0:00:10 > 0:00:13# It's summertime
0:00:15 > 0:00:18# And the livin' is easy... #
0:00:18 > 0:00:21This is a journey into a song.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26A song that's captured the imagination of the world.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28# Your daddy's rich
0:00:31 > 0:00:34# And your mamma's good-lookin'
0:00:34 > 0:00:37# Won't you hush, pretty baby
0:00:37 > 0:00:40# Don't you cry... #
0:00:40 > 0:00:44I can play Summertime in Turkey, I can play Summertime in Tokyo,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48I can play Summertime in Sao Paulo, I can play it in Kingston, Jamaica.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50The audiences all know it.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54# Then you'll spread your wings
0:00:54 > 0:00:57# And take to the sky... #
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Summertime has got its own pair of wings.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01I don't know why, but they know Summertime.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03Everybody knows Summertime.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10Summertime is the most covered song on the planet.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14At least 25,000 versions exist.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18SLOW BALLAD: # Summertime... #
0:01:18 > 0:01:19From jazz to disco...
0:01:19 > 0:01:24- DISCO:- # And the livin' is easy... #
0:01:24 > 0:01:27- SOUL:- # Fish are jumpin'... #
0:01:27 > 0:01:28..from blues rock...
0:01:28 > 0:01:31BLUES: # And the livin' is easy... #
0:01:31 > 0:01:34..to hip hop.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37SLOW BLUES: # It's summertime
0:01:37 > 0:01:41# And the livin' is easy... #
0:01:41 > 0:01:46It's become the ultimate hymn to summer.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Yet Summertime has taken on other meanings too.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56It's been re-invented throughout the 20th century.
0:01:56 > 0:01:57As a civil rights prayer...
0:02:00 > 0:02:02..a hippie lullaby....
0:02:05 > 0:02:06..an ode to seduction...
0:02:08 > 0:02:11..and a modern freedom song.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16# You're gonna rise up singing... #
0:02:16 > 0:02:20But for the composer, it was none of these things.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25George Gershwin wrote Summertime as the opening aria to an opera
0:02:25 > 0:02:28and never dreamt of the global impact it would have.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32This is the story of how, against all odds,
0:02:32 > 0:02:34a forgotten melody conquered the world.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54George Gershwin was born in New York in 1898
0:02:54 > 0:02:57to Jewish immigrants from Russia.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04At this time, there was a huge migration of Jews from Europe
0:03:04 > 0:03:08and black Americans from the South.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17There was nothing to suggest that George or his brother Ira -
0:03:17 > 0:03:21sons of a shoe factory foreman - were destined for greatness.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26This is a kid who grew up in the rough and tumble of Brooklyn.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29He was a streetwise troublemaker.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34It was Ira who used to bail him out
0:03:34 > 0:03:37when he got into trouble with the police or the neighbours.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42You couldn't see, in those days, that this intensely-concentrated
0:03:42 > 0:03:44musical mind would emerge.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48# Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm that pitter pats through my brain... #
0:03:48 > 0:03:51Young George Gershwin might have been a troublemaker,
0:03:51 > 0:03:53but he had a passion for music,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55which blossomed in his teenage years.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59# Comes in the morning without any warning
0:03:59 > 0:04:01# And hangs around me all day... #
0:04:01 > 0:04:03After a short stint playing the piano in a bar,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06the teenage Gershwin was offered the job of song-plugger
0:04:06 > 0:04:11in the fiercely competitive world of Tin Pan Alley.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15By the 1920s, Gershwin was writing hit songs like
0:04:15 > 0:04:20Fascinating Rhythm and Oh, Lady Be Good for Broadway musicals.
0:04:20 > 0:04:21# Start a-hopping
0:04:21 > 0:04:24# Never stopping... #
0:04:24 > 0:04:26But for Gershwin, this success was not enough.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29He was determined to rise above his humble origins
0:04:29 > 0:04:32and prove himself as a serious composer.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37MUSIC: "Rhapsody In Blue" by George Gershwin
0:04:47 > 0:04:52At the age of 25, Gershwin composed Rhapsody In Blue,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54a jazz-influenced classical concerto.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01It was a triumph.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05But this Brooklyn marvel had his eyes on an even greater prize -
0:05:05 > 0:05:08a grand opera.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12When he set out to write an operatic work, it became known that
0:05:12 > 0:05:17that's what he was doing and there were snorts of derision
0:05:17 > 0:05:23from various parts of the serious and classical musical world
0:05:23 > 0:05:26and that attitude remained right the way through
0:05:26 > 0:05:29to beyond the first night.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33# Like the beat, beat, beat of the tom-tom
0:05:33 > 0:05:35# When the jungle shadows fall
0:05:35 > 0:05:39# Like the tick, tick, tock of the stately clock
0:05:39 > 0:05:42# As it stands against the wall... #
0:05:42 > 0:05:46Much of Gershwin's life up to the early 1930s was Broadway.
0:05:46 > 0:05:51This was the world of Cole Porter's Night And Day and musicals
0:05:51 > 0:05:55with frothy storylines, sparkling lyrics and big show-stopping tunes.
