Posted by Christopher on December 31, 2000 at 18:05:36:
In Reply to: Ken Burns film on PBS posted by Ike H. on December 30, 2000 at 01:11:30:
Actually, I believe this is a whole big miniseries, and a pretty long one. I'll certainly be watching, and keeping close attention on the early episodes to see what shows up about the tuba players.
But watch out -- the jazz world is kind of up-in-arms about this series. Seems Mr. Burns relied heavily on Wynton Marsalis and other neo-conservatives for his information and opinions, so what you end up watching, while informative, is apparently going to be a badly distorted view of what went on with jazz, especially after 1958. So if this is going to be your first exposure to the history of jazz, and it will be for many people, learn what you can from it, and then get someone to tell you about Miles Davis after 1960, and free jazz, and the loft scene, and fusion, and John Zorn, and whole worlds of interesting masters that aren't going to be covered, at least not favorably.
I'll get down off my soapbox now; I just get cocerned when distorted viewpoints become mainstream. We used to think the world was flat, too...