Tip-Toes/Tell Me More [Cast Recording]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This two-CD set collects a couple of shows by George and Ira Gershwin. Both produced in 1925, the two musicals--Tip-Toes and Tell Me More--are fairly obscure and don't boast as many famous songs as contemporary Gershwin offerings such as Oh, Kay! and Lady Be Good. Still, they are bursting with wit, invention, and joie de vivre. Based on a 1998 concert production, Tip-Toes is delicious, and several songs deserve a place in the Gershwin pantheon: the ballad "Looking for a Boy," the love duet "That Certain Feeling," and the rousing dance number "Sweet and Low-Down." The score is also notable for its spectacular writing for duo pianos. Tell Me More is not as immediately accessible (indeed, it had the shortest run of any Gershwin musical, with 32 performances), but it's delivered with élan by its topnotch cast, which includes Sally Mayes, Christine Ebersole, Diane Fratantoni, and David Garrison. Under the expert musical direction of Rob Fisher (from New York's famed Encores! series), this double set is, of course, essential for Gershwin completists. In fact, just about any fan of zany Jazz Age artifacts should relish it. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Album Description
Tip-Toes, which made its Broadway debut on December 28, 1925, was produced by Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley, who had been the producers of the Gershwins' smash hit Lady, Be Good! the year before. Attempting to repeat that success, they once again combined the same book writers, Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, with the Gershwin brothers. Tip-Toes was well received by audiences and the press, and ran for 194 performances. It was given a subsequent production at the Winter Garden Theatre in London, opening August 31, 1926, running for 181 performances.

One of the most overlooked Gershwin shows, Tell Me More was also the most unlikely of Jazz Age musicals. In an era marked by lavish extravaganzas and brash star vehicles, Tell Me More, which opened on April 13, 1925, relied on charm, modesty, and an impish sense of humor. Because it failed to recoup its investment on Broadway, it was relegated to the list of Gershwin flops; because its score was largely forgotten, it has been widely regarded as a minor effort. In truth, it's a key show. As the only full-length collaboration between George and Ira Gershwin and B.G. DeSylva, it combines the delicacy and grace of the scores George had written earlier in the decade with DeSylva and the bold wit he had pioneered in partnership with his brother Ira four months earlier in Lady, Be Good! The best of both worlds, Tell Me More was a one-of-a-kind achievement.

Tracks:

Sweet And Lowdown
Novelette In Fourths
That Certain Feeling
So Am I
Rhapsody In Blue
Swanee
When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em...
Kickin' The Clouds Away
Idol Dreams
On My Mind The Whole Night Long
Scandal Walk
An American In Paris

Customer Reviews:

Wonderfully American.......2007-05-14

I've had a copy of this CD for years and love it. The power and optimism of the music is really quite remarkable... regardless of who or what is actually playing here. The arrangement of Swanee is light but rich with major chord trains like you just want to go marching around the room. And American In Paris leads you on a swaying, dischordy journey the deeper you go, as the narrative begins to trade delicacy for passion. (and I love renditions where you can hear the MUSIC and the instruments don't get in the way, like four-voice midi versions of Bach which reveal the eloquence).

When I listen to this CD now, and which is most surpring to me, I hear a profound pride in America - back "before." I play it when I have people over and we put burgers on the grill. This CD is the song of sitting in my back yard with the clouds blowing by and for the moment things feel OK.

"Before" - OK, there is no old perfect Amercia; but I'm thinking of the time before we learned to distill petroleum into toxic pollution, before pride meant vanity and thuggery, before hate-filled invective became public amusement, and before presidents went to war because it was good for business.

A Gersh-winner.......2007-01-07

George Gershwin had a long association with the mechanical device known as the player piano. At the age of ten, Gershwin used a neighbor's pianola to teach himself how to play, by very slowly pumping the foot pedal that advanced the hole-punched rolls, and placing his fingers on the depressed keys. His parents were so impressed by his abilities they enrolled the boy in formal piano studies when he turned 13. Thus, an American genius was born.

