| Ken Burns JAZZ: The Story of America's Music
By C. Michael Bailey
Starting as a rumor in the mid 1990s, Ken Burns' long awaited documentary on America's indigenous music finally becomes a reality Monday, January 8, 2001 with the airing of the first episode, "Gumbo" on the Public Broadcasting System. Over the following four weeks, nine additional 2-hour episodes will air; culminating in "A Masterpiece at Midnight" slated to broadcast on Wednesday, January 31, 2001. The full schedule is
- Episode 1: "Gumbo" (The Beginning to 1917), dealing with rural delta blues and the New Orleans Jazz Tradition. Monday, January 8, 2001.
- Episode 2: "The Gift" (1917 to 1924), focusing on the movement of Jazz to Chicago and New York and the development of the stride piano tradition and the genesis of big bands. Tuesday, January 9, 2001.
- Episode 3: "Our Language" (1924 to 1928), solidifying the ideal of "Traditional" Jazz. Wednesday, January 10, 2001.
- Episode 4: "The True Welcome" (1928 to 1935), focusing on instrumental virtuosity and the broad acceptance of jazz as popular music. Monday, January 15, 2001.
- Episode 5: "Swing—Pure Pleasure" (1935-1937), describing the detonation of Big Band Swing. Wednesday, January 17, 2001.
- Episode 6: "Swing—The Velocity of Celebration" (1937 to 1939), accounting the zenith and twilight of the Big Band Era. Monday, January 22, 2001.
- Episode 7: "Dedicated to Chaos" (1940 to 1945), detailing the rise of "Modern Jazz" or Be Bop. Tuesday, January 23, 2001.
- Episode 8: "Risk" (1945 to 1955), the transmogrification of Be Bop into Cool Jazz and Hard Bop. Wednesday, January 24, 2001.
- Episode 9: "The Adventure" (1955 to 1960), the Freedom Principle and the Keepers of the Flame. Monday, January 29, 2001.
- Episode 10: "A Masterpiece By Midnight" (1961 to Present), Mainstream Matter and Antimatter. Wednesday, January 31, 2001.
Jazz is the most ambitious documentary undertaking to date by the award-winning director of the series The Civil War and Baseball. Those two documentaries were notable not for just the awards won but also for the associated merchandise sold (coffee table book and soundtrack). Jazz offers an elaborate companion book to the series, but the real history maker is the soundtrack, all five discs of it. In addition to the soundtrack, 22 individual artist discs and a single "best of" disc (if that is possible) have been released.
Further history is made by the collaboration between Columbia/Legacy and the Verve Music Group to produce the soundtrack and companion recordings. A total of 412 music tracks, among the soundtrack box set, the single "Best of" disc, and the 22 artist discs comprises material derived from the archives of Sony Music, Universal, Polygram, Warner Music, Fantasy, EMI, and RCA/BMG. Many independent labels such as Biograph, Savoy, Candid, Black Lion, Delmark, etc. were mined as well. The soundtrack, such as it is, is listed at the end of this article.
Five compact discs with approximately 70 minutes of music per disc are a quite a bit to digest all at once, but it was an interesting and informative drill. As I have yet to see the film, I listened to this soundtrack as a historical soundscape, mirroring American culture, politics, and attitudes over the last one hundred years. The set opens with Louis Armstrong's "Stardust" from 1931. This is the official theme of the series and demonstrates a well thought out choice. In this piece, Burns and collaborators choose the quintessential jazz icon interpreting a piece of music for the Standard Jazz Lexicon, composed by one of America's foremost composers, Hoagy Carmichael. In this single choice, Burns and company highlight the importance of Armstrong, the Standards, Carmichael, and improvisation to Jazz.
Armstrong looms very large in this set being found on four of the discs. This first disc appropriately includes Armstrong's contribution to the ground zero of Jazz. "West End Blues" from Armstrong's Hot Fives sides exists as the jazz germ cell from which the rest of Jazz, and very possibly American Popular Music, developed. If there is nothing new under the sun, nothing new in American popular music was produced after the "West End Blues". This song permeates every blues guitar solo, Motown/Stax/Atlantic rhythm and blues offering indeed every hard rock tome based on the blues pentonic scale. It also fixed as a part of the Jazz landscape, the blues (along with Tin Pan Alley Standards) as the vehicles of choice for the development of this music.
