Summertime by Daniel Michael (P.52.S)

Week #10: Summertime has the distinction of being one of the most recorded songs in the history of recorded music. According to The Summertime Connection, there are currently more than 33,345 recorded versions. Summertime was written by George Gershwin (music) and DuBose Heyward (lyrics) for the opera Porgy and Bess. Gershwin is said to have exclaimed of Summertime, “I think the music is so marvelous I don’t believe I wrote it.”

Of the vast treasury of recorded versions, my personal favorite is Sydney Bechet's lyrical and aggressive version, recorded in 1939. I tried to capture Bechet's pulse and drive in my version, and even lifted a guitar riff or two from the recording.