Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns 1 - Gumbo (Beginnings to 1917) (2001)

Synopsis: TELEVISION RELEASE: JANUARY 8, 2001 (PBS). For the third part of his American Trilogy--following THE CIVIL WAR and BASEBALL--Ken Burns takes on the "that most American of art forms": jazz. The... TELEVISION RELEASE: JANUARY 8, 2001 (PBS). For the third part of his American Trilogy--following THE CIVIL WAR and BASEBALL--Ken Burns takes on the "that most American of art forms": jazz. The 10-part, 19-hour film begins with the music's roots in post-Civil War New Orleans and concludes roughly a century later. The story focuses not only on the personalities and events that helped define the music but also on the social and cultural climate in which they emerged, making KEN BURNS' JAZZ a film about more than just music. The first episode, GUMBO (BEGINNINGS TO 1917), looks at the earliest days of jazz starting in New Orleans, where diverse influences and traditions pooled together. The mixture of marching bands and minstrel shows, Italian opera and down-home blues and the rhythms of ragtime gradually formed a new style. Cornetist Buddy Bolden became the music's first star (before going mad); Jelly Roll Morton took credit for its invention; clarinetist Sidney Bechet brought his powerful personality; and trumpeter Freddie Keppard turned down the chance to make the first jazz recording. Commentary throughout the film by Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Crouch, and others, as well as rare footage from the period, illustrates the importance of these early figures and the struggles, both personal and social, with which they contended. [More]

Starring: Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Crouch, Gary Giddins, Sidney Bechet

Starring: Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Crouch, Gary Giddins, Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton

Director: Ken Burns

Director: Ken Burns
Screenwriter: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns

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