Equally included with Armstrong is Duke Ellington. For both artists, selections from their small group and big band experiences are showcased. Ellington's entire career is laid here, starting with the seminal "East St. Louis Toodle-doo" (1926) and ending with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra's version of "Take the A Train". One might say that for mainstream and traditional Jazz, Armstrong and Ellington are the Alpha es et O. Ellington may be looked at as the logical extension of Armstrong's "West End Blues" as demonstrated in the orchestral blues of "A Train", "Mood Indigo", and "The Mooche".
Listening from start to finish, the first two discs are nostalgically sepia-toned affairs detailing the approach and rise of the big band swing era. The expected highlights are included: the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Armstrong's Hot Fives, Ellington, Paul Whiteman, Fletcher Henderson, chick web Benny Moten, Jimmy Lunceford, Benny Goodman, and Count Basie. There sound is one of the roaring '20s and the bipolar '30s. Side roads through Bix Beiderbecke and Billie Holiday show up with all of the usual suspects of songs.
The sepia-toned music begins to wear off with the jolt of Coleman Hawkin's 1938 "Body and Soul" (Disc 3), which sounds like a blasting loudspeaker of improvisation over the back drop of the World War II soundtrack of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw. After Gene Krupa's "Drum Boogie" fades into the electrons, the next big and almost final thing expresses itself in the jujitsu of "Salt Peanuts" by Dizzy Gillespie, who with Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk represent Be Bop. This disc ends with the Cool Jazz of and Gerry Mulligan, bearing away to the Hard Bop introduction of Disc 4 with Horace Silver and Clifford Brown. This is all the '50s and '60s, when what the American mainstream heard what they would define most closely as Jazz. Kind of Blue, Giant Steps, A Love Supreme are all in residence.
Disc 5 highlights the late periods of Armstrong and Ellington, Bossa Nova, Miles' second great quintet, and the rise of the neoclassicists (Wynton Marsalis) and the new pioneers (Cassandra Wilson). This series and soundtrack are doomed to criticism in the jazz community because of exclusions. Jazz aficionados are experts in details and what Burns is trying to do here is paint with the broad strokes necessary to appeal to the pedestrian listener. As such, I will not hold him responsible for pleasing all the jazz community. I suspect this series will do what it is intended to do and that is to educate the public at large. A side effect of this will be to create controversy in the Jazz community and thereby stimulate dialog and reconsideration, the two things that keep an art form both new and sacred.
Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music
Disc 1
- Star Dust Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra OKeh - 1931
- Soon One Mornin' (Death Comes A-Creepin' In My Room) Mississippi Fred McDowell Prestige International - 1959
- Memphis Blues Lieut. Jim Europe's 369th U.S. Infantry "Hell Fighters" Band Pathé - 1919
- Livery Stable Blues The Original Dixieland Jazz Band Victor - 1917
- Charleston James P. Johnson, piano Century - 1925
- Chimes Blues King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band Gennett - 1923
- Backwater Blues Bessie Smith w/ James P. Johnson Columbia - 1927
- The Pearls Jelly Roll Morton Vocalion - 1926
- Dead Man Blues Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers Victor - 1926
- Wild Cat Blues Clarence Williams's Blue Five OKeh - 1923
- Cake Walkin' Babies (From Home) Clarence Williams' Blue Five OKeh - 1925
- Sugar Foot Stomp Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra Columbia - 1925
- Heebie Jeebies Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five OKeh - 1926
- Potato Head Blues Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven OKeh - 1927
- West End Blues Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five OKeh - 1928
- The Mooche Duke Ellington & His Orchestra OKeh - 1928
- East St. Louis Toodle-Oo Duke Ellington & His Kentucky Club Orchestra Vocalion - 1926
- Black Beauty Duke Ellington & His Orchestra OKeh - 1928
- Mood Indigo The Jungle Band OKeh - 1930
- There Ain't No Sweet Man (Worth The Salt Of My Tears) Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke Victor - 1928
- Singin' the Blues Frankie Trumbauer & His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke OKeh - 1927
- Riverboat Shuffle Frankie Trumbauer & His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke OKeh - 1927
