Who else out there has seen this. It is incrdible! I'd like to say that Prince is dedicated to his music, but some of these katz back in the day have a lesson to learn Prince. This instance is a little late in the game, but when Miles Davis Finnally got a deal with Columbia(what a coincidence), he still had 4 records he needed to record for his current lable. He recorded those in like 2-3 days.....ALL FOUR! One take for all the songs!

Other Katz like Duke Ellington, Chick Webb, and Louis Armstrong recorded and toured Non-stop...all year long for years on end. And this was back in the day when white people were picky with who ate in their restaurants or stayed in their hotels. Duke and his band usually just stayed on the train. That's right...train....there were no airplanes or custom tour busses....TRAINS! As for his output, Prince would have been better suited for those days, but I don't think he could've hung with the touring conditions he would have faced back then.

He does Run his ban like a Swing Band leader though; he is today's version of a Duke Ellington. Or maybe I should say Chick Webb(he was like 4-11 or summin like that).
[Edited 11/25/04 22:14pm]

Dont U hate when U think something is really intresting and people R gonna respond....then they dont.

I did



I made a thread about couple of months ago b4 I bought it.

I dug Ken's work even tho folks resented him as a "purist" not to mention, alot of folks were ANGRY becoz he was presenting the theme "Jazz=Black culture" which is true.

He really did a good jop on alot of bios(esp the stride pianists, Duke & Louis).
[Edited 11/26/04 12:59pm]

I loved this series and I want this set but I don't want to spend the money at the moment. But yeah there was controversy about Wynton and the whole black culture thing and how white people weren't properly presented. But I agree with Wyntoin he had to preserve the fact that it's an artform black folks created.

It's hard to chronicle all that Jazz is. . .but I think Ken did a decent job. I need to get that box set.

Videotaped it in real-time.

A few critics thought that it was too much of a Wynton Marsalis vision of "JAZZ".
I got a great deal out of it. Especially an appreciation for the contributions of Louis Armstrong.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

theAudience said:

Yeah, both of Satchmo & Duke got the exclusive treatment.

Honestly? It made me look beneath the "Uncle Tom" image that Louis Armestrong suffered from(to this very day sadly). I loved how actor Ossie Davis broke it down when it comes to Louis(Matter o' fact, Mr.Davis seems to be the BEST guest in that PBS special)

Harlepolis said:

Exactly.
(they replayed that episode last night)

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

BobGeorge909 said:

Welcome to the world of Jazz. Nice word that "picky"

Just needed to bring this thread back from the dead.

After watching and learning all I can say is wow. Education in Jazz is something I never had and all I have to thank is Ken Burns.

I understand why I like Jazz as much as I do, it's real. Then what I thought was "acid jazz" was really "free jazz".

I recomend this to anybody who loves music and show your kids, this needs to be taught in schools.

Chick Web! Cutting heads! Lady Day! Just all of it was really amazing. I got a little sick of Wynton's opinions but it was offset enough by everybody else (some who were actually there). Not enough mentions of Jazz from the 60's on but it was Louie Armstrong and Duke driven and that was fine with me.

If you love learning about music, do yourself a favor and check this out. Make time it's 10 dvds at 2 hours each.

I JUST bought this box set for 20.00 of Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue", "Sketches Of Spain" and "In A Silent Way".

You guys got me looking into this on Amazon.

Here is an interesting bit from the description of the DVD:

"The DVD version of Jazz offers a "music information" mode, in which the title of a song is displayed when it is played in the film. Pressing the Title button jumps the viewer out of the film to a screen that lists that song's composer, performers (including all band members, not just the headliner), year of recording, and album and record company information when applicable (and no, all the credits are not to the series' own CDs)."

That's a nice feature. I have not seen that before, although I don't own many DVDs.

I saw some of Jazz when broadcast and liked it a lot. I think I will pick this up.

