<P> Although members of the jazz community initially felt that a Jewish piano player and a white novelist could not adequately convey the plight of blacks in a 1930s Charleston ghetto, jazz musicians warmed up more to the opera after twenty years, and more jazz - based recordings of it began to appear . Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald recorded an album in 1957 in which they sang and scatted Gershwin's tunes . The next year, Miles Davis recorded what some consider a seminal interpretation of the opera arranged for big band . </P> <P> In 1959, Columbia Masterworks Records released a soundtrack album of Samuel Goldwyn's film version of Porgy and Bess, which had been made that year . It was not a complete version of the opera, nor was it even a complete version of the film soundtrack, which featured more music than could be contained on a single LP . The album remained in print until the early 1970s, when it was withdrawn from stores at the request of the Gershwin estate . It is the first stereo album of music from Porgy and Bess with an all - black cast . However, according to the album liner notes, Sammy Davis Jr. was under contract to another recording company, and his vocal tracks for the film could not be used on the album . Cab Calloway substituted his own vocals of Sportin' Life's songs . Robert McFerrin was the singing voice of Porgy, and Adele Addison the singing voice of Bess . The white singer Loulie Jean Norman was the singing voice of Clara (portrayed onscreen by Diahann Carroll), and Inez Matthews the singing voice of Serena (portrayed onscreen by Ruth Attaway). </P> <P> In 1963, Leontyne Price and William Warfield, who had starred in the 1952 world tour of Porgy and Bess, recorded their own album of excerpts from the opera for RCA Victor . None of the other singers from that production appeared on that album, but John W. Bubbles, the original Sportin' Life, substituted for Cab Calloway (who had played Sportin' Life onstage in the 1952 production). The 1963 recording of Porgy and Bess excerpts remains the only official recording of the score on which Bubbles sings Sportin' Life's two big numbers . </P> <P> In, 1976, for RCA Victor, Ray Charles and Cleo Laine recorded an album of excerpts in which the two of them sang several roles . The album was arranged and conducted by Frank De Vol . It featured the organ of Joe Sample, the trumpet of Harry Edison and guitar work of Joe Pass and Lee Ritenour . It was jazz - based with full orchestrations, but the orchestrations used were not Gershwin's . </P>

Who sang summertime in the original porgy and bess