0:05:55 > 0:06:02# Night and day, you are the one... #
0:06:04 > 0:06:07In choosing to write a serious opera,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09Gershwin was taking a massive gamble.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14He risked damaging his reputation and alienating his audience.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17But it was a calculated risk,
0:06:17 > 0:06:21because he believed he had discovered just the right story
0:06:21 > 0:06:25that would play to his dramatic and musical strengths.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29DuBose Heyward had written a novel called Porgy,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32not Porgy And Bess, and Gershwin was not a great reader.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36His apartment wasn't full of learned books or even novels,
0:06:36 > 0:06:38but for some reason, he read it one night
0:06:38 > 0:06:41and apparently he stayed up until four in the morning
0:06:41 > 0:06:43because it simply captivated him.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47This novel, about a crippled black beggar and his attempt to rescue
0:06:47 > 0:06:53Bess from her pimp, allowed Gershwin to write a revolutionary new opera
0:06:53 > 0:06:56imbued with the African-American music he loved so much.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59# I got plenty of nothin'
0:06:59 > 0:07:03# And nothing's plenty for me
0:07:03 > 0:07:06# I got no car, I got no mule
0:07:06 > 0:07:10# I got no misery
0:07:10 > 0:07:14# The folks with plenty of plenty... #
0:07:14 > 0:07:17Gershwin travelled to Charleston, South Carolina,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21where the novel was set, immersing himself in the black culture
0:07:21 > 0:07:25of the area, particularly that of Folly Island.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28# What for? #
0:07:28 > 0:07:31When he went down and lived with those Negroes
0:07:31 > 0:07:35and did dancing with them, shouting with them, which he know he did,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38it was as though this New Yorker had never lived anywhere else.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40So we have to be grateful
0:07:40 > 0:07:44that this chromium-plated, Manhattan cocktail party hero
0:07:44 > 0:07:47who had round his piano in New York all these flappers
0:07:47 > 0:07:50and his latest songs, which he played for hours on end,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53this was very different from the man who was living in a shack
0:07:53 > 0:07:56down in South Carolina with the sand crabs and singing the songs,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00which he was hearing with the local community around there.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04In fact, he got so much into this, with such a great degree
0:08:04 > 0:08:08of enthusiasm, DuBose Heyward said when he was chanting
0:08:08 > 0:08:12with those people, it was as though he was one of those. Heywood said,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15"I don't think any other white man in America could have done it."
0:08:18 > 0:08:22Back in New York, Gershwin started pulling together
0:08:22 > 0:08:26his South Carolina research, shaping it into an opera score.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29PIANO PLAYS
0:08:29 > 0:08:33In 1934, he completed one of the first compositions
0:08:33 > 0:08:36for Porgy And Bess at a friend's Manhattan apartment.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40It was a lullaby called Summertime.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Kay Halle was a friend of Gershwin's.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49She's generally described as a socialite
0:08:49 > 0:08:53and she knew that Gershwin had been working on a couple
0:08:53 > 0:08:56of different versions of the lullaby and none of them really worked
0:08:56 > 0:09:00and he kept scrapping the lullaby and rewriting it, coming up with new ideas for it.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03PIANIST PLAYS SUMMERTIME
0:09:06 > 0:09:08'She came home one night, late at night,
0:09:08 > 0:09:14'and she heard this music coming from her music room.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17'And she said it was so exquisite.'
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Now it sounded as though he'd finally cracked it
0:09:20 > 0:09:22and he'd got the finished version.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25PIANIST PLAYS SUMMERTIME
0:09:27 > 0:09:32'And she said she listened and tears were coursing down her cheeks.'
0:09:34 > 0:09:38Like they say, it was an "A-ha!" moment.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42She said the minute she heard it, she knew what it was going to be.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45The two of them, there was this energy going on,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48this electric connection where the two of them looked at each other
0:09:48 > 0:09:52and realised this was it, this was going to be THE song.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54And that everybody was going to love it.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57I think the phrase she used was,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00"I knew it was going to be beloved by the world."
0:10:00 > 0:10:05# Summertime
0:10:05 > 0:10:12# And the living is easy... #
0:10:12 > 0:10:16Fancy being the first person, apart from Gershwin,
0:10:16 > 0:10:17to hear Summertime.
0:10:17 > 0:10:24# And the cotton is high... #
0:10:24 > 0:10:26# In olden days
0:10:26 > 0:10:30# A glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking
0:10:30 > 0:10:33# Now, God knows
0:10:33 > 0:10:35# Anything goes... #
0:10:35 > 0:10:41In October 1935, Broadway's Alvin Theatre had just finished
0:10:41 > 0:10:45a hugely successful run of Cole Porter's musical, Anything Goes.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48# Anything goes. #
0:10:48 > 0:10:51It was here at the Alvin, not in a grand opera house,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55that Gershwin now presented his daring new work, Porgy And Bess.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01Even more radically,
0:11:01 > 0:11:05it was performed by a classically-trained all-black cast.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07And on the first night,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10as the curtain rose in front of an unsuspecting audience,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12the first vocal performance heard
0:11:12 > 0:11:15was the opening aria, Summertime.
0:11:16 > 0:11:23# One of these mornings
0:11:23 > 0:11:32# You're gonna rise up singing
0:11:32 > 0:11:38# Then you'll spread your wings
0:11:38 > 0:11:49# And you'll take to the sky... #
0:11:49 > 0:11:55'It's sung by a young mother to her child. It's a lullaby.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59'It's the end of a swelteringly hot day.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04'It's early bedtime for this child that must go to sleep
0:12:04 > 0:12:08'as the late afternoon is beginning to give way to the evening.'
0:12:08 > 0:12:14And the song has something that is wonderfully languid about it.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19Something that is languid because there has been sweltering heat.
0:12:19 > 0:12:29# S-u-u-u-u-u-u-mmertime... #
0:12:29 > 0:12:32There's also something plangent about it.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36There's something in the musical line
0:12:36 > 0:12:38that touches on melancholy.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43Oh, the love of the mother, cradling the child,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47and therefore a kind of sadness that the child is going to go to sleep.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49And...
0:12:49 > 0:12:54a kind of sadness that the child, one day, is going to grow up and...
0:12:55 > 0:12:58..leave the coop, is going to fly away
0:12:58 > 0:13:01but that's also going to be wonderful.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06But despite its apparent simplicity,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Summertime had hidden depths.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16We might ask ourselves, why is Summertime actually in a minor key?
0:13:16 > 0:13:17HE PLAYS A MINOR CHORD
0:13:17 > 0:13:21A very sad-sounding key, a minor key, because, after all,
0:13:21 > 0:13:25if you look at the lyric here, there's nothing but good news for the baby here.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29The fish are jumping, there's...
0:13:29 > 0:13:31The cotton is high, your daddy's rich,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34your mum's good-looking. This is not a threatening lyric.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36All of this is positive and yet...
