Summertime, and the listenin' is easy. No, I don't mean "easy listening"; I mean jazz.
More specifically, "Porgy and Bess," a great folk opera from that often-misunderstood genre, one that resonates with the melodic genius of American composer George Gershwin and his interpretation of the American black experience in 1920s Charleston, S.C. From its roots in the 1925 novel "Porgy," by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, the poetic melancholy and resilience of the story and its characters have been in tune with the musical tension and release associated with jazz.
Just as the jazz opera reveals the immutable elements of life in love, struggle and hope, jazz has cradled those melodies and rhythms from "Porgy and Bess" to their maturity as jazz standards, such as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "I Loves You, Porgy."