The existing films of Gershwin (who died of a brain tumor at age 38 in 1937) show him to be a virtuoso at his instrument. His 1924 acoustic recording of Rhapsody In Blue (with the Paul Whiteman orchestra) is further evidence of this. But no film or recording has what is contained within the album GERSHWIN PLAYS GERSHWIN: THE PIANO ROLLS, and that is-- full fidelity range.

The CD comes in a standard jewel case packaged in a heavy paper slipcover. Biographical liner notes are included along with details on the rolls. The earliest performance in this set is from 1916, made when Gershwin was an 18-year-old song plugger. My favorites here are "Swanee," from 1920, and "An American In Paris," from 1933, which is undoubtedly one of the last significant piano rolls ever made.

Gershwin's dynamic performances are not in the least obscured by the few extra notes added to the piano rolls (such practice was standard in those days). Listening to these recordings is like sitting next to this brilliant man, observing his fingers fly over the keys as he plays some of his best work.

TOTAL RUNNING TIME -- 60:36

Interesting... but I think I'd prefer a good Gershwin interpreter.......2006-05-14

Composers are not necessarily the best performers of their own work. A songwriter's songwriter like Jules Shear or Jimmy Webb comes to mind -- surely the best representations of their songs are on other artist's albums.

This album is charming in its own way -- a taste of the music and performance style of a bygone era. Someone complained that these rolls were edited. So what? I'm going to review the final product, now how it was made. Do you eat sausage? Ask not what's in it!

I like to listen to this CD in short bits -- a few songs at a time. For some reason I find it to be fatiguing if I listen for more than 20 minutes or so. I'm not absolutely sure why this is so. Possibly the meter is just a little too metronomic on many of the songs. This lends a "mechanical" quality to the performances.

Additionally, I felt that the dynamic range was restricted. The music does get louder and softer, because of the piano rolls themselves and because of the computer programming used to read the piano rolls -- the dynamics were deliberately adjusted by the record producers in some spots, if I read the liner notes correctly. And yet. And yet. Still these songs do not dynamically "breathe" fully in and out the way they ought to. I find this disappointing, but I think it has something to do with inherent limitations in piano roll recording technique. I'm guessing.

Taken for what it is, it is an interesting concept, and the sound quality is very pleasant. The performances are very good for piano rolls, but fall short of what a good interpreter could do. Take, for example, the Rhapsody in Blue from Woody Allen's Manhattan soundtrack. Listen specifically to the piano part -- the dynamics and variations in rhythm. This is not by any means the best performance of Rhapsody, but it is better than the Gershwin rolls.

Gershwin's playing overated.......2006-04-09

After I heard this cd I bought Gershwin plays Gershwin on the naxos label which arn't piano rolls. Any pianist can tell that many of these rolls are heavily edited and can't be played by a pianists with two hands. On the naxos album that has some of these same songs Gershwin's actual playing doesn't sound very good. Many of Gershwins contempories such as James P. Johnson, Eubie Blake, Luckey Roberts and even Zez Confrey were much better pianists than he was, however they didn't have his melodic gifts as a composer. I would recommend Artis Whodhouse's
transcriptions of Jelly Roll Morton's piano rolls (on the same label) instead because most of those are exactly how he played them and in my opinion Morton was a better musician in every way than Gershwin.