0:13:36 > 0:13:38HE PLAYS MINOR CHORD
0:13:38 > 0:13:41..it's written in this bluesy, minor key.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Since the mid-1920's, George Gershwin's brother, Ira,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49had often collaborated with him.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53Ira wrote the snappy, urbane lyrics to many classic Gershwin compositions.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55including 'S Wonderful.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57# 'S wonderful
0:13:57 > 0:14:01# 'S marvellous
0:14:01 > 0:14:06# That you should care for me
0:14:06 > 0:14:09# 'S awful nice
0:14:09 > 0:14:10# 'S paradise... #
0:14:10 > 0:14:14George and Ira Gershwin, as well as DuBose Heyward,
0:14:14 > 0:14:16were all credited with writing Summertime,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19but this composition was believed to be much more the work
0:14:19 > 0:14:22of just George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward.
0:14:22 > 0:14:27'If Ira had worked on it, it would have had some of his wit,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30'some of his energy, some of his sort of, verbal magic'
0:14:30 > 0:14:35which it doesn't. The fact that Summertime works so well is because it doesn't have any of those things.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39# And the living is easy... #
0:14:39 > 0:14:41'Heyward wrote the lyrics first.'
0:14:41 > 0:14:44Ira Gershwin edited it slightly.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48He took out a couple of conjunctions and sort of just gave it a more
0:14:48 > 0:14:53firm poetic grounding, but Ira said, "DuBose Heyward is a poet, I'm not. And this is poetry."
0:14:53 > 0:14:57# ..is high... #
0:14:57 > 0:15:01There's a thousand images - millions, probably -
0:15:01 > 0:15:04that could have been chosen to start this poem,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07to describe Summertime and there's just two -
0:15:07 > 0:15:11fish jumping and cotton high.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16And how the writer has put these two things together
0:15:16 > 0:15:20so that they work in the minds of everybody who reads them,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23it's the sign of great lyrics.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25# Hush, little baby
0:15:25 > 0:15:33# Don't you cry. #
0:15:33 > 0:15:37# It ain't necessarily so
0:15:37 > 0:15:42# It ain't necessarily so
0:15:42 > 0:15:44# The things that you're liable
0:15:44 > 0:15:46# To read in the Bible
0:15:46 > 0:15:50# It ain't necessarily so... #
0:15:50 > 0:15:54In 1935, the original Broadway run of Porgy And Bess,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58despite, or because of, its innovations, confused critics at the time,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02and it was not the triumph Gershwin had so hoped for.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07It ran, Porgy And Bess, initially
0:16:07 > 0:16:10for, I think, 128 performances, which is marvellous for an opera.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13You'd have to do it at the opera house many seasons
0:16:13 > 0:16:18but it was not a big success in terms of a run on Broadway.
0:16:18 > 0:16:19And he was very disappointed.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21He lost all the money that he'd invested,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24including the copying of parts and everything
0:16:24 > 0:16:26and it never made money for him in his lifetime.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40Just two years after Summertime was first performed on Broadway,
0:16:40 > 0:16:44George Gershwin started to experience severe headaches and blackouts.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49These were the first signs of a fatal brain tumour
0:16:49 > 0:16:51that would soon kill him.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01The saddest and most poignant thing, of course, about the Gershwin story
0:17:01 > 0:17:06is that he died 11 weeks short of his 39th birthday.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10He was among that hapless group of composers, Mozart and Schubert
0:17:10 > 0:17:12and Mendelssohn and Bellini, Chopin,
0:17:12 > 0:17:17who never got to their 40th birthday, even, at the height of his powers.
0:17:19 > 0:17:25George Gershwin died on 11th July, 1937.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28He would never know how immortal Summertime would become.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Summertime might have remained an aria in a forgotten opera.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53But something happened that set it on the road to global recognition.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57It occurred, not in the glittering neon world of Broadway,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01but in one of New York's poorest neighbourhoods - Harlem.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Harlem was the heart of New York's black community
0:18:07 > 0:18:10and fast becoming the spiritual home of jazz.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17At first, many Harlem jazz musicians had been offended by Porgy And Bess.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Duke Ellington declared that this black-inspired opera
0:18:21 > 0:18:25written by three white men was "not in the Negro idiom."
0:18:30 > 0:18:35'I can understand people being jealous of Gershwin'
0:18:35 > 0:18:38because when you're as good as Gershwin was,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41jealousy is just an automatic thing.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46JAZZ INTERPRETATION OF "SUMMERTIME"
0:18:49 > 0:18:53One young singer dared to disagree with Duke Ellington.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56She was the child of a broken home called Eleanora Fagan.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00But the world would come to know her as Billie Holiday.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03# Summertime
0:19:03 > 0:19:07# And the living is easy
0:19:09 > 0:19:12# Fish are jumping
0:19:12 > 0:19:16# And the cotton is high... #
0:19:16 > 0:19:20She recognised that this operatic aria, Summertime,
0:19:20 > 0:19:22could be transformed into a jazz tune.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27Billie's hot, bluesy version hit the charts in 1936
0:19:27 > 0:19:30and was crucial in launching her solo career.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35# ..little baby, don't you cry... #
0:19:35 > 0:19:36'Billie holiday made the first'
0:19:36 > 0:19:40pop...that's to say recorded by someone not in any way
0:19:40 > 0:19:44associated with the show, and she makes it swing.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46She's got a big drum vamp going on,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49and yet it's one of the definitive recordings of it.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52So it lends itself to the artist,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55and Gershwin, unlike some of his colleagues,
0:19:55 > 0:20:00loved the liberties that great jazz and popular musicians would take with his music.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02He had no problem with that at all.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05# There's nothing can harm you
0:20:05 > 0:20:08# With daddy and... #
0:20:08 > 0:20:10Billie Holiday recorded Summertime
0:20:10 > 0:20:14when America was in the middle of the Great Depression.
