wordsmith52's video: FLETCHER HENDERSON ORCHESTRA LIZA 1934

American ‘swing’ bandleader, Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952) playing a very upbeat version of a 1920s Gershwin number, “Liza”. It was introduced in 1929 by Ruby Keeler (as Dixie Dugan) in Florenz Ziegfeld's musical “Show Girl”. The stage performances were accompanied by the Duke Ellington Orchestra. On the show's opening night in Boston in 1929, Keeler's husband and popular singer, Al Jolson, suddenly stood up from his seat in the third row and sang a chorus of the song, much to the surprise of the audience and Gershwin himself. Jolson recorded the song a few days later, and his rendition rose to number nine on the charts of the day. For 1934, Henderson’s version was quite advanced in terms of its hot and fast ‘swing’ arrangement. Recorded in New York in September 1934.