The jazzy Gershwin. What a CD!!!!!!!.......2006-02-23

I got this CD as a gift. I am all for the austrogerman post- romantic music and as imagined Gershwin is not my favourite composer. I know him from his best known works such as the 'Rhapsody", the 'American' and his great songs. This CD is a treasure as mentioned from other reviewers of this site. Gershwin full of passion, his music being jazzy to the very end and that great feeling you get after a great live performance is present all over the length of this 'treasure'. No question about the presence of the music. Not to be missed

Average customer rating:

Gifts from musical theater heaven!
Tell Me More and more and more
Two restored little Gershwin gems

Tip-Toes/Tell Me More

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Lady, Be Good! (1992 Studio Cast Recording)
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Pardon My English (1993 Studio Cast)
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ASIN: B00005RGM8
Release Date: 2001-10-30

Tracks:

Overture
Florida
Nice Baby
Looking For A Boy
Lady Luck
When Do We Dance?
These Charming People
That Certain Feeling
Sweet And Low-Down
Finale-Act I
Entr'acte
Our Little Captain
Looking For A Boy
It's A Great Little World!
Nightie-Night!
Tip-Toes
Finale-Act II
Overture
Tell Me More
Tell Me More
Shopgirls And Mannequins
Mr & Mrs. Sipkin
When The Debbies Go By
Three Times A Day
Why Do I Love You?
How Can I Win You Now?
Kickin' The Clouds Away
Finale-Act I
Love Is In The Air
My Fair Lady
In Sardina
Baby!
Finaletto-Act 2
Opening Ensemble
Ukelele Lorelei
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Amazon.com

This two-CD set collects a couple of shows by George and Ira Gershwin. Both produced in 1925, the two musicals--Tip-Toes and Tell Me More--are fairly obscure and don't boast as many famous songs as contemporary Gershwin offerings such as Oh, Kay! and Lady Be Good. Still, they are bursting with wit, invention, and joie de vivre. Based on a 1998 concert production, Tip-Toes is delicious, and several songs deserve a place in the Gershwin pantheon: the ballad "Looking for a Boy," the love duet "That Certain Feeling," and the rousing dance number "Sweet and Low-Down." The score is also notable for its spectacular writing for duo pianos. Tell Me More is not as immediately accessible (indeed, it had the shortest run of any Gershwin musical, with 32 performances), but it's delivered with élan by its topnotch cast, which includes Sally Mayes, Christine Ebersole, Diane Fratantoni, and David Garrison. Under the expert musical direction of Rob Fisher (from New York's famed Encores! series), this double set is, of course, essential for Gershwin completists. In fact, just about any fan of zany Jazz Age artifacts should relish it. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Album Description

Tip-Toes, which made its Broadway debut on December 28, 1925, was produced by Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley, who had been the producers of the Gershwins' smash hit Lady, Be Good! the year before. Attempting to repeat that success, they once again combined the same book writers, Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, with the Gershwin brothers. Tip-Toes was well received by audiences and the press, and ran for 194 performances. It was given a subsequent production at the Winter Garden Theatre in London, opening August 31, 1926, running for 181 performances.

Customer Reviews:

Gifts from musical theater heaven!.......2005-07-24

The restoration of several complete Gershwin scores in recent years has been a gift from the theater gods. These two shows lack the bite of "Strike Up the Band," "Of Thee I Sing" and other earlier releases, but they have no lack of the Ira's wit and George's effortless melodies. Upbeat tuners "Kickin' the Clouds Away" and "Sweet and Low-Down" are especially engaging, and the authentic-sounding orchestrations lend a nostalgic aura. The first-rate casts seem to be having the time of their lives.

Tell Me More and more and more.......2001-12-07

I bought this CD because I had seen the concert of Tip-Toes, which I found enjoyable if uneven: great songs in Act I and not much in Act II. But for me, the real revelation here is Tell Me More, a totally forgotten Gershwin musical from the Twenties. I only knew one of the songs, "Kickin' the Clouds Away," but this score hits all the right notes, from gently melodic to flat-out funny. And the cast couldn't be better. David Garrison and Christine Ebersole are hugely funny in the comic roles, tossing out their one-liners like the Broadway pros that they are. And what a delight to hear the romantic couple on one of these vintage recordings -- in this case, Diane Fratantoni and Philip Chaffin -- sing just like a real period couple: him with the creamy tenor voice and her with the boop-a-doop flapper sound. Their rendition of "Three Times a Day," a lovely ballad with a Kern-like flavor, is, for me, the highlight of this 2-CD set.