0:20:14 > 0:20:1825% of the US population was unemployed.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Black Americans suffered terribly,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24and Billie Holiday's Summertime captured their anger.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38'This line, "Your daddy's rich and your mamma's good-looking" is the ultimate.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44'And what's so wonderful about it is saying to this baby,'
0:20:44 > 0:20:48in the world where we live in, in the world that I want for you,
0:20:48 > 0:20:49this is what I want for you,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53'in this era when no-one has any money, no-one has anything.'
0:20:53 > 0:20:57# One of these mornings
0:20:57 > 0:21:02# You're going to rise up singing
0:21:03 > 0:21:08# Then you'll spread your wings
0:21:08 > 0:21:12# And you'll take to the sky... #
0:21:12 > 0:21:15'I always thought that her version,'
0:21:15 > 0:21:17it's faster and it's a little more severe
0:21:17 > 0:21:20than we're used to hearing the song in the show itself.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23It's a lot less like a lullaby.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27'One way to look at it, she's not just singing a baby to sleep,
0:21:27 > 0:21:29'but she's encouraging a race of people to wake up.'
0:21:33 > 0:21:37'There had been riots in a Harlem, where people were protesting
0:21:37 > 0:21:40'against places where they couldn't go.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43'And because this was the '30s, because it was the Depression,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46'that was all very much in people's consciousness.'
0:21:46 > 0:21:48Billie would have sung it that way.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51That's how she was, that's how she'd have swung it.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55BEBOP JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:22:00 > 0:22:04Billie Holiday had brilliantly adapted Summertime into jazz.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09But this music was about to be radically updated during World War Two
0:22:09 > 0:22:13when a new breed of black musician forged a revolutionary sound.
0:22:13 > 0:22:14Bebop.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21Charlie Parker was THE icon of this fast,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25frenetic style, whose spiky rhythm shocked many jazz lovers.
0:22:25 > 0:22:31HE PLAYS BEPOP
0:22:31 > 0:22:35But his 1949 recording, Parker With Strings,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39was an attempt to make bebop more palatable to a wider audience.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46On this album, Parker decided to record a version of Summertime.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49CHARLIE PARKER PLAYS "SUMMERTIME"
0:23:06 > 0:23:07'People like Charlie Parker,'
0:23:07 > 0:23:10they weren't thinking about covering something,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13they were playing something because they liked it,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16because people asked them to play it all the time.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20Because it provided them with a...
0:23:20 > 0:23:22a bridge to the audience.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30'Parker stays fairly close to the melody, but he plays it'
0:23:30 > 0:23:33with an incredible ebullience.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37I mean, there's no other recording even now that's quite like Parker's.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50'He plays it with a sense of triumph.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53'It's not so much a lullaby, but it's a kind of expression
0:23:53 > 0:23:57'of liberation, this sense that the song is not so much'
0:23:57 > 0:23:59"Go to sleep, darling",
0:23:59 > 0:24:04but, "We are marching into the next world here."
0:24:15 > 0:24:21With Summertime now given such a significant blessing by the bebop king, Charlie Parker,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25other jazz instrumentalists, like Art Pepper,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28Chet Baker,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31John Coltrane,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35and Bill Evans followed his lead.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38All helped establish Summertime as a classic jazz standard.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42JAZZ INTERPRETATION OF "SUMMERTIME"
0:25:33 > 0:25:37'I think, as an instrumentalist, when you approach a piece,
0:25:37 > 0:25:39'a classic like this, which has such a strong lyric,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43'that has such a strong melody,
0:25:43 > 0:25:46'you're able to explore it in other ways.'
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Sometimes in ways that the vocalist wouldn't explore.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53They wouldn't bend certain melodies
0:25:53 > 0:25:55in the way that we would as instrumentalists do.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07'As a kind of jazz standard, it is the basis'
0:26:07 > 0:26:10for a lot of people doing improvising around it,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12and if this was some incredibly complicated melody,
0:26:12 > 0:26:17it would leave very little room for that kind of improvisation and embellishment.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25'The lyric is in your head all the time.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29'And that's actually why I like instrumental versions
0:26:29 > 0:26:32'because I know the lyric. There are only a very few lines to this song'
0:26:32 > 0:26:35but when you hear an instrumentalist taking that melody
0:26:35 > 0:26:37and doing something with it, as Miles does,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40playing a wonderful improvisation on it,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43then you just...you have that in your consciousness already.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48MILES DAVIS' INTERPRETATION OF "SUMMERTIME"
0:27:00 > 0:27:04Miles Davis included his interpretation of Summertime
0:27:04 > 0:27:07on his 1958 Porgy And Bess album.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11'When Miles Davis did Summertime,
0:27:11 > 0:27:13'it's the perfect soundtrack'
0:27:13 > 0:27:16for a car ride somewhere in the summer.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27'Summertime does seem sort of autobiographical for Miles.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30'His daddy was rich and his ma was good-looking.'
0:27:30 > 0:27:33'But, for the most part, it's an instrumental'
0:27:33 > 0:27:38version that explores the music that Gershwin wrote.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48'It's the most vocalised playing he had done on recording up to that time
0:27:48 > 0:27:51'and very rarely afterwards does he equal it.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55'And he said it was some of the hardest playing he ever did
0:27:55 > 0:27:57'because he felt he had to convey'
0:27:57 > 0:28:00the meaning of Summertime, the lyric of Summertime.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11It has a wonderful kind of lightness about it.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14It seems to float above the ground, but it's not
0:28:14 > 0:28:18a portrait of the South, nor is it a portrait of life in New York.
