George Gershwin

At a 1991 pre-Broadway performance of the Gershwin musical "Crazy for You" in Washington,C., an audience member turned to her companion and said, "I didn't know George and Ira Gershwin were still alive." They're not: Composer George died of an inoperable brain tumor at age 38 in 1937; his lyricist brother died almost 10 years ago at age 86. Which is why Mike Ockrent, the British director of "Crazy for You," delights in recounting the remark he overheard.

"SWNDRFL" reads the license plate on a car parked outside a Hollywood recording studio this week. The car belongs to singer-pianist Michael Feinstein and the plate, with a few vowels added, translates into " 'S Wonderful"--one of the most effervescently buoyant of George and Ira Gershwin's songs, and an ideal symbol for a session devoted to expanding the remarkable Gershwin legacy unheard for more than 50 years.

Brit­ish roots mu­sic band Mum­ford & Sons took the top hon­or for its album "Ba­bel" at the 55th Grammy Awards ce­re­mony Sunday. The night mostly dis­trib­uted hon­ors broadly to an ar­ray of young­er gen­er­a­tion acts in­clud­ing New York in­die trio Fun., Aus­trali­an elec­tron­ic pop artist Gotye, rap­per-R&B sing­er Frank Ocean and Ak­ron, Ohio, rock group the Black Keys. See the complete list of 2013 Grammy winners and nominees below. #story-body-text h2 { font-weight: bold !

Big Sur, the 90 or so miles of rugged Pacific coast that unfurls south of Monterey, is known for pricey, reservations-only restaurants and as a capital of the New Age movement. It's a place, then, for well-fed people to get in touch with their inner selves in a spectacular natural setting. But before the arrival of $120 prix fixe dinners, before the human potential movement was founded at the Esalen Institute, Big Sur was associated with one of America's most austere and, for a while, famous artists.

EARL WILD spends four hours a day at the piano. Practicing. He's been doing this for a long time -- actually, since he was a boy in Pennsylvania in the 1920s. In those days, Wild practiced even more. But he learned, he says, to concentrate and focus, and his work time has tightened. Widely considered an immaculate technician, the pianist says, "I practice for cleanliness. There is nothing worse than dirty piano playing."

In a surprise union of two quintessentially American composers from different eras, one the 1960s mastermind of "Good Vibrations," the other the Jazz Age creator of "Rhapsody in Blue," former Beach Boy Brian Wilson has been authorized by the estate of George Gershwin to complete unfinished songs Gershwin left behind when he died in 1937. He plans to finish and record at least two such pieces on an album of Gershwin music he hopes to release next year. The Gershwin-Wilson project may strike some as an odd coupling: one New York musician famous for sophisticated 1920s and '30s pop songs including " 'S Wonderful" and "Someone to Watch Over Me" as well as such expansive, classically minded compositions as "Rhapsody"; the other the driving force behind Southern California beach culture hits such as "Surfin' U.S.A.

That a local Church of Scientology center once shared a name with the Elysian paradise of Greek myth sounds like a plot detail worthy of Evelyn Waugh. But as with much Hollywood lore, the true odyssey of the elegant old Chateau Elysee building is as weird as the mythology.

Ten gentle people who brought joy to the 20th century and made it worth living: Jack Benny, Irving Berlin, Charlie Chaplin, Aaron Copeland, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Stan Laurel, Ogden Nash, Norman Rockwell, Charles Schulz. HARRY LEVIN Woodland Hills

In real life, George Gershwin said to Oscar Levant, "Upper berth, lower berth, that's the difference between talent and genius." In the movie, "Rhapsody in Blue," the overnight train trip was filmed, but the comment was apparently deemed unsuitable for George to say, so Oscar was given the line. JUNE LEVANT, LOS ANGELES