Ken Burns' "Jazz" seems pretty "Silly"

[JSngry]

Gumbo is far better eaten than heard.

[gmonahan]

Odd to see this one pop up again, because I had decided to revisit the two "Swing" episodes just last week. It was many years since I watched the original, and since I can stream the thing, I watched those. I have to say, aside from Wynton's babbling (which I fast-forwarded through), the rest of it was better than I remembered. No Crouch in the segments I watched.

 

 

 

gregmo

[Don]

I rewatched it the other month. The talking heads don't offer much, but the old footage and photographs are great. Ridiculous to make a jazz documentary that long that doesn't really mention Blue Note records, but oh well.

I wish Jackie McLean were in it more. I could watch him tell stories about Bud Powell and Charlie Parker for hours.

[sidewinder]

19 minutes ago, Don said:

I wish Jackie McLean were in it more. I could watch him tell stories about Bud Powell and Charlie Parker for hours.

The interviews with Jackie and Michael Cuscuna were the only reason to watch the last couple of episodes.

[Patrick]

I also found the few Dave Brubeck bits engaging.

[Don]

The Matt Glaser stuff is hard to watch. The stories from Artie Shaw are great, as are the stories from the pair of dancers.

[gmonahan]

But no Bill Evans. I mean. Really.

 

 

 

gregmo

[Ken Dryden]

On 1/21/2021 at 5:15 PM, Don said:

The Matt Glaser stuff is hard to watch. The stories from Artie Shaw are great, as are the stories from the pair of dancers.

Burns could have easily chosen articulate veteran musicians to replace most of the writers and Wynton. But Burns knew little about jazz when he got underway.

What if you expect from a guy who owned a handful of jazz CDs when he began?

[JSngry]

It wasn't about jazz, it was about Ken Burns. Most of them are, even the better ones