I contemplate I understand the viewpoints of BOTH the harsh critics and the fanatical supporters of this series. Both have agreeable points. Both “sides” sometimes fail to understand the points of the other “side” (or fail to even try) . Here, I’ll try to justify why I contemplate both viewpoints are legitimate.
Briefly, what are the genuine vs. poor qualities of this series?
GOOD: Music is often blended extremely well with visual material. There is considerable enormous music and large film footage. Anyone unique to jazz will be exposed to these. Even those not so modern to jazz will procure inviting sounds and sights. The commentary by Gary Giddons throughout the series is unusually profitable, insightful and moderate, in incompatibility to some other commentators (gaze Awful below) . The film is noble at telling stories (although many of these blur into yarn and memoir, gaze below) . This film will be spicy to the general public; it will exhibit jazz to many people who would never have gotten into it otherwise. It will widen jazz’s audience, and in this sense, it will be superior for jazz. I don’t know how many people I’ve seen posting on the internet recently who’ve said that because of this series, they’ve decided to seize more jazz CDs, go to some jazz concerts, and lift books on the history of jazz and various musicians. So many people are at least being pointed in the direction of exploring jazz on their occupy, this in itself is a satisfactory thing, which will eventually be more vital than the serious flaws in the series (despite that critics of the series feel otherwise at the moment) .
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BAD: Very often historically improper, blurring the line between history, anecdote, narrative, and cliche. These sins are too numerous to list. Inspect Francis Davis’s unusual worthy review in the Atlantic online. (“I Hear America Scatting”, January 2001) The narration is pudgy of simple, declarative _subjective_ statements which are presented as if they were concrete facts. The history of jazz is presented as closed, undisputed, and final, rather than start, alive, and new. The film is awash in hyperbole, overstatement, and blind sentimentality, which takes the space of solid analysis and explanation. Figures (esp. Armstrong and Ellington) are deified to such a degree that the deification they receive completely overshadows their musicianship, and hence trivializes any legitimate attempts to account for or represent their suitable impact. The music of both Armstrong and Ellington is enough to defend their contributions as some of the most famous in jazz history; we don’t need to be told that Armstrong “was sent from heaven to execute people ecstatic”. The film has a obvious bias in promoting the Marsalis-Crouch viewpoint. This is perhaps the most serious flaw — Burns is trying to procure abstract ideas (America, freedom, bustle, democracy, etc.) in jazz music, and ends up injecting urge to an extent that is not upright with social history. There’s nothing ghastly with having a viewpoint. The dilemma comes in presenting this viewpoint in such a intention that the viewer is never aware that there IS a viewpoint IN THE FIRST Station. Evidence of this comes from the stream of newbies to jazz who, after watching the series, confidently respond to the critics: “But this series is well made after all, because NOW I have a top-notch introduction to the history of jazz.” Really. How could you KNOW, if this is your ONLY distinguished exposure to jazz? And that’s the huge plight, is that the series always gives the impression that it’s “impartial”, giving viewers a spurious sense of security. The scat singing is annoying. And of course, the impression that jazz died and suddenly reawakened when Wynton Marsalis picked up a horn is patronizing.
So, the series is marvelous as mainstream entertainment and as a vehicle for getting the general public very inflamed about a neglected art execute. The series is awful as an apt, even somewhat unprejudiced history of jazz, and it’s conceived with a social agenda that severely compromises its presentation.
My beget (admittedly biased) advice to jazz newbies involved in this series: I would rent the series from the videostore. Peek it, savor it, treasure it, and occupy it with a ton of salt. Then, consume the money you would have spent on buying the series, and win several valid CDs that interest you. Also, rob the three following estimable books, which together will give you a remarkable richer, distinguished more insightful, worthy more correct, and remarkable more representative history of this art form:
Buy,Download, Or Stream Jazz : A Film By Ken Burns! Click Here
The History of Jazz, by Ted Giola
Visions of Jazz: The First Century, by Gary Giddons
Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz 1954-1999, by Whitney Balliett
After several days of marathon video viewing, I’m contented (and relieved) that, despite some inevitable imperfections, JAZZ: A FILM BY KEN BURNS is an amazingly immense and detailed exam of the music’s history. Despite having read many kindly jazz-related books, I contemplate that video rather than the printed word is the preferred medium to obtain initial or even remedial exposure to the music, because here you have as the centerpiece the accurate audio and video of the art and artists. If you read a book about jazz, you don’t have that indispensable evidence of the music itself, but merely descriptions of it.
Why select the DVD? There is a minor amount of extra footage. More significantly, the program can be altered so that whenever a fragment of music appears, one can indicate the discographical info. As such, one never has to wonder what they are listening to. Furthermore, the sharpness of the DVD video describe and clearness of the audio is a selling point, particularly when you’re looking at vintage photos, videos, and audio that are often not in optimal condition. Plus, with the DVD you can contemplate the series at your beget dart.
I might have belief beforehand that a series which takes six hours unbiased to score to Armstrong/Hines’ 1928 landmark recording WEST Raze BLUES might be a miniature too obsessive. Yet I remained riveted to the television veil as jazz’s history unfolded, from Buddy Bolden to Cassandra Wilson. Jazz has a VERY compelling history on many levels–emotionally for one given the periodic mist in my eyes. I would have preferred a bit less commentary over the clips of jazz’s grand artists, but occasionally Burns does let the music bid for itself. I was impressed that we regain to know a lot of the principal artists in a dazzling amount of detail. The likes of Armstrong and Ellington (but surprisingly not Miles Davis) are followed from the beginning to the slay of their lives.
My first well-known exposure to jazz was in the 1970s, and I maintain that if this series has an achilles heel, it is that jazz’s impact on contemporary favorite music could have been examined, which would have provided younger generations a logical entry point that we can describe to, irregardless of our prior degree of exposure to jazz. Instead, the impression-by-omission left here is that jazz has virtually no ties to contemporary pop culture, which I strongly stutter. I consider the majority of the viewers of this program are ultimately going to be those who reached adulthood in the 1970s or later, and there is so considerable that could have been exposed to these generations to present that jazz is not a museum section, but has indispensable links to contemporary common culture. For example, I hear a noteworthy jazz influence on artists as diverse as Stevie Wonder, Sade, various “acid jazz” artists (particularly in Japan–one of many indications of jazz’s global influence), early Earth Wind & Fire, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, and countless others.
Many will compile their list of JAZZ’s omissions (Toshiko Akiyoshi would lead mine) . Yet even with these relatively minor quibbles, Ken Burns has done the music a big service with this project. I wouldn’t be surprised if this series ignites a expansive increase in interest in the music by consumers who otherwise might have never given jazz music grand view.
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