0:28:18 > 0:28:24It's Miles producing something intangible, it's indefinable.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33- # I wouldn't have left no gate - Yeah
0:28:33 > 0:28:35- # Bobby's hen pickled in a grate - Yeah
0:28:35 > 0:28:40# Keep your eyes on the prize
0:28:40 > 0:28:43# Hold on, hold on... #
0:28:43 > 0:28:47In the mid-1950s, the cry for civil rights intensified
0:28:47 > 0:28:53as black Americans embraced a strategy of non-violent direct action.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58# Keep your eyes on the prize Hold on, hold on... #
0:28:58 > 0:29:01Few would have guessed that Summertime would play a role in this movement.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05Gospel music gave the civil rights struggle much of its moral strength
0:29:05 > 0:29:08and the Queen Of Gospel, Mahalia Jackson,
0:29:08 > 0:29:14recognised Summertime as a hymn to a better life for her people.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18# Summertime
0:29:20 > 0:29:27# And the living is easy
0:29:31 > 0:29:36# Fish are jumping
0:29:39 > 0:29:43# And the cotton is high... #
0:29:43 > 0:29:46It's about the civil rights' struggle.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Hush, little baby, don't you cry.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52It's about, we're going to survive, we're going to win.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54We're gonna overcome this
0:29:54 > 0:29:58and so this song became an anthem, of a sort.
0:29:58 > 0:30:04# Oh, your daddy is rich
0:30:04 > 0:30:11# And your ma is good-lookin'... #
0:30:13 > 0:30:18But Mahalia Jackson did something extraordinary with Summertime.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23She recorded it as medley, pairing it with Motherless Child,
0:30:23 > 0:30:28a black spiritual about a baby who has nothing.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30# One of these mornings
0:30:33 > 0:30:40# You gonna rise up singing... #
0:30:40 > 0:30:44She almost never sang anything that wasn't a religious song.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52So, when you're her and you choose to sing Summertime
0:30:52 > 0:30:56and connect it to... Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,
0:30:56 > 0:30:58see, that's a big one there.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00See, that's fairly heavy.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04Mahalia Jackson was from Chicago.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08Her version of Summertime was affected by a tragic murder
0:31:08 > 0:31:13that rocked the city's black population in 1955.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17At that time, a young southsider, named Emmett Till,
0:31:17 > 0:31:20had gone to Mississippi to visit his relatives
0:31:20 > 0:31:22and we don't know what happened.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26Either he looked at a white woman,
0:31:26 > 0:31:28maybe said a wise crack.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32Anyway, he wound up in the Pearl River, dead.
0:31:32 > 0:31:38# Like a motherless child
0:31:42 > 0:31:50# Sometimes I feel
0:31:50 > 0:31:55# Like a motherless child... #
0:31:56 > 0:32:01Mahalia Jackson recorded her version of Summertime in 1956,
0:32:01 > 0:32:03a year after Emmett Till's murder.
0:32:07 > 0:32:12# ..like a motherless child... #
0:32:14 > 0:32:17So, she's mourning the fact that...
0:32:17 > 0:32:21When you hear about Emmett Till, it brings all the terror back.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24It brings back the depression.
0:32:24 > 0:32:25It brings back the fear.
0:32:25 > 0:32:35# But till that morning
0:32:35 > 0:32:41# Nothing will harm you... #
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Through melding those two songs together,
0:32:44 > 0:32:51she says, "White America, you see the fish hop, you see all that.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55"And the cotton is high, let me tell you what's inside that cotton field.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57"Let me tell you what it looks like in there."
0:32:57 > 0:33:02So, Mahalia sees inside that cotton patch.
0:33:02 > 0:33:07She sees a corpse, because, that's what would have been in there.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17# Well, Summertime
0:33:17 > 0:33:21# And the living is easy
0:33:21 > 0:33:26# Fish are jumping
0:33:26 > 0:33:30# And the cotton is high
0:33:31 > 0:33:35# Your daddy's rich
0:33:35 > 0:33:37# And your mommy's good-lookin'... #
0:33:37 > 0:33:43By the late 1950s, Summertime had been recorded in all styles of black music,
0:33:43 > 0:33:47jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50# One of these mornings
0:33:50 > 0:33:53# You're gonna jump up and sing
0:33:53 > 0:33:57# Then you spread your wings
0:33:57 > 0:34:01# And you take to the sky
0:34:01 > 0:34:06# Until that morning there is nothing... #
0:34:06 > 0:34:10It's got to be rare that somebody can write a song
0:34:10 > 0:34:15about another race, and then the people from that race
0:34:15 > 0:34:17start to own the song
0:34:17 > 0:34:21because it is so like who and what they are.
0:34:23 > 0:34:30For many, the ultimate version of Summertime was by the first lady of song, Ella Fitzgerald.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33# Summertime... #
0:34:33 > 0:34:37APPLAUSE
0:34:41 > 0:34:46# And the living is easy
0:34:52 > 0:34:56# Fish are jumping... #
0:34:58 > 0:35:01There is a clarity about the way she sings.
0:35:01 > 0:35:03You can read so much into the song.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07In its way, it's a perfect...
0:35:07 > 0:35:10Her performance is as perfect as it can be.
0:35:10 > 0:35:16# Your daddy's rich... #
0:35:16 > 0:35:19After George Gershwin's death,
0:35:19 > 0:35:24his brother, Ira, had continued writing lyrics for movie scores and Broadway musicals.
0:35:24 > 0:35:31He once admitted, "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them."
0:35:36 > 0:35:42You can always tell a great jazz artist if they can take a standard and make it their own.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46If you hear Ella perform this, it's as if she wrote it.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48She really owned that song.
0:35:48 > 0:35:53# One of these mornings
0:35:55 > 0:36:01# You're gonna rise up singing... #
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Ella's recording was a crossover hit
0:36:06 > 0:36:10wowing white as well as black audiences.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14George Gershwin was now considered one of the great American composers
0:36:14 > 0:36:20and Porgy And Bess was finally experiencing long overdue acclaim.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25This started with a Gershwin biopic, Rhapsody In Blue,
0:36:25 > 0:36:28which featured a Porgy And Bess sequence.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33# Summertime and the living is easy... #
0:36:39 > 0:36:43The opera's reputation steadily grew, and in 1959
0:36:43 > 0:36:47was made into a Hollywood blockbuster by Otto Preminger.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54But just when Summertime had climbed the dizzy heights
0:36:54 > 0:36:56of both the jazz and opera worlds,
0:36:56 > 0:37:00its hard-won status was now threatened by a brand-new sound.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04# You ain't nothing but a hound dog
0:37:04 > 0:37:06# Crying all the time
0:37:06 > 0:37:09# You ain't nothing but a hound dog
0:37:09 > 0:37:12# Crying all the time
0:37:12 > 0:37:17# Well, you never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine... #
0:37:17 > 0:37:24In the mid-1950s, singers like Elvis Presley revolutionised the American musical landscape,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28turning white teenagers on to black rhythms.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30# Yeah, you ain't never caught a rabbit
0:37:30 > 0:37:34# And you ain't no friend of mine... #
0:37:37 > 0:37:43Yet, incredibly, Summertime would do what no other jazz standard would do...
