January 9, 2001 • 1h 22m
"Gumbo" traces the roots of jazz from the 1800s to 1917. The viewer will catch glimpses of Jelly Roll Morton, who erroneously clai...Read more
January 9, 2001 • 1h 49m
How can one explain the genius of a Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington? Blessed with skill and talent far exceeding their peers, on...Read more
January 10, 2001 • 1h 47m
Colorful characters like the tragic Bix Beiderbecke, powerhouse Bessie Smith, and the braggart Jelly Roll Morton, make the study o...Read more
January 15, 2001 • 1h 59m
"The True Welcome" continues many of the stories begun in Episode 3, following several troubling years for Louis Armstrong (who wa...Read more
January 17, 2001 • 1h 29m
1935 was the year that swing became the most popular music in the country and that the king of swing, Benny Goodman, became a mati...Read more
January 22, 2001 • 1h 40m
Swing would be reacquainted with its blues roots by way of Kansas City, when Count Basie and the Barons of Rhythm brought their ho...Read more
January 23, 2001 • 1h 53m
"Dedicated to Chaos" finds jazz musicians teetering on the brink of the modern era, fighting against the straightjacket of clichéd...Read more
January 24, 2001 • 1h 59m
The bop revolution’s influence would spread to other musicians, but unlike swing, it would never become a popular music. The rapid...Read more
January 29, 2001 • 1h 55m
Critics who had believed that Charlie Parker was "too much" musically, could not have welcomed the arrival of Ornette Coleman. Col...Read more
January 31, 2001 • 1h 49m
Obviously Ken Burns knows that he can’t fit the last thirty-nine years of jazz history onto two hours of video tape, so from the o...Read more