The Washington times., 1938-07-28
JAZZ CONCERT
D RAW S $4,000
TO WATERGATE
Grofe Shows Mastery
Of Popular Music
BY WILLIAM NEWMAN

An dll-LlLuc EGCOIu LII "aSlF
ington's musical appreciation
was registered by the audience
Of $4,000 who heard Ferde
Grofe's concert with the Ma
tional Symphony Orchestra last
night at the Watergate.
They came to pay tribute to
popular music, to enjoy the
idiom with which the radio and
the night clubs have made them
familiar. They remained to
cheer the Oldest work in the
jazz repertoire, George Gersh-
wins Rhapsody in Blue" and
to heap honor upon the per-
former of the solo piano part,
Emerson Meyers, resident
virtuoso and persuasive in
terpreter, for the technical bril-
lance and spiritual excitement
Of his presentation.
Grofe is the prophet of jazz,
now that GerShwin is no more.
He was Gershwin's collaboration,
and Whiteman's. He has had a
share in creating and develop
ing something the Importance
of which, measured in terms of
the public's reaction, is not to
be denied.
AUDIENCE DESCRIBED
Yet this reaction, in the mo-
ment of performance, is far
more restrained than that pro-
voked by classic music, and one
is puzzled to explain this fact.
These people, whose presence
in such numbers proved their
interest in popular music to be
som e hing extraordinary, ap-
plauded most numbers on the
program with great reserve.
Any raucous-voiced swingster in
the stage show of a picture house
would have gotten a bigger
hand.
Why? Probably because the
singer gives them the familiar
hit Of the day, and Grofe en-
deavorS to make the same idiom
achieve greater expressivness.
symphonic jazz" is really the
Grofe creation. He arranged
the Rhapsody in Blue" He set
most of Whiteman'S successes.
Now he applies the technique
acquired as an arranger to his
own compositions.
RESULTS CHARMING
Often the results are charm
ing, as in the rhythmic titilla-
tions Of Hollywood" or in the
tangled and unusual pulses of
Symphony in Steel" OF the
movement from the Grand
Canyon Suite" entitled ION the
Trail" or in the almost too taste
full and refined melody of the
Sob Sister" movement from his
tabloid Suite"
That the obvious patterns and
transpositions Of jazz intrude,
that the mechnical formulae be-
comes monotonous to the expert
enced symphony lover, should
not occasion tedium in the heart
Of the true jazz devotee. But
they seemed to accomplish just
that.
Nevertheless, it was evident
that the multitude liked Mr..
Grofe though they showed slight
impulse to make him their
hero. His stout, cheerful, busi-
neSslike and unassuming per-
Sonality does not invite that
sort Of adulation.
AN ENCORE IN RAIN
Perhaps the thin brilliance Of
the true jazz orchestra with its
predominance of wind and brass
tone and it's unimportant strings
was missed. The sonorities of
the symphony orchestra are the
exact opposite, deriving from
the large string body. If jazz,
as Grofe and Whiteman have
said, Is mostly a matter of color,
the symphony orchestra is the
wrong kind of an ensemble to
play it or any Of its derivatives.
including Mr.. Grofe'S jazz.
To which Mr.. Grofe can reply
by counting his audience and
citing the encouraging fact that
they remained through a spat-
ter of rain to hear a repetition
of "On the Trail" from the
Grand Canyon Suite" played
as an encore,