Very Worthwhile, Despite Some Flaws

DVDs:


	• Jazz - A Film By Ken Burns Pbs Paramount, 2004 average customer review:based on 146 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

Great Series, Very Educational

I am a music teacher and have been sharing this series over the last few months with some of my young players and I think it is absolutely fantastic!!!! I think that the commentary by such luminaries as Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, Albert Murray,Margo Jeferson (the list is endless)is just amazing. Many first person accounts and you really can't ask for better than that . I guess I should also add Artie Shaw, just brilliant!!!
I would highly recommend this for anyone who is an instructor of any musical instrument, even voice. It shows young people that jazz truely is (to quote Rolling Stone Magazine)"The Blues With Wings."

Pete Melkert
Socrates62

for more information click here

One of a kind

This is a lengthy and definitive history of jazz, with extensive research and pictorial material. My one complaint is that there are virtually no opportunities to listen to the music without voice over. For the music itself, you need audio recordings as a supplement.
Some viewers may prefer an earlier and shorter documentary, "The Story of Jazz" (BMG 1991), which is just 1- 1/2 hours long, nicely done, and--because it was made several years earlier--has footage with some jazzmen who had passed on by the time Burns's documentary was made.
Interested listeners should also check out the "Jazz Icons" series of DVDs (TDK), which offer rare AV footage of live performances by American jazz greats in Europe during the '50s-'70s.

for more information click here

Very Worthwhile, Despite Some Flaws

Like other Ken Burns documentaries, this is a high-quality, entertaining, and educational film, well-worth viewing. However, if you expect adequate coverage of ALL the great jazz artists of the past 100 years, you'll surely be disappointed. Nonetheless, several dozen of the greatest and most influential artists do receive at least some--often very good--coverage. Perhaps not surprisingly--given their influence, popularity, and longevity--Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington receive the most coverage. The evolution of jazz as an American art form, and its context in American history (especially Black American history), is very well-presented. To a great extent, Burns focuses on jazz as a part of POPULAR American culture; as a result, the documentary is weighted towards the 1920s through 1940s, when jazz was THE most popular form of music in America. Coverage of the 1950's and 1960s--arguably the most EXCITING time for jazz, at least musically--is actually quite good, but could have been more comprehensive. After the 1960s, Burns' focus unfortunately seems to have been the decline of jazz (in popularity, record sales), although the series does conclude on a more positive note about the present and future of the music, with a bit of attention to several contemporary artists. Throughout the film, many different musicians, jazz critics, promoters, and fans present a variety of perspectives (some more worthwhile than others). Wynton Marsalis has the most "air-time"-- and kudos to him for a very fine job. Despite some obvious shortcomings, this series is well-worth watching--and there's lots of good music, too! I've been a jazz fan for over 30 years, and have watched it in its entirety 3 times; some episodes 4 or 5 times. It's hardly the definitive word on jazz--but who really would expect that?? I contend that some Amazon reviewers are much too harsh (and sometimes irrational) in their criticism of a very good film.

for more information click here

What Do You Expect From Kenny-Boy?

Those people who panned this series, gave it only 1 or 2 stars are absolutley correct: Burns shows his limited, biased view of jazz by virtually ignoring everything that came after 1961.

But, acknowledging the truth of that grave shortcoming, the series still is, for what it is, well-done and entertaining. It's not anything near an objective, comprehensive or even "fair" history of jazz, but -- it's jazz -- and that's all the title says it is.

Consider, too, that the personalities Burns chose, the biographies and sociology of the times he chose to focus in on, all these things must have been very, very hard to resist. While there are many great jazz performers post-1961, do they and the times they lived in compare to the drama and poignancy of what jazz was prior to 1960? Are the personalities as magnetic or as relevant, not just from a musical point of view but from an historical/sociological point of view?

Also, let's not expect too much from Ken Burns in terms of insightful, courageous filmmaking. Far from it. He's PBS' boy: he's their piano player, he just works there -- for PBS and its many corporatist sponsors. So to the degree jazz is radical, subversive and a danger to the status quo, well, Ken Burns or PBS'll have no part of it. They play it safe. Why? Because as Willie Sutton would put it: "That's where the money is."

PBS knows exactly what they're going to get when they sign Burns on. And if you think that "Burns' America" is going to be anything but mythology, then you haven't been paying attention to what PBS has become.

PBS' charter, way back when it started in the late 1960s, specifically stated that it would offer programming not available on commercial television. Now, given that pledge they made back in the 70s, look at how pathetic PBS has become. ... Cary Grant movies. ... Music programs of washed-up rock and roll singers who couldn't get on commercial teeveee nowadays with a car full of gangsters and three brigades of agents ... Biographies of Mario Lanza, Bobby Darin and, get this, 70s talk show host Mike Douglas! (Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel).

So Ken Burns knew just what he was doing. How wonderful it is for all these "cruise missile liberals" (not a radical bone in their body) talking about race way, WAY after it took any kind of real courage to talk about it. Oh, how they flock to tell us about *past* racial injustices; and how assiduously they ignore current political maladies.

No, Ken Burns in their boy, that's for sure. So, for sure, "Jazz" is highly entertaining, but do I expect Burns, in league with PBS, to do anything more than entertain? Of course not. Burns is a safe liberal and knowing how PBS has caved every time anyone has offered anything to the left of "safe liberalism," what he produces here is simply par for his course: entertaining, arbitrary, ingratiating and sacharrine.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

JAZZ is a ten-part nearly nineteen-hour documentary series that celebrates America's greatest original art form a music whose improvisational spirit perfectly reflects the nation that gave it birth. It is the first television series ever to tell the story of jazz. Beginning with the birth of jazz at the dawn of the Twentieth Century the film incorporates the wide range of American culture and historical events that interact directly with the music: among them the harsh racial polarization of the 1890s; the artistic and political ferment of the Harlem Renaissance; the exuberance of the Jazz Age; the Great Depression and the New Deal; the Second World War; the emergence of a youth culture in the 1950s and 1960s; the hope anger and expectations of the civil rights movement; and the search for identity and authenticity in the 1970s 1980s and 1990s.DVD Features: Featurette: "Making of Jazz"Additional Scenes: Three full length performances not seen in the filmPlaylist information for over 500 songs Music and Photo creditsSystem Requirements: Running Time 1140 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. UPC: 841887051255 Manufacturer No: 705125

for more information click here