Ken Burns: Jazz

Ken Burns: Jazz is an acclaimed 2001 television documentary miniseries produced for the venerated PBS network. A sumptuously rich bite of jazz American pie. Ken Burns succeeds in documenting this impossibly large subject. Clocking in at just less than 20 hours, the series is an exhaustive and complete overview of Jazz in the 20th Century. Never dull, this set is a sophisticated and engaging exploration of the evolution of Jazz from its roots to the present. This documentary is a social history of the musicians who created one of America's greatest contributions to art and it covers the years 1900 to around 1960. The emphasis here is on the mainstream artists of the trade. Burns unravels his story in a chronological and quite accessible way that is not over the head of the neophyte nor beneath the interest of the educated jazz connoisseur. Some artists are omitted, and the last 40 years is compressed into one single episode. MORE