0:37:43 > 0:37:45It fitted in with rock and roll.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47# Summertime
0:37:47 > 0:37:50# And the living is easy... #
0:37:50 > 0:37:56Summertime was a song that early rock and roll singers could perform,
0:37:56 > 0:38:01in their own style, and yet establish a relationship with an earlier generation.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04# And your ma is good-lookin'
0:38:04 > 0:38:08# So, hush little baby
0:38:08 > 0:38:11# Don't you cry... #
0:38:11 > 0:38:14Well, Gene Vincent and Ricky Nelson
0:38:14 > 0:38:18had a huge effect on British bands in the early '60s.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21# You're gonna spread your wings
0:38:21 > 0:38:22# And take to the sky... #
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Ricky Nelson was a particular favourite of mine.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28I really liked his voice.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31His version is one where he sticks very close to the melody.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33It just works.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37# And daddy and mommy They're standing by... #
0:38:38 > 0:38:42In 1965, The Zombies, from St Albans,
0:38:42 > 0:38:46were one of the very first rock groups to cover Summertime.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51I was familiar with the song, but I don't know anything its history.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56It was just this arrangement that interested us and interested me.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59It was an opportunity to do something that was different
0:38:59 > 0:39:02to what many of the bands were playing at the time.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05It was something which gave us an opportunity to improvise
0:39:05 > 0:39:07and the mood was fantastic.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14# It's summertime
0:39:14 > 0:39:18# And the living is easy... #
0:39:18 > 0:39:24We were playing in clubs and pubs and we got a great reaction.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29I think it was quite brave of us to play it in a rock environment.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32It's surprised me even that to the present day.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36You can still play soft ballads to people if they are good ballads.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38# Why don't you hush, pretty baby
0:39:38 > 0:39:43# Don't you cry... #
0:39:43 > 0:39:45I loved the construction of the song.
0:39:45 > 0:39:51Gershwin totally understands what it is to write a song, to produce music.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54On the feeling level, on the slightly magical level,
0:39:54 > 0:39:58where, if you write a song, you reach out and grab something.
0:39:58 > 0:40:00He has reached out and grabbed that.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04That is something that people universally tap into.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11The British invasion of America in the mid-1960s
0:40:11 > 0:40:15was spearheaded by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19The Zombies were very much a part of this invasion
0:40:19 > 0:40:25and helped popularise Summertime with a new generation of American teenagers.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29I'd like to think that The Zombies did contribute to the mystique
0:40:29 > 0:40:32and the popularity of Summertime.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35We always included it in our repertoire when we were playing,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38especially in America.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41I think a lot of young people in America would have been introduced to that song,
0:40:41 > 0:40:45that perhaps wouldn't have heard it in any other way.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03# Summertime... #
0:41:03 > 0:41:06As the '60s progressed, it became increasingly apparent
0:41:06 > 0:41:10that Summertime could be interpreted from some very different perspectives.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17# Fish are jumping
0:41:17 > 0:41:22# And the cotton is high... #
0:41:22 > 0:41:24The Julie London record is clearly a romantic
0:41:24 > 0:41:26interpretation of Summertime.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28A seductive interpretation, not at all maternal.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32This is not a woman trying to get a baby to go to sleep,
0:41:32 > 0:41:35She's trying to get somebody to go to bed, but not to sleep.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43It's a "come on" song to a lover.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47It's sensuous, very laid-back, it's witty.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50It's lithe and, in its way, it's just as authentic.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52It's still the song.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55It's not that she's turned it into something else,
0:41:55 > 0:41:57she's just found another place to go with it.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02She totally made it because of her looks
0:42:02 > 0:42:04and because she looks so glamorous and so hot.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09She's on every album cover, posing seductively.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13A lot of men and boys bought those covers because of the images.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16When you got home and played the records, she really delivers.
0:42:16 > 0:42:18She's not a tease.
0:42:18 > 0:42:24# ..standing by... #
0:42:24 > 0:42:26Now...
0:42:26 > 0:42:28Zip me up.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39Summertime's roots within a 1930s opera were now so distant
0:42:39 > 0:42:43that in the flowering mid-'60s music scene of San Francisco,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47it was believed by many to be a traditional folk song.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49# Yes, summertime
0:42:55 > 0:43:01# And the livin' is so easy... #
0:43:01 > 0:43:03I'd wager everyone in Big Brother & The Holding Company
0:43:03 > 0:43:06thought of that as a folk song.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10There had just been this folk revival shortly before that.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13They were used to playing that song in coffee houses.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17I doubt that they thought of it as a jazz song or an opera song.
0:43:17 > 0:43:22I think they thought of it as a folk song, like House Of The Rising Sun.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26# Your daddy's rich... #
0:43:29 > 0:43:33In 1966, Janis Joplin joined the San Francisco rock band,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36Big Brother & The Holding Company.
0:43:36 > 0:43:41They recorded one of the most celebrated versions of Summertime
0:43:41 > 0:43:44that included a new introduction by Sam Andrew.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57Bach has a prelude that starts up. He has this thing and it goes...
