.

(Even as an established superstar, Gershwin remained eager for composition lessons from his heroes, but was usually turned down by classical masters who liked his style just the way it was. The composer Arnold Schoenberg reportedly told him: “I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you’re such a good Gershwin already.”)

Gershwin composed intensively for five short weeks, with Whiteman’s arranger working alongside him. The finished piece is about 18 minutes long. Gershwin himself played the piano during the debut concert with Whiteman’s beefed-up, 23-piece orchestra. Musical luminaries of the day, including Igor Stravinsky and John Philip Sousa, attended the show.

The concert was almost a disaster, with the theater ventilation system malfunctioning and uncomfortable listeners breaking for the exit. Then clarinetist Ross Gorman stopped them with his famous ear-tickling opening to the “Rhapsody”: that smooth, jazzy slide (glissando) from low note to high.

That seductive start was not Gershwin’s idea, McElrath said. But the composer knew a great sound when he heard one, and immediately adopted the slinky clarinet gliss as the perfect, permanent opening for his piece.

“Rhapsody in Blue” was both hailed as a fresh, instant classic and criticized for stringing together catchy motifs and melodies into a blatantly showy, musical crazy quilt. McElrath thinks those critics are forgetting Gershwin’s aim.

“That’s what a rhapsody is,” he said. It’s an episodic piece that feels free-flowing and spontaneous, perhaps even semi-improvised.

“I see it as a tone poem that depicts a day in New York City,” McElrath said. “Gershwin was the quintessential New Yorker, and this piece says, ‘I made it through another day in the Big Apple!’ ”

While critical disagreement continues to this day, “Rhapsody in Blue” is a staple of the modern concert hall. Locally, it’s been performed by both the Oregon Symphony (with late jazz master Chick Corea on piano) and our own Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (with Thomas Lauderdale, leader of the popular Portland band Pink Martini, on piano).

Those orchestra audiences experienced “Rhapsody” as a grand, massive sound. It will sound smaller and sweeter — and much more authentic to its century-ago origin — when the 11-piece Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra takes up McElrath’s new arrangement.

“The original score says, ‘For piano and jazz band,’ ” McElrath said. “After Gershwin’s death, they re-scored the whole thing so it didn’t have ‘bastard’ instruments like saxophone and banjo.”

Those were standard jazz-combo instruments in Gershwin’s day. Take heart, twang lovers: In McElrath’s new version, the banjo is back.

“I wanted to stick with the instrumentation you would have found in typical dance band,” he said. “I think most people will be delighted at hearing this new, ‘retro’ interpretation of the piece.”