Ken Burns's Jazz: The Story of American Music

Let me just say that I'm not too impressed with the series "Ken Burns' Jazz." It was a pretty hack job and really didn't cover all the bases in my opinion. To me, Burns is a very misguided figure and hasn't really done the research about jazz, but I'll save that argument for another time. The music on this box set, while most of it is indeed great and timeless, it fails to capture the true essence of this music I think. I think if anyone is interested in jazz music should start with Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue" recording and go from there. Being interested in jazz has more to do with passion in my experience. Casual jazz listeners don't really understand the music, because if they did, then they wouldn't have done such a terrible job of putting together such a collection. Jazz cannot be marketed and that's the problem with these record companies. Jazz doesn't need promotion, you either "get it" or you don't. I wouldn't waste my money or time on this box set.

Some obvious omissions: Bill Evans, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Shelly Manne, Freddie Hubbard, Horace Silver, Stan Kenton, Gerry Mulligan, Jim Hall, Bobby Hutcherson, etc.

When I discussed the Ric Burns documentary about the old West with an Amerindian acquaintance, I complained that the film concentrated on the Lakota, to the exclusion of other peoples. My friend answered that, as the Lakota was the best known native American culture, that was a good place to start, and the audience would then move on to learn about other parts of the story.

I suppose the same is true of the documentary by Ric's brother Ken Burns, on the history of Jazz, on which this box set is based. It is heavy on Louis Armstrong and on the Big Band sound of the Swing era - probably the Jazz best known to the general public - but light in other areas, including the many, varied strands of Jazz in the last 30 years or so. There is a whole series of albums in the Ken Burns Jazz Collection, featuring individual artists, for those who want to pursue the story and start to fill in the gaps.

It is easy to list regrettable omissions from this set (and many reviewers have done so) and just as easy to point out how impossible it is to do full justice to a century of music that had multiple sources and spread rapidly to a plethora of sub-genres (and many reviewers have done that too). The omission of Erroll Garner is one that struck me, especially ironic as the booklet accompanying this set has his name displayed on the cover! The British Trad Jazz that took hold in the early 50s and is still going strong (Chris Barber, Kenny Ball and their followers) is another indispensible part of Jazz history that finds no place in this collection. I realize that this is specifically titled the story of American music, but Django Reinhardt gets a look in, as does some forgettable French rapper.

But this collection of 94 tracks, featuring recordings from 1917 to 1995, attractively packaged and with good notes, remains a great introduction to Jazz. In fact, now that the price has come down so much, it can be recommended for every music fan.

this music is classic jazz!
for anyone starting a jazz collection, you need this set.
if you like the pbs jazz series, your gonna love this music!

To chronicle the first six decades or so of American jazz in five CD's is an ambitious undertaking. Ken Burns pulled it off by making it the soundtrack to stories he wanted to tell. This made for heavy representation of songs from Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis easy choices. The documentary, in some ways, tells like an allegory of racism and civil rights in 20th century America, yet the soundrack includes white musicians like Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Dave Brubek and Benny Goodman in the CD selections. Brubek's inclusion is particularly notable after the documentary was so dismissive of "West Coast Jazz" - I don't even remember Take 5 being mentioned in the documentary. It would have been nice to include Bill Evans since every jazz pianist that followed him credited Evans as an influence, but his work as side man on "So What" is all we get. Herbie Hancock's Rockit is nowhere close to representative of his body of work. My main disappointment is that after Free Jazz and the like, jazz had nowhere left to go except backwards, yet the contemporary "pop" jazz at the end comes across as the latest and greatest thing yet. I respectfully disagree.

For those just getting into Jazz or just need a refresher course this is a great CD. I brought it for my husband who is a big Jazz fan and he just loves it and gets alot of use out of them.