0:43:57 > 0:44:01HE SINGS THE TUNE
0:44:01 > 0:44:04It's a very typical Bach motif.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07So I just slowed that down.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10It's exactly that and I slowed it way down
0:44:10 > 0:44:15and used that as kind of a motivating force for Summertime.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19INTRODUCTION PLAYS
0:44:23 > 0:44:26Summertime is such a great song.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30It was something Janis loved to sing.
0:44:30 > 0:44:36# Summertime, time, time, time
0:44:36 > 0:44:39# Time
0:44:39 > 0:44:43# For livin' easy... #
0:44:45 > 0:44:49She sang the song to herself. I think she was rocking herself.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51She was singing a lullaby to herself
0:44:51 > 0:44:56but she was also singing it to the universe, to the audience.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58She was reassuring them.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03This is a song that will calm people because it is a lullaby.
0:45:03 > 0:45:09# Your daddy's rich
0:45:09 > 0:45:12# And your ma's
0:45:12 > 0:45:15# So good looking, babe... #
0:45:15 > 0:45:18Janis Joplin's voice has always been a voice that haunts me
0:45:18 > 0:45:20every time I listened to it
0:45:20 > 0:45:23because there is something in her voice
0:45:23 > 0:45:29that makes me feel like she knew she was not going to last long.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33And every minute, every second she'd got to give it all.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38And she was able to do a version of Summertime
0:45:38 > 0:45:40that would keep the lullaby part of it,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44keep everything we've said before but with her urgency to it.
0:45:44 > 0:45:50# Whoa
0:45:50 > 0:45:53# One of these mornings
0:45:53 > 0:45:59# Shine, your eyes upset, baby
0:46:03 > 0:46:06# I said you're gonna go
0:46:06 > 0:46:09# Honey, gonna spread your wings
0:46:09 > 0:46:12# Gonna take, take to... #
0:46:12 > 0:46:18If you don't enjoy summertime while you are alive, shame on you.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23I'm telling you, just embrace life in summer or any other time.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26That's what her version makes me feel like. Gives me goosebumps.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31She mines a particular quality of the song most people left behind.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34Even though I find her performance painful in many respects,
0:46:34 > 0:46:37because her voice was so stretched out of shape,
0:46:37 > 0:46:39and that's the blues quality.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42I mean, she sings it as the blues.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47She screeches at the top. Almost, it's Summertime in extremis.
0:46:47 > 0:46:53# Your dad's rich
0:46:55 > 0:47:02# And your ma's good-looking, baby... #
0:47:02 > 0:47:06As well as performing it live, Big Brother & The Holding Company
0:47:06 > 0:47:10included Summertime on their number one album, Cheap Thrills.
0:47:10 > 0:47:15This was one of the biggest-selling records in America in 1968
0:47:15 > 0:47:19and gave Summertime a massive new audience.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23The LP cover was designed by the cartoonist Robert Crumb.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26The idea behind his Summertime illustration,
0:47:26 > 0:47:29with its image of a black maid with a white baby,
0:47:29 > 0:47:33was to satirise white stereotypes of African-Americans,
0:47:33 > 0:47:34but it still offended some.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46The Black Panthers were really upset about that depiction
0:47:46 > 0:47:49and they black-balled the album.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52They hated that depiction.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55I guess it's like this negro mammy.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57She's holding this white baby.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59It's upsetting.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09In America, the summers of the 1960s
0:48:09 > 0:48:12were intimately related to love-ins and flower power,
0:48:12 > 0:48:14and Janis Joplin's version of Summertime
0:48:14 > 0:48:19fed into that notion of a beautiful, psychedelic summer.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26But the summers of the 1960s for many black Americans
0:48:26 > 0:48:28were the long, hot summers of rage.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49Again, it's a characteristic of the song that,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51not only can it withstand those different treatments,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54it has been treated in those different ways
0:48:54 > 0:48:57with some very dark, negative,
0:48:57 > 0:48:59broken versions of Summer.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07Albert Ayler's tense, discordant version of Summertime
0:49:07 > 0:49:11perfectly encapsulated the black American mood of anger
0:49:11 > 0:49:13and disaffection in the 1960s.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21Summertime meant to black people,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25how many black people are going to be killed by police this year?
0:49:25 > 0:49:29How many rednecks are going to murder somebody?
0:49:29 > 0:49:32How many churches are going to be bombed?
0:49:32 > 0:49:37How many demonstrations are going to be had in which people are going to
0:49:37 > 0:49:41act towards their fellow citizens
0:49:41 > 0:49:44like wild dogs?
0:49:44 > 0:49:46DISCORDANT JAZZ VERSION OF "SUMMERTIME"
0:49:59 > 0:50:02Albert Ayler is saying, "Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh,
0:50:02 > 0:50:05"I don't want you to get it.
0:50:05 > 0:50:06"I want you to be irritated.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09"I want you to be upset because in the upset and irritation,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12"you can see what people are saying.
0:50:12 > 0:50:13"They're saying no.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16"And this, I'm saying no to the beauty of Summertime."
0:50:24 > 0:50:30# Summertime
0:50:30 > 0:50:35# And the living is easy
0:50:39 > 0:50:44# Fish are jumping
0:50:44 > 0:50:50# And the cotton is high... #
0:50:51 > 0:50:57At the end of the 1960s, Summertime was everywhere in America,
0:50:57 > 0:51:00three decades since its birth.
0:51:00 > 0:51:01# ..and your ma is... #
0:51:01 > 0:51:05It was now set for world domination.
0:51:05 > 0:51:10# Summertime
0:51:10 > 0:51:15# And the living is easy... #
0:51:15 > 0:51:17Starting in the 1950s and '60s,
0:51:17 > 0:51:22musicians in the Caribbean picked up on Summertime.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24The song travelled to Havana...
0:51:24 > 0:51:26# Well, your daddy's rich... #
0:51:26 > 0:51:29There's a wonderful version by a Cuban singer called Enrique Herrera.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Just with conga drums.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34Just voice and congas, very elemental.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37But it's very, very powerful indeed.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40Summertime also entered Puerto Rico.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49You could feel the heat of the beach and the heat of the Afro-Cuban rhythms of the congas of Africa even.
