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Introduction George Gershwin Duke Ellington
George Gershwin
The famous composer, George Gershwin, was born September 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. Gershwin died of a brain tumor on July 11, 1937 in Hollywood at the age of 38. Gershwin, who changed his name from Jakob Bruskin Gershvin, dropped out of school in 5th grade to write music for a group called Tin Pan Alley. At the age of 21 he wrote his first hit, La La Lucille.
One interesting fact about one of his major hits, Swannee, was that he started writing it on December 31, 1919 and finished it on January 1, 1920. The song was originally sung by Al Jolson. Two of Gershwin’s biggest hits in the 1920’s were Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris to be played by a piano with an orchestra accompaniment. Two of the main orchestra instruments he liked to use in his music were the clarinet and the bassoon.
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1920's Introduction George Gershwin Duke Ellington