- Hotter Than 'Ell Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra Decca - 1934
- I Got Rhythm Ethel Waters Columbia - 1930
Disc 2
- It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) Duke Ellington & His Orchestra Brunswick - 1932
- Echoes Of Harlem Duke Ellington & His Orchestra Brunswick - 1936
- Moten Swing Benny Moten's Kansas City Orchestra Victor - 1932
- St. Louis Blues Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra OKeh - 1929
- Ain't Misbehavin' Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra OKeh - 1929
- For Dancers Only Jimmie Lunceford & His Orchestra Decca - 1937
- King Porter Stomp Benny Goodman & His Orchestra Victor - 1935
- Rose Room The Benny Goodman Sextet Columbia - 1939
- Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) Benny Goodman & His Orchestra Columbia - 1938
- Jumpin' At the Woodside Count Basie & His Orchestra Decca - 1938
- Sent For You Yesterday and Here You Come Today Count Basie & His Orchestra Decca - 1938
- Lester Leaps In Count Basie's Kansas City Seven Vocalion - 1939
- Oh, Lady Be Good! Jones-Smith Incorporated Vocalion - 1936
- Without Your Love Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra Vocalion - 1937
- Strange Fruit Billie Holiday Commodore - 1939
- God Bless the Child Billie Holiday with Eddie Heywood & His Orchestra OKeh - 1941
- Three Little Words Art Tatum Decca - 1944
- Rebecca Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner Decca - 1944
- Harlem Congo Chick Webb & His Orchestra Decca - 1938
- A-Tisket, A-Tasket Chick Webb & His Orchestra featuring Ella Fitzgerald Decca - 1938
- Shine Django Reinhardt & Le Quartet du Hot Club de France Gramophone - 1936
- Dear Old Southland Noble Sissle & His Orchestra featuring Sidney Bechet Columbia - 1937
Disc 3
- Body And Soul Coleman Hawkins Bluebird - 1939
- Cotton Tail Duke Ellington & His Orchestra Victor - 1940
- Take the "A" Train Duke Ellington & His Orchestra Victor - 1941
- Begin The Beguine Artie Shaw & His Orchestra Bluebird - 1938
- In The Mood Glenn Miller & His Orchestra Bluebird - 1939
- Well, Git It! Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra Bluebird - 1942
- Solitude Billie Holiday with Eddie Heywood & His Orchestra OKeh - 1941
- Drum Boogie Gene Krupa & His Orchestra OKeh - 1941
- Salt Peanuts Dizzy Gillespie & His All-Star Quintet Guild 1945
- Groovin' High Dizzy Gillespie Sextet featuring Charlie Parker Guild - 1945
- Ko - Ko Charlie Parker's Re-Boppers Savoy - 1945
- Scrapple From the Apple Charlie Parker Quintet Dial - 1947
- Embraceable You Charlie Parker Quintet Dial - 1947
- Get Happy Bud Powell Trio Clef - 1950
- Epistrophy Thelonious Monk Blue Note - 1948
- Straight, No Chaser Thelonious Monk Blue Note - 1951
- Manteca Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra Bluebird - 1947
- Moon Dreams Miles Davis Nonet Capitol - 1950
- Just Friends Charlie Parker Mercury - 1949
- Rockin' Chair Louis Armstrong Victor - 1947
- They Can't Take That Away From Me Sarah Vaughan & Her Trio EmArcy - 1954
- Walkin' Shoes Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan Pacific Jazz - 1952
- Fine and Mellow Billie Holiday Televison broadcast - 1957
Disc 4
- Doodlin' Horace Silver & the Jazz Messengers Blue Note - 1954
- I Get a Kick Out Of You Clifford Brown & Max Roach Mercury -1954
- St. Thomas Sonny Rollins Prestige - 1956
- Django The Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige - 1954
- Take Five Dave Brubeck Quartet Columbia - 1959
- So What Miles Davis Sextet Columbia - 1959
- Giant Steps John Coltrane Quartet Atlantic - 1959
- Rick Kick Shaw Cecil Taylor Trio United Artists - 1955
- Chronology Ornette Coleman Atlantic - 1959
- Original Faubus Fables Charles Mingus Candid - 1960
- Acknowledgment (from A Love Supreme) John Coltrane Quartet Impulse - 1964
Disc 5
- Hello, Dolly! Louis Armstrong Kapp - 1963/1964
- Desafinado Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd Verve - 1962
- In a Sentimental Mood Duke Ellington & John Coltrane Impulse - 1962
- Tourist Point Of View Duke Ellington & His Orchestra RCA - 1966
- E.S.P. Miles Davis Quintet Columbia - 1965
- Spanish Key (single version) Miles Davis Columbia - 1969
- Birdland Weather Report Columbia - 1977
- Mister Magic Grover Washington Jr. Kudu - 1974
- Rock it Herbie Hancock Columbia - 1983
- Un ange en danger MC Solaar & Ron Carter Verve - 1994
- Tanya Dexter Gordon Columbia - 1978
- Soon All Will Know Wynton Marsalis Columbia - 1986
- Death Letter Cassandra Wilson Blue Note - 1995
- Take the "A" Train Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Columbia - 1992
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