Harlepolis said:

It's a damn shame that he was put into that "uncle tom" category when he stood his grounds (later in life) for civil rights. Not to mention you can feel his music from a million miles away and it makes everybody smile. What a power and a career, Satch was more than any skin color, his spirit until the end was just extremely beautiful.

This Ken Burns thing made me really understand why I love jazz and which jazz really hits home with me.

The other thing are the atrocities committed with racism that is clear throughout the entire thing. It seemed as though the color line left when you listened or played jazz but the rest of the country stayed segregated (forcing these amazing people with these amazing musical gifts into humiliating experiences). It displays yet another level of ignorance that I didn't think about with the history of the country.

Amazing too was the fact that Jazz is American, alot like blues but all of it came from African Americans. To me, it makes African Americans require even more respect in the building of this country for everything that they've done to establish an "american" culture with their contributions.

I knew this already but it just keeps slapping me in the face every time I learn about something else (like, Jazz). All I can say is teach the young and if it's just showing them this, do it. I know I will.

watching this documentary was what made me get into jazz seriously. It's also what made "Take The A-train" my favorite song of all time.

I just got back from amazon

Boy, those mofos are something, ain't they? Calling Ken "racist" and all of types of other dumb shit,,,,simply coz he told the TRUTH which is yes "Jazz was made by black people" lol obeviously some folks can't swollow that fact to this day.

Harlepolis said:

You think Ken got it bad, Wynton was vilified. But that doesn't take away from the fact that there were great white jazz artists. I don't see how people don't understand that.

CynicKill said:

The series WAS good and there was a lot of great information. But that still the fact of the matter is, tehre were a lot of important musicians, black, white, hispanic, Asian, who were left out because to Marsalis they just weren't important ehough or they weren't "real jazz musicians."

guitarslinger44 said:

I don't know why he gets the bad rap as if he's the one who called the shots.

Ken is the one who made the project, Marsalis on the other hand is a contributer like the rest of the folks who took part in that thing.

Harlepolis said:

Beacause Ken Burns didnt' know jack about jazz before the project and he relied on Wynton to sort it all out for him and tell him what the important stuff was rather than doing the homework himself. Again, it was a great series (and while we're at it, Wynton's a great musician) but as someone who has played, researched, and studied jazz for as long as i have, it was disappointing to see that Ken Burns didn't do more of the research himself but rather just relied on Wynton for all that.

guitarslinger44 said:

The way I look at it is, they did a research on the BASIC of Jazz(Which is yes, it is important when you talk about Jazz).

I think the offence was becoz of the whole "Jazz is dead" thing which is only a quote by Miles Davis(Not their opinions) but obeviously it hit home to some people.

Personaly, I think Ken hit the nail on the head with this one and it was a good thing that he called out for Wynton, Margo Jefferson, Mercedes Ellington & Ossie Davis for observations. As a student myself, those people were BIG help(Including Wynton-even tho he gets a lil' carried away sometimes).

I loved the series, but it got a bit old hearing for the thousandth time how so-and-so played the horn in a whole new way. And it might have been nice to hear other interviews for different time periods rather than the same throughout(ie Wynton).

I thought Benny Goodman was given plenty of respect & Dave Brubeck, too, but you can't deny that most great jazz was done by black musicians.

I think he put it into perspective well. Louis Armstrong might seem overrepresented, but he's underrepresented by those who think Jazz consists of only A Love Supreme & Bitches Brew or Kind of Blue.

Harlepolis said:

Just teach the young to understand what it means to be African American. In the face of ignorance they rose above and that says everything.

I'm a white guy but I can say it loud, "I'm Black and I'm Proud"

andyman91 said:

Armstrong over represented? I think it was a tie between him and Duke Ellington but can there be enough representation when it comes to men who were there through almost every phase that jazz went through? Not to me.

People that think that jazz consists of music from the 60's are the same that think that rock started at the same time and both are just ignorant.

Music is Life