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# MUS 205 - History of Jazz

History of Jazz

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## Ken Burns' Jazz - Documentary

The story of jazz begins in New Orleans, 19th-century America’s most cosmopolitan city. Here, in the 1890s, African-American artists created a new music out of ragtime syncopations, Caribbean rhythms, marching band instrumentation, and the soulful feeling of the blues.

The flowering of the Jazz Age is a tale of two great cities, Chicago and New York, and two extraordinary artists whose achievements spanned nearly three-quarters of a century.

The stock market surged through the 1920s and jazz was everywhere in America. Now, for the first time, soloists and singers took center stage, transforming the music with distinctive voices and unique stories.

With farms and factories falling victim to the Great Depression, jazz was one of the few American industries poised for explosive growth.

As the Depression dragged on, jazz came as close as it ever would to being America’s popular music. Now it was often called swing, and, as this program illustrates, it became the defining music of a generation.

As the 1930s drew to a close, swing mania was still going strong, but some fans were saying success had made the music too predictable. Their ears were tuned to a new sound, suffused with the blues—the Kansas City sound of Count Basie’s band, which ignited new musical adventures.

When America entered World War II, jazz became part of the arsenal, with bandleaders like Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw taking their swing to troops overseas. For many black Americans, however, that sound had a hollow ring.

The social tensions underlying America’s postwar prosperity were reflected in the broken rhythms and dissonant melodies of bebop—and in the troubled life of Charlie Parker.

Amid the rise of suburbia, television, rock ‘n’ roll, and the baby boom generation, jazz lost a beloved and burned-out star: Billie Holiday. But the music still had its two guiding lights. In 1956, the first year Elvis topped the charts, Duke Ellington recaptured the nation’s ear with a performance at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Dixieland, swing, bebop, modal, free, avant-garde—these were some of the terms critics used during the 1960s to categorize the diverse manifestations of jazz music.

## Videos

Davis and Coltrane perform live. Shearing comments on the success of jazz despite its history, followed by a live piano performance.

20s and 20s music. Featuring roaring 20s music and songs playlist with vintage 20s jazz music instrumental. This original 20s music album is composed and recorded by Australian musician David Lewis Luong.
History of Jazz Music Videos - MUS 205