All That Jazz

[powerwagonjohn]

A couple weeks ago I finished reading the Ken Burns book the History Of Jazz which is the companion book to the PBS documentary. I went to Border's Books that are going out of business and picked up the 5 CD set that they put together and I am really enjoying it. I have to admit there is a lot I don't know about jazz and it's roots. Some fantastic music. I even went back and picked a couple of Louis Armstrong CDs, way cool!

Thanks John

[zigzag]

That was a great documentary, however, I believe they overplayed Louis Armstrong's contribution, though no doubt it was profound. And I believe that they also relied too heavily on Wynton Marsalis' historical perspective. As much as I like Wynton's music and appreciate what he has done as an ambassador for jazz, my recollection of that documentary is that Marsalis put more emphasis on New Orlean's influences once jazz developed past its infancy and less emphasis on the New York jazz scene's influence of the '40s and '50s. That makes sense because Wynton owes his style to more traditional influences.

[stein]

That was a great documentary, however, I believe they overplayed Louis Armstrong's contribution, though no doubt it was profound. And I believe that they also relied too heavily on Wynton Marsalis' historical perspective. As much as I like Wynton's music and appreciate what he has done as an ambassador for jazz, my recollection of that documentary is that Marsalis put more emphasis on New Orlean's influences once jazz developed past its infancy and less emphasis on the New York jazz scene's influence of the '40s and '50s. That makes sense because Wynton owes his style to more traditional influences.

That is very interesting-I have not seen it in a long time and don't remember much, but I remember sharing those same feelings about the role of Armstrong, and a feeling of a perspective being missed (particularly the emphasis toward New Orleans).

 

I think one tendency is to reflect BACK on a famous player (like Armstrong). What I mean is that while he might not of influenced everything, we might look at him as an example, and thus take other influences and happenings that influenced him, and still use him as an example.

 

One think I do remember about the particular documentary, is that it focused on particular players briefly, going from one player to another. I didn't think it did a particularly good job of presenting the influences on each other and the scene as a whole in doing it this way. But, that would be very hard to do. Trying to do ANY comprehensible history of Jazz that can put as much into the constraints of time and viewer involvement with something so big as jazz just can't be done.

[zigzag]

To all the jazz fans in this group, you owe it to yourself to read "Miles," Miles Davis' autobiography. I couldn't put it down and I learned so much about jazz of his era, especially about bebop, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and all of the musicians that Miles was associated with, which was many! You could spend a year listening to all of the music from all of those musicians and the thirty-plus years of Miles' influence.

[Versatile]

Jazz is such a big subject...all histories and perspectives have a value

 

Interesting to see the focus from wind players like Armstrong, Davis, Marsalis et al

 

Remembering also the role of strings(including piano), from ragtime Joplin era through blues banjo and guitar

 

Perhaps explaining the gravitation to New Orleans via Mississippi Delta music....

 

V

 

[G McBride]

I live in Centerville, Indiana and Work in Richmond, Indiana. There were a lot of the earl jazz greats recorded in Richmond, Indiana. You can go to the Star-Gennett web site and see some of the history and how they are trying to bring some of that back into Richmond's culture. www.stargennett.org is the address.