Two restored little Gershwin gems.......2001-11-10

Although the Princess shows of Kern, Bolton and Wodehouse back in 1917 tried to introduce a solid plot into the American musical comedy, the story lines still did not amount to much until "Show Boat " set the standard. So when George and Ira Gershwin opened with two musicals in 1925, the first was based on a mistaken-identity situation already a cliché in the genre (Bolton did the book); and the second (again with Bolton, plus B.D. de Sylva) was about the Florida land boom that also formed the basis of Berlin's "The Coconuts" the very same year.

Both "Tell Me More" and "Tip-Toes" were part of the discovery of many Gershwin manuscripts buried in a New Jersey warehouse; and we can be most thankful to New World Records for restoring the scores and bits of the dialogue in a two-CD boxed set (80598-2). The music is what you would expect from Gershwin: 1920s jazzy with that special core of Gershwin genius. Yes, a good deal of it sounds like Berlin and Kern--as did just about every other contemporary composer except Romberg (who sounded like Herbert). On the other hand, "Kickin' the Clouds Away" from the earlier show seems to be the inspiration for Berlin's "Shakin' the Blues Away" written two years later! "Tell Me More" also does not shy away from ethnic jokes (i.e., mistaking a request to disguise oneself as British for doing so as Yiddish) that do not offend at all. And if we moderns grow impatient with the rich bubbleheads of the F. Scott Fitzgerald crowd, they are still a breath of fresh air after the population of "Miss Saigon" and plays of that sort.

The game casts have voices just right for this sort of characterization and delivery. The "Tip-Toes" production is taken from the Carnegie Hall Concert version and is outstanding.

Tracks:

Rhapsody In Blue
Overture To 'Strike Up The Band' (Soldiers' March - I Mean To Say - How About A Boy Like Me - Dream Music - Soon - etc.)
Overture To 'Girl Crazy' (Mexican Hotel - Could You Use Me - Embraceable You - I Got Rhythm - But Not For Me - etc.)
Overture To 'Funny Face' (Funny Face - 'S Wonderful - My One And Only - He Loves And She Loves - High Hat)
Concerto In F: (Allegro)
Concerto In F: (Adagio: Andante con moto)
Concerto In F: (Allegro agitato)

Tracks:

An American In Paris
'Porgy And Bess' Suite (Clara - A Woman Is A Sometime Thing - Summertime - I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' - Bess, You Is My Woman - etc.)
A Gershwin Medley (Swanee - The Man I Love - Strike Up The Band)
Overture To 'Lady, Be Good' (Lady, Be Good - Fascinating Rhythm)
Tell Me More: Kicking The Clouds Away
La, La, Lucille: Tee-Oodle-Um-Bum-Bo
George White's Scandals Of 1921: Drifting Along With The Tide
Tip - Toes: That Certain Feeling
Tip - Toes: Sweet And Low Down
Three Preludes: No. 1
Three Preludes: No. 2
Three Preludes: No. 3
Lullaby (Original Piano Version)

Customer Reviews:

Great sampler of Gershwin's music.......2007-04-14

Classical music came from Europe. Jazz arose in the American deep south as a combination of multiple music genres, most noticeably black folk music and French influences. How ironic that it would take two descendants of Russian Jews to fuse the two together into a distinctly American style of music. The two composers are George and Ira Gershwin. George is the more famous of the two, but both by himself and with his sibling they composed multiple great scores of musics. Many of these have stood the test of time and are now commonly heard in the mass media; Rhapsody in Blue is the ultimate example, and it leads of this two-disc set. Other pieces were composed for operas (Porgy and Bess), Broadway shows (Funny Face), and movies. All of this and other works are found on this set. The recording is great, the sound quality is flawless and the compositions well chosen to provide 2+ hours of music. All told, a great buy for the price.

