JAZZ: GUMBO {PART 1 OF 10} (TV)
Summary
The first episode in this ten-part miniseries detailing the history of jazz music in America. The program begins as musician Wynton Marsalis describes the qualities of jazz, particularly its improvisational and collaborative aspects, reflected in the development of the country itself. With its roots in blues, the musical style is traditional, and yet always new as a result of different artists' interpretations. A number of prominent musicians are previewed to be later discussed, and the focus shifts to New Orleans, Louisiana, widely accepted as the birthplace of jazz. In the antebellum south, New Orleans was the most diverse and musical city in the country, with many different cultures living side-by-side. The slave trade was especially prominent in the port city, and Marsalis comments on how slaves had to "improvise" to survive, quickly learning a new language and a new culture. Gerald Early explains that slaves were permitted to sing and dance once in a week in Congo Square, and the white residents believed themselves to be seeing "an authentic glimpse of Africa," though many of the slaves hailed from the Caribbean islands and combined work songs with Baptist spirituals in their music. Free mixed-race individuals, known as creoles, who often owned slaves themselves, enjoyed and played a more classical style of music. Brass bands and parades were often seen in the streets, particularly around Mardi Gras, and the city boasted three opera companies and two symphony orchestras. A popular form of entertainment was minstrel shows, usually involving "blackface" and stereotype-based racial comedy. Critic Gary Giddins explains that their traveling, repetitive style made the minstrel shows "like early television" because of its widespread appeal. Thomas "Daddy" Rice, a white minstrel performer, created a performance piece from a song he heard from a stablehand, and named it after the man: Jim Crow.
Louisiana seceded from the Union in 1861, but when they were forced to surrender and slavery was ended, it meant a new freedom for black residents, thanks to Reconstruction and increased integration. However, when the troops were withdrawn from the state in 1877, racism increased again, with the new segregation laws taking on the name of Jim Crow. At the same time, ragtime arrived from the Midwest, informed by many different styles and featuring a distinct, danceable rhythm. Blues too came from the Mississippi Delta, and Marsalis, Ossie Davis and others comment on its simple 3-chord, 12-bar style and how it "sculpts meaning" out of difficult situations, sounding like "a profane twin" of traditional Baptist music with its personal, emotional nature. "Separate but equal" segregation laws became more strict and common, with a large portion of the population rendered ineligible to vote and the creole population "becoming black overnight." As a result, the creole and black musicians merged their groups and their styles and created a new form for the 20th century, though the style had no specific name at first. Musicians using the new style began to gain fame, like trumpeter Buddy Bolden, known for his loud, bold sound. He invented a swinging style known as "the Big Four," described by Marsalis, and played his "hot" music at famous dance halls, which, after midnight, featured an "impolite," sensual sound. Known as "King Bolden," he was especially well-loved in Storyville, New Orleans' famous red-light district, because of his music's representation of "depraved things." He soon began drinking heavily, however, and suffered from paranoia and other mental disturbances, eventually living out his life in an asylum.
Writer Stanley Crouch explains how every culture has its methods of "defanging the wolf at the door" and highlighting jazz's emotional, cathartic focus. Another prominent jazz artist was Ferdinand LaMothe, known as Jelly Roll Morton, a creole who claimed French ancestry and secretly landed a job playing in Storyville, where he blended different styles and created a new sound. While his claims that he himself invented jazz are unconvincing, he was the first to write the music down, adding a "Spanish tinge" and (literally) creating a name for himself with his performances. After being kicked out of his home, he traveled the country extensively and got involved in many fields, including gambling and pimping, though he continued playing the piano throughout his life. The music, known as "hot," "ratty" and "gutbucket," eventually earned the name "jass," possibly from a perfume popular with the women of Storyville, and turned into "jazz" under unclear circumstances. New bands and musicians sprung up, including Sidney Bechet, a self-taught prodigy whom other artists regarded as a leader and an innovator and who also traveled the country in his performances. The music recording industry grew with the invention of the victrola in 1901, with records from opera singer Enrico Caruso and composer John Philip Sousa as the highest sellers, though jazz went unrecorded. Trumpeter Freddy Keppard toured with his band, the Original Creole Orchestra, and eventually settled in Chicago, though he turned down an offer to record in 1915, worried that other musicians would copy his distinct style.
Finally, in 1917, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, lead by Nick LaRocca, recorded two songs, employing comedic sounds and a rapid tempo. The record sold well and the country became "jazz crazy," particularly young people who enjoyed dancing to the music. The new bands represented the present and the future rather than the styles of the past, reflecting the "Emersonian doctrine" about creating art. LaRocca called jazz "the assassination of syncopation," and his band billed themselves as "the creators of jazz." Though they were well-received overseas, war and illness eventually broke the band up, and LaRocca was later known to claim that jazz was an entirely white creation, dismissing the influence of black artists and culture. Marsalis ponders the issue of race, saying it is a "trial" that many must tackle for the benefit of progress. As jazz grew more popular and widespread, another musician began gaining prominence: Louis Armstrong, whose story is explored further in the series' second episode.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: January 9, 2001 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:26:46
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:74971
- GENRE: Documentary
- SUBJECT HEADING: Documentary; Jazz; African-American Collection - Music; African-American Collection - News/Talk
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 2001
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - "Jazz" series home video, CD set and book
- TV - Commercials - General Motors company
- TV - Commercials - Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism
- TV - Commercials - Park Foundation
- TV - Commercials - The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
- TV - Commercials - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
- TV - Commercials - The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
- TV - Commercials - The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- TV - Commercials - The National Endowment for the Humanities
- TV - Commercials - The Pew Charitable Trusts
- TV - Commercials - The Reva and David Logan Foundation
- TV - Promos - "Jazz" series upcoming episodes
CREDITS
- Ken Burns … Executive Producer, Director
- Pam Tubridy Baucom … Coordinating Producer
- Lynn Novick … Producer
- Peter Miller … Co-Producer
- Victoria Gohl … Co-Producer
- Sarah Botstein … Associate Producer
- Natalie Bullock Brown … Associate Producer
- Shola Lynch … Associate Producer
- Karen Kenton … Associate Producer
- Madison Davis Lacy … Consulting Producer
- Geoffrey C. Ward … Writer
- Keith David … Narrator
- Louis Armstrong
- Sidney Bechet
- Buddy Bolden
- Enrico Caruso
- Stan Crouch
- Jim Crow
- Ossie Davis
- Gary Giddins
- Freddy Keppard
- Nick LaRocca
- Wynton Marsalis
- Jelly Roll Morton
- Thomas "Daddy" Rice
- John Philip Sousa