Jazz: A History of America's Music

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The companion volume to the ten-part PBS TV series by the team responsible for
The Civil War and Baseball.

Continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed works, Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns vividly bring to life the story of the quintessential American music—jazz. Born in the black community of turn-of-the-century New Orleans but played from the beginning by musicians of every color, jazz celebrates all Americans at their best.

Here are the stories of the extraordinary men and women who made the music: Louis Armstrong, the fatherless waif whose unrivaled genius helped turn jazz into a soloist's art and influenced every singer, every instrumentalist who came after him; Duke Ellington, the pampered son of middle-class parents who turned a whole orchestra into his personal instrument, wrote nearly two thousand pieces for it, and captured more of American life than any other composer. Bix Beiderbecke, the doomed cornet prodigy who showed white musicians that they too could make an important contribution to the music; Benny Goodman, the immigrants' son who learned the clarinet to help feed his family, but who grew up to teach a whole country how to dance; Billie Holiday, whose distinctive style routinely transformed mediocre music into great art; Charlie Parker, who helped lead a musical revolution, only to destroy himself at thirty-four; and Miles Davis, whose search for fresh ways to sound made him the most influential jazz musician of his generation, and then led him to abandon jazz altogether. Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Artie Shaw, and Ella Fitzgerald are all here; so are Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and a host of others.

But Jazz is more than mere biography. The history of the music echoes the history of twentieth-century America. Jazz provided the background for the giddy era that F. Scott Fitzgerald called the Jazz Age. The irresistible pulse of big-band swing lifted the spirits and boosted American morale during the Great Depression and World War II. The virtuosic, demanding style called bebop mirrored the stepped-up pace and dislocation that came with peace. During the Cold War era, jazz served as a propaganda weapon—and forged links with the burgeoning counterculture. The story of jazz encompasses the story of American courtship and show business; the epic growth of great cities—New Orleans and Chicago, Kansas City and New York—and the struggle for civil rights and simple justice that continues into the new millennium.

Visually stunning, with more than five hundred photographs, some never before published, this book, like the music it chronicles, is an exploration—and a celebration—of the American experiment.

From the Hardcover edition.

What Customers Say About Jazz: A History of America's Music:

I am a lifelong vocalist and music afficianado, and I tell you unequivocally that Ward and Burns have condensed the story of our need to explosively express ourselves into a digestible whole.America's venomous racism proved trumped by defiance and the will to be human and grow. "Jazz," by Ward and Burns. It is a fascinating story they tell, and against almost unbelievable odds, jazz emerged as a link to all that is irreducibly real and a means of redemption for our errors. In the foreword, Ken Burns cites essayist Gerald Early's quote that "Two thousand years from now, America will be known for three things: the Constitution, baseball, and jazz." And, so it is. This book is a sparkling, gleaming gem. Everyone should read and savor this work; it is a triumph. Adisa Ben Achaki, 2009.

Yeah. The men never put their hats down. For instance, Louis Armstrong describes Funky Butt Hall, in Storyville, New Orleans where he grew up. Among them, the authors included Bix Beiderbecke's family portrait in 1904.

You have to take your razor with you `cause you may have to scratch somebody before you leave. Ward and Burns have compiled a great deal of research about the origins of Jazz and made it quite interesting by weaving interviews and personal stories of Jazz innovators into the mix. Wop. There's a great 1919 Duke Ellington ad for hiring his `Duke's Serenaders' to play irresistible `jass'. They put it on their arm to dance slow with the chick.

He'd hit `em in the chops and fight was on." The pictures are marvelous too. All in all the book is a great ode to Jazz and its creators. "It was a real rough place. Bix was probably one or two-years old at the time. And nobody better touch it either.

After the dance was over, they'd ask did you touch my hat, partner. There's a photo--actually several pages from the 1914 Ladies' Home Journal with step-by-step pictures of the Vernon Castles teaching the Fox trot to the American public.

prompt shippping during holiday season, book was delivered exactly as description stated. I am very pleased.

This oversized, photograph-laden text concentrates almost exclusively on two periods of Jazz' history - the 1920s variety and Swing. The development of Jazz guitar is largely ignored (Wes Montgomery, where are you)., fusion is distained, smooth jazz is dismissed as aural wallpaper, non-American jazz players are barely mentioned (except for Django Reinhardt), and Marsalis is glorified to a point that even he must find embarassing. I love the music of both men, and the huge sections devoted in each chapter to both of them is a welcome antidote to the relative lack of attention they currently receive in other media nowadays.Why I have I given this book a mediocre rating.Ken Burns is a historian, which means that his interests lie primarily in the past. Jazz of the period cannot be discussed without understanding mid-century Black American culture, but Jazz by definition transcends all our human smallness. There was a stylish classiness about the look of the 1930s and 1940s that still towers over almost anything since. Immersing yourself in these photographs and listening to some choice Jazz CDs from the era is the next best thing to a time machine.This book is also a labor of love for both Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, two equally important but very different titans in Jazz of this time period. If you've seen the PBS miniseries "Ken Burns: Jazz" you'll know exactly what you are getting into. While this is a particularly American way to explore a largely American artform, it's also a very limiting one.

Jazz itself should be the primary focus to an introductory primer such as this.I purchased this book at a steep discount and keep it on my coffeetable. These flaws, while they probably accurately reflect Burns' personal taste, present a very skewed - possibly damaging - image to a jazz neophyte.Ken Burns also devoted almost all his career to exploring black-white race relations. It's a great book if you are nostalgic, and it's a nice introduction to Jazz as long as you are aware of Ken Burns' biases. This would not be such a bad thing if the book ended the story with, perhaps, the end of the Korean War. These were also Jazz' glory days as million-selling popular music and it's impossible to look at the photos in this book without also marvelling at the wonderful cityscapes and beautiful vintage fashions. Time and time again, Burns veers away from telling truly interesting and appropriate stories about the content of jam sessions to remind us of how segregated American society was.

Burns focuses almost exclusively on pre-1950s Jazz. Burns, however, makes an attempt to cover the more modern era in Jazz to disasterous result. This gets very old very quickly and if this material had been edited there would have been more room to cover more Jazz greats - such as Montgomery, Count Basie, George Benson - in far more detail. If you really want to learn more about Jazz, you're going to have to dig deeper, find a knowledgeable and supportive CD store, and explore this beautiful world in alternate ways.

This history of Jazz is not only one of the best reads but with the addition of all the pictures this book is such a great insight to our culture not only for music lovers but all of society. A tuely remarkable book.

Jazz: A History of America's Music

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