some of you may have seen the billy stewart documentary that's been  playing on the usa's pbs network this month. in it, a story is told which may or may not be well known, though i hadn't heard it before. in case you haven't either:

seems that when stewart recorded a pop crossover hit for chicago blues label chess, he ad-libbed a bit, changing a number of words to "summertime." stewart wanted writing credit on the release, but leonard chess said no.

stewart persisted, and finally chess gave him a slip of paper with a new york city address.

"here's where the author is, you go work it out with him," chess said. stewart immediately got on a plane to new york, taking a cab to the address chess had given him.

it was, as he then discovered it to be, george gershwin's burial site.

Last edited by gopher (February 24, 2021 6:03 am)