Gershwin stands the test of time.......2007-03-25

Absolutely the best, still after all these years. I'm very happy with the album.

Average customer rating:

Broadway Musicals of 1925

Manufacturer: Bayview
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000AQS24
Release Date: 2003-08-26

Tracks:

Overture/Ev'ry Little Note [From Merry, Merry]
Old Fashioned Girl [From the Garrick Gaieties][#] - Nancy Anderson
Paddlin' Madelin' Home [From Sunny]
Tea for Two [From No, No, Nanette] - Howard McGillin
Little Bungalow [From "The Cocoanuts"] - Stephanie J. Block, Howard McGillin
When We Get Our Divorce [From Sunny] - Nancy Anderson, Justin Bohon
I'm All Alone [From China Rose][#] - Nancy Anderson
Here in My Arms [From DeArest Enemy] - Howard McGillin
Liza Lee [From Big Boy]
It All Depends on You [From Big Boy] - Justin Bohon
I Was Alone [From Sunny] - Stephanie J. Block
As Long as I've Got My Mammy [From Big Boy][#]
Sweet and Low Down [From Tip Toes]
Song of the Vagabonds [From the Vagabond King] - Howard McGillin
Some Day (The Vagabond King) - Nancy Anderson
Murderous Monty [From Tell Me More][#] - Stephanie J. Block,
Lackawanna [From Big Boy][#] - Howard McGillin
That Means Nothing to Me [From Naughty Cinderella] - Nancy Anderson
Always [Cut] - Howard McGillin
That Certain Feeling [From Tip Toes] - Stephanie J. Block
Manhattan [From the Garrick Gaieties] - Justin Bohon
I Want to Be Happy [From No, No, Nanette]

Average customer rating:

The Ultimate George Gershwin, Vol. 2

Manufacturer: Pearl
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Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00008KCMO
Release Date: 2003-04-08

Tracks:

Fascinating Rhythm [From Lady, Be Good!] - Cliff Edwards
Fascinating Rhythm/So Am I [From Lady, Be Good!][Instrumental] - Victor Arden, Phil Ohman
Oh, Lady Be Good [From Lady Be Good] - Cliff Edwards
Hang on to Me [From Lady, Be Good!] - Adele Astaire, Fred Astaire
I'd Rather Charleston [From Lady, Be Good!] - Adele Astaire, Fred Astaire
Fascinating Rhythm [From Lady, Be Good!] - Adele Astaire, Fred Astaire
Half of It Dearie Blues [From Lady, Be Good!] - Fred Astaire
Oh, Lady Be Good - Buddy Lee
Oh, Lady Be Good [From Lady Be Good]
Swiss Miss [From Lady, Be Good!] - Adele Astaire, Fred Astaire
So Am I [From Lady, Be Good!] - Adele Astaire, George Vollaire
Fascinating Rhythm - Buddy Lee
Three Times a Day [From Tell Me More!] - Alexander Gray
Tell Me More! [From Tell Me More!] - Alexander Gray
That Certain Feeling/When Do We Dance? [From Tip-Toes][Instrumental] - Victor Arden, Phil Ohman
Looking for a Boy/Sweet and Low-Down [From Tip-Toes][Instrumental] - Victor Arden, Phil Ohman
That Certain Feeling [From Tip-Toes] - Dorothy Dickson, Allen Kearns
Sweet and Low-Down [From Tip-Toes] - Laddie Cliff
Nightie-Night - Dorothy Dickson, Allen Kearns
It's a Great Little World [From Tip-Toes] - Laddie Cliff
Nice Baby [From Tip-Toes] - Evan Thomas
When Do We Dance? [From Tip-Toes] - Allen Kearns
These Charming People [From Tip-Toes] - Laddie Cliff, Dorothy Dickson, John Kirby
Looking for a Boy [From Tip-Toes] - Dorothy Dickson