Sebastiaan Kaptein

Atzko Kohashi & Tony Overwater: Porgy

by Dan McClenaghan
May 30, 2025

George Gershwin's 1935 folk opera, Porgy and Bess, a quintessentially American masterpiece, has had its share of jazz interpretations. Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald visited the work in 1957 on Verve Records. Pianist Oscar Peterson dug into the Gershwin score--again, on Verve--in 1959. But the most notable rendition is the Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaboration Porgy and Bess (Columbia Records,1958), one of the finest big band jazz albums of all time. So what more is there to say about ...