"OVER THE RAINBOW"

[matterintospirit]

priceless, simple arrangement by George Shearing

[pianistimo]

i want this.  do you think...you could share it?  or...maybe i'll have to buy it.  it's worth buying.

can you speed up the lemon drops?

[matterintospirit]

It's from a collection called "The Worlds Greatest Piano Arrangements" published by Warner Bros. Publicatons. Great little arrangements by the likes of Hines, Shearing, Garner, Tatum, "Fats" Waller, Mary Lou Wiliiams. Ellington, etc. Lots of little "gems." Some of them are so well written, a good Classical pianist can really "go to town" and take them to the expressive limits.

[pianistimo]

this is challenging me to move a step further in this direction.  i used to be happy with 'the basics' - but this is definately many steps beyond the basic arrangments.  funnily, i am soon to play for two weddings and possibly at both receptions.  it's nice to play music that is in the background that people like - and yet can still talk and feel like it's just music to relax and enjoy and not necessarily a recital of any kind.

[matterintospirit]

That's exactly what I do and I mix it up with a lot of light Debbusy and other atmospheric type classical stuff. People love it. It stands out without being annoying or intrusive. The average person isn't really exposed much to the calssical style. It's a way of taking all your years of training and hard work and re-packaging it to make money. That's how I look at it.

[etcetra]

Yea George Shearing is amazing.. Its interesting that he didn't have extensive classical training.. apparently he didn't like to play classical that much and switch to jazz early on, and yet a lot of his playing has  "classical" elements in them, more so than most other jazz pianists.

[matterintospirit]

I agree.

[cygnusdei]

Awesome! Thanks for posting, I love it!

[thierry13]

My favorite version of this is that one.

Im trying the new youtube function haha.

[thierry13]

Lol it worked quite well 

[pianistimo]

wow.  that was great, too. so much good music for late night early m orning.  somehow, i love classical during the day and some jazz at night.  it's just more restful.  maybe my kids are right when they say 'shut up about the beethoven' around 9 or 10 pm.  i don't do it that much anymore -but they found it hard to rest and sleep.

[quasimodo]

I can't post it for obvious copyright matters, but Keith Jarret has a live version of Over The Rainbow that is just mindblowing.

[stevemaninoff]

WOW...dude...not sure if i'm just in a state or something but man oh man that was best over the rainbow i ever heard! I'm a macho guy but that brought tears to mine eyes man..awesome job i say. I'm always looking for stuff to play and now i can look for that arrangement so ty for that..again, that was really awesome i thought gj.

[stevemaninoff]

I simply can't state how very much i like this song....very nice job and cool arrangement

[pianoplayer88]

That was beautiful.

[rachfan]

A wonderful lyrical arrangement of the song, and most expressively played too!

David