ZW's Featured Jazz Album for Monday Evening

[Zomby Woof]

A pleasant, underrated gem from two fine legends.

[progmom]

1. Ray Brown was such a cutie.

I miss him so. :cry:

[Zomby Woof]

2. Our local PBS affiliate is rerunning Ken Burns' "Jazz"

Which has really been getting my jazz jones going. :hi:

[progmom]

4. that docu

just made me mad. :grr:

as if there was no jazz of note recorded after 1961?

taking branford out of context and making it seem like he was putting down cecil taylor.

lionizing wynton marsalis.

demonizing miles.

stan getz mentioned only as a drug user.

no mention of dinah washington at all.

:grr:

(i had ken burns on my show shortly after Jazz aired...i had to take him to task for his omission of dinah. to his credit, he handled it well)

[Zomby Woof]

7. My peeve was...

Too much SWING, as if that was the only sub-genre of note. And YES, WAY too much Wynton, not enough Branford.

I also thought it was too hasty for its treatment of post-1961 jazz - which seems to reflect Wynton's conservatism. I share your gripes...

Yet, the rarity of many of the clips, and some of the obscurities given some attention, or the anecdotes which were more in-depth and balanced than the ones you mention.

I think Burns knew it was too big of a task to handle in the allotted time, so he made some editorial decisions which were bound to tick off a large segment of jazz fans. No way could he please us all.

I thought the Ethel Waters segment could have done without dissing Bessie Smith. Bessie had a voice which haunts me like no other.

For all its flaws, it has nearly as many virtues, on balance. But I completely understand where you are coming from.

[progmom]

10. that last episode?

where they called Miles's electric period "like playing tennis without a net" or some such nonsense? where they pronounce jazz dead and then, triumphantly, reborn with the release of the first wynton record in 1981? i was so mad, so worked up...my poor dog was jumping all over me, trying to calm me down. x(

[Zomby Woof]

11. Yep

Worst part of the project. I don't watch it after the feature on Trane (Branford aptly described Trane's cohorts playing like their lives depended on it).

[progmom]

12. well, that, and the indelible image of stanley crouch's face

filling up the whole screen, smirking and drooling as he describes what the word "jellyroll" means to him. :puke:

[Zomby Woof]

13. LOL

Precise. :-)

Let's make our own film. We can get a segment of you telling your Miles story. :D

And more seriously, you have enough firsthand knowledge of many of the musicians of the last 40 years to redeem it.

[progmom]

14. i just want to use all the outtakes from his docu

to piece together a really good one. :)

[jpgray]

9. Amen to that

I haven't seen it myself, but all my jazz snob pals say it was pretty bad as an overview of jazz. I know firsthand that the choice of tracks for the companion Ellington compilation was a little lacking--some major works, like, say, the Far East Suite or the Money Jungle had no representation of all. But any jazz documentary limited for time that claims to give a general overview and is littered with editorial comments is bound to piss off people.

[Tom Kitten]

3. off topic but did you like LeRoy Vinnegar?

[progmom]

5. i did!!

he made some great records for Contemporary.

and his playing on Swiss Movement kicked ass!!!

[Telly Savalas]

6. Hey! Canadian content!

It's not in my collection, but the library's got it and I just put a hold on it. Thanks for the tip.

[Zomby Woof]

8. You're welcome!

:-)