0:51:49 > 0:51:55Latin music in general is a very happy kind of music, very danceable.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57This song fits right into that category.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03Summertime travelled to Trinidad.
0:52:03 > 0:52:07It's really African-based and it's African, even though
0:52:07 > 0:52:12it's written by a Jewish man, it's really an African-based song
0:52:12 > 0:52:14and Latin rhythms just fell into this naturally.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18And on to Jamaica.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22REGGAE VERSION OF SUMMERTIME PLAYS
0:52:22 > 0:52:26Every culture has their folk music so, if you look at reggae music
0:52:26 > 0:52:28which is all about survival,
0:52:28 > 0:52:30all about the voice
0:52:30 > 0:52:33of the underdog, erm...
0:52:33 > 0:52:36a song like Summertime is particularly relevant.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41# One of these mornings...
0:52:41 > 0:52:45# You're gonna rise up singing... #
0:52:45 > 0:52:51In the early '70s BB Seaton cut his reggae version of Summertime in Kingston, Jamaica.
0:52:56 > 0:53:01The melody is so relaxed that you could go to sleep singing it.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05Putting it on a reggae rhythm, I think that gave it life.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08You know, I mean, because when I was singing it I remember the beat,
0:53:08 > 0:53:10you know, it was so pulsating,
0:53:10 > 0:53:13that I was actually floating on top of the rhythm,
0:53:13 > 0:53:14with that melody.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17# ..with your daddy
0:53:17 > 0:53:21# Sta-a-a-anding by... #
0:53:21 > 0:53:25From Jamaica, Summertime breezed on down through the Tropics
0:53:25 > 0:53:27to Rio de Janeiro.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35For this song to have had quite such an extraordinary ability
0:53:35 > 0:53:38to remain with us and to be transformed and to be played
0:53:38 > 0:53:43and sung by so many people it has to have these very adaptable qualities.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47I think it's the adaptability of it that is perhaps at the root of
0:53:47 > 0:53:50the fact it's become quite so pervasive in our culture.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54SINGING IN HINDUSTANI
0:54:00 > 0:54:03As the 20th century became the 21st,
0:54:03 > 0:54:07musicians as far as India were now interpreting Summertime.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14Amit Chaudhuri from Mumbai recognised that he could work
0:54:14 > 0:54:20Summertime's languid lullaby qualities into India's classical music.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26Indian music and the way you improvise in Indian music
0:54:26 > 0:54:30allows you - often demands - that you slow down the tempo.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33To make those improvisations possible.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35That slowing down of the tempo,
0:54:35 > 0:54:37which I have in my version,
0:54:37 > 0:54:42also kind of nicely fits in with the idea of sleep.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49There's something simple about the scales and about the song.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52I think that's why it continues, its life continues.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56# Oooh-oooh... #
0:54:56 > 0:54:58SINGING IN FON
0:54:58 > 0:55:02Angelique Kidjo is from the West African nation of Benin.
0:55:02 > 0:55:09When she recorded her version of Summertime, she sang the song's lyrics in Benin's language - Fon.
0:55:09 > 0:55:14SHE SINGS IN FON
0:55:18 > 0:55:22You cannot translate English into Fon literally.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26It doesn't work, because it's a language that paints a picture for you.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28SHE SPEAKS FON
0:55:28 > 0:55:30..which means Summertime.
0:55:30 > 0:55:36It translates as Summertime but it means when the heat time comes.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43Your daddy's rich and your ma is good-looking -
0:55:43 > 0:55:47I say that in my language by saying that...
0:55:48 > 0:55:50..your father have wealth.
0:55:50 > 0:55:51It's not richness.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55The wealth is the knowledge of life and your mom is good-looking,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58your mother have such a beautiful soul.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02So I take it from what Gershwin wrote to the reality of Africans.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20Great songs that transcend all styles, languages, nationalities
0:56:20 > 0:56:24have a beautiful simplicity at their very heart.
0:56:24 > 0:56:30Summertime shares this quality with the other two most-covered songs in the world -
0:56:30 > 0:56:33My Way and Yesterday.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37A really good song touches people.
0:56:37 > 0:56:42It means something to people and in this case it's meant something
0:56:42 > 0:56:45to millions of people and all three of those songs on their own
0:56:45 > 0:56:49level work like that, whether you prefer one more than the other,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52they all just touch people.
0:56:55 > 0:57:00Summertime's global appeal is also due to its brilliant ability
0:57:00 > 0:57:04to trigger personal emotions in us all.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08This song works if you're having a wonderful time
0:57:08 > 0:57:10and if you're celebrating somewhere.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16Or if you're having quite a bad time and you want summer.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19You know, if you want to be looked after, this song is great,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22and if you feel lost, this song is great.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25It's extraordinary.
0:57:25 > 0:57:30Today, Summertime is the most covered song on the planet.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34Over 25,000 versions exist.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37But more importantly,
0:57:37 > 0:57:41Summertime is one of the most loved melodies in the world.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45As George Gershwin's friend Kay Halle predicted it would
0:57:45 > 0:57:49become when she first heard it all the way back in 1934.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53People on the street, you can stop them and they've heard of Summertime.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57They probably haven't heard of something written two or three years ago.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01They probably couldn't name some Madonna song from 2005.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05They probably couldn't name three Lady Gaga songs but they all know what Summertime is.
0:58:07 > 0:58:12Summertime has magically tapped into something deep inside us all.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Nostalgia and innocence, sadness and joy,
0:58:15 > 0:58:19and our intrinsic desire for freedom.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25Summertime is a state of mind.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28Everybody has got a Summertime somewhere.
0:58:28 > 0:58:30Everybody knows what that means.
0:58:34 > 0:58:38There's something about that song that makes people feel more free
0:58:38 > 0:58:41when they're playing it and when they're listening to it.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44I think that's the greatest achievement of all.
0:59:06 > 0:59:09Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:09 > 0:59:12E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk