By 1923, the bandleader Paul Whiteman wanted to do something different with jazz. He wanted to turn the American dance band into something a bit more prestigious, or as Paul Osgood, the author of 1926's So This is Jazz put it, make "an honest woman out of jazz." Whiteman said in 1927, "I never questioned her honesty. I simply thought she needed a new dress."
Whiteman invited George Gershwin to perform in his Experiment in Modern Music show with his Palais Royal Orchestra, slated for February 12, 1924. George's brother Ira Gershwin recalled reading an article in the New York Herald on January 4 about the upcoming jazz concerto, which said that George would be performing. This was news to Ira. George reports that he had started to consider the idea of writing something that pushed "the limitations of jazz" the previous December. When working out the theme, he heard it as "a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America." "American Rhapsody" became "Rhapsody in Blue" at Ira's suggestion.
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