Jazz : A Film By Ken Burns
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Movie Reviews of Jazz : A Film By Ken Burns
Movie Review: Very Worthwhile, Despite Some Flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
Like other Ken Burns documentaries, this is a high-quality, entertaining, and educational film, well-worth viewing. However, if you expect adequate coverage of ALL the great jazz artists of the past 100 years, you'll surely be disappointed. Nonetheless, several dozen of the greatest and most influential artists do receive at least some--often very good--coverage. Perhaps not surprisingly--given their influence, popularity, and longevity--Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington receive the most coverage. The evolution of jazz as an American art form, and its context in American history (especially Black American history), is very well-presented. To a great extent, Burns focuses on jazz as a part of POPULAR American culture; as a result, the documentary is weighted towards the 1920s through 1940s, when jazz was THE most popular form of music in America. Coverage of the 1950's and 1960s--arguably the most EXCITING time for jazz, at least musically--is actually quite good, but could have been more comprehensive. After the 1960s, Burns' focus unfortunately seems to have been the decline of jazz (in popularity, record sales), although the series does conclude on a more positive note about the present and future of the music, with a bit of attention to several contemporary artists. Throughout the film, many different musicians, jazz critics, promoters, and fans present a variety of perspectives (some more worthwhile than others). Wynton Marsalis has the most "air-time"-- and kudos to him for a very fine job. Despite some obvious shortcomings, this series is well-worth watching--and there's lots of good music, too! I've been a jazz fan for over 30 years, and have watched it in its entirety 3 times; some episodes 4 or 5 times. It's hardly the definitive word on jazz--but who really would expect that?? I contend that some Amazon reviewers are much too harsh (and sometimes irrational) in their criticism of a very good film.
Movie Review: Good history, but too much Armstrong for me.
Summary: 4 Stars
Although I have seen parts of this series over the years, I watched it front to back recently. I enjoyed the history of jazz beginnings and the photos and film clips throughout were top notch. I listen to a lot of jazz, and have read a fair bit about it, but I can't really authoritatively critique the finer points of where the facts may be wrong, as some other reviewers are able to. My favorite period is the Be-Bop era, and Jazz devotes a good amount of time to that era, as well as the future offshoots. For the most part, I liked the commentary, although over the course of 19 hours, I thought that I saw too much of some people. Which leads to...in my opinion the amount of time devoted to Louis Armstrong was excessive. OK, I am a heretic, whatever, and I realize Louis' genius, place in jazz, his charisma, his talent and longevity. That being said, every episode has a segment devoted to him. I understand the early years, but the last couple episodes actually had me thinking, "not more Louis". In the episodes on the fifties and sixties, while it does spend time on Miles and Coltrane, there are so many others to spend time on. There was too much time on the "Hello Dolly" single. I am not a big fan of fusion, but in the last episode, the film goes from Miles electric period right into, more Armstrong. Then a clip of him singing, to a concert clip of him doing the same song. Then an extended segment on his funeral. Then near the end of the show was a concert clip of "Dinah", which is a repeat of an earlier episode. I guess with the input from the commentators, it isn't a surprise, but it was a times not "Jazz", but "Armstrong and the rest." My apologies, but I thought is was too much. It was good enough, though, that it deserves a four star.Movie Review: Good Overview of Jazz
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a decent overview of Jazz. Not in depth, but has sold foundations. The things about this collection is that it runs over important players like Bill Evans and Charles Mingus very quickly, or not even mentioning them like Wes Montgomery. The collection mainly focuses on Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Miles Davis (give or take two).
They are the big boys of Jazz, but not the only ones. Charles Mingus is my favorite, and throughout the 24 hour or so set, he was focused on for only ten minutes or so. With some of the giants I mentioned above, they roughly go over over them, except Armstrong and Ellington whom you get very strong background on. Those two are focused on throughout the entire set. Free jazz wasn't focused on as much, which is a bummer. They do run over Ornette Coleman for a little while, but I wish they went over John Coltrane's free jazz stuff in his late Quartet Years.
I suggest you get it or rent it or something. It is a good background on Jazz, one of which you can pick and choose what you want to focus on afterwards. There's tons of books out there, and there's a book called Jazz which overviews the same material in this set. Check your local libraries to see if they have it; it's something you watch once and move on from, but good non-the-less.
Movie Review: So...do we have an alternative? Not really....
Summary: 4 Stars
I just want to point out - in lieu of the negative reviews: who else has bothered to comprise a jazz documentary anywhere near this magnitude?...yeah: that's what I thought.
I developed an interest in Jazz, as a teenager (having written a term paper on Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, as a 12th grader). Since then, I've learned a ton about the genre. But I can say over the past 35 years, Burns' effort has been the most concentrated educational effort, outside of Jazz biographies and autobiographies.
Yes, there is a significant void of information, after about 1960. I do believe this is due to a combination of Burns' lack of natural passion for the genre, and, a mindset that says the emergence of Jazz Fusion watered down the art form...
But at least there was an effort. In the end, the documentary adds much more to the history of Jazz, than it takes away.
Movie Review: It's not perfect, but its pretty much all we have
Summary: 4 Stars
I will admit that this series has its shortcomings, however no one else has even attempted to produce anything better. I'm no great lover of Ken Burns, but he did at least attempt to bring the history of Jazz to the masses in some form or another. It's not perfect by any means, but if it can spur the interest of even one person to delve into the music itself then the doc and Burns have done their job. To all the naysayer's I propose that you shut your traps unless you yourselves are planning to raise the money, do the research, conduct the interviews, edit the material and produce a "more definitive" documentary on the history of America's only original art form? And to those morons that claim that this doc is somehow "racist" towards whites, you should all just shut the f*** up!