JAZZ is a ten-part, eighteen-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.
Ken Burns and his longtime writer Geoffrey C. Ward rely on techniques familiar to viewers of their earlier documentaries: voice-over narration (by actor Keith David), readings from primary sources (by Samuel L. Jackson, Delroy Lindo and Matthew Broderick, among others) and 75 one-on-one interviews (with critics Gary Giddins and Stanley Crouch; musicians such as Marsalis, Jon Hendricks, Artie Shaw and Charlie Haden; and devoted listeners, including actor Ossie Davis and baseball player Buck O'Neil).
Release:
January 8-10, 15, 17, 22-24, 29 and 31, 2001 (9-11:00 pm)
Presenter:
PBS / A General Motors Mark Of Excellence Presentation
Genre:
Documentary
Running Time:
18 hours
Writer:
Geoffrey C. Ward
Producer:
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
Director:
Ken Burns
Voice:
Matthew Broderick Keith David..... Narrator Samuel L. Jackson
Delroy Lindo
JAZZ is a ten-part, eighteen-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.
