JAZZ: RISK {PART 8 OF 10} (TV)
Summary
The eighth episode in this ten-part miniseries detailing the history of jazz music in America. This installment begins in the aftermath of World War II as America enjoyed great prosperity, though not without the nuclear threat of the Cold War. The swing era came to an end as singers like Frank Sinatra grew more popular, pushing instrumentalists out of the spotlight, and many famous bandleaders retreated to playing in smaller clubs. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were essential in the creation of a new style of jazz, which reflected the sentiments of the war and embraced a faster, more dissonant sound: bebop, or simply "bop." Drummer Stan Levey recalls his awe upon first hearing Parker, who would become a longtime colleague, though Parker's excessive drug use caused problems within the band, including during one disastrous cross-country tour during which Parker wandered into the desert in search of heroin. West Coast audiences were "baffled" by their frenetic style, and when Parker sold his plane ticket for drug money, Gillespie left him behind and headed for home. Parker spent several month homeless, turning to alcohol when his heroin dealer was arrested, and eventually ended up spending six months in a mental hospital. Elsewhere, Gillespie became the "public face" of bebop, breaking with tradition when he hired a female trombonist, Melba Liston, and a Cuban conga player, Chano Pozo. He still failed to find a wide audience, however, as the music was considerable "undanceable."
Parker emerged from the hospital in 1947 and found that he was being emulated by musicians everywhere, including by Jackie McLean, who recalls playing alongside Parker as a young man. At the same time, Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden broke segregation customs and played a well-received concert at New York Town Hall. Armstrong was then named "King of the Zulus" for the 1949 Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, though some viewed his wearing of traditional blackface as "minstrelsy," and he felt deeply betrayed by his own hometown when he was banned from playing there alongside Teagarden. In 1949, Parker headed to Paris for a jazz festival and was regarded as a "heroic figure," and though some fans felt that he had "sold out" by recording an album of popular songs, Branford Marsalis demonstrates how he made the standards his own with his innovative playing. The "Birdland" club in New York was named for Parker, and Gary Giddins notes that he began to live "three lives": the life of a musician, a junkie, and a family man, after his marriage to Chan Richardson Parker. Heroin was "everywhere," thanks to poverty and organized crime, especially amongst jazz musicians, and many aspiring artists, including McLean, experimented with the drug specifically because of Parker. Louis Jordan continued bringing jazz to wide audiences, and arranger Gil Evans hosted a well-known jam sessions with a number of artists, including Miles Davis.
Davis, born into privilege in Illinois, took up the trumpet at thirteen and was playing with Parker by eighteen, and created a distinctive "soft but intense" style. He recorded the compilation album "Birth of the Cool" in 1949-1950 and then headed to Paris, where he was startled to experience a far more progressive view of race. His "demons" grew when he returned to America and was once again treated as an inferior, and he developed a drug addiction and an aggressive persona. Eventually his father had him arrested in the hope of forcing him into treatment, though he was unsuccessful. In 1952, Gillespie and Parker appeared on television to accept an award from Downbeat Magazine, playing alongside pianist Bud Powell, and they later worked alongside Ella Fitzgerald, who was credited for dispelling the idea that bebop was "unsingable" with her skillful scatting. Pianist John Lewis and several other former Parker associates formed the clean-cut Modern Jazz Quartet, wanting to bring an air of dignity to a genre associated with addiction and mischief. The eccentric Thelonious Monk, who was raised on gospel music and went on to play at the famous Minton's Playhouse, developed a reputation for his unique percussive style and quirky behavior, though critics failed to appreciate his Ellington-inspired talents. When he lost his "cabaret card" for refusing to testify against Powell for drug possession, he was banned from playing in New York clubs and spent several years out of the spotlight, working on his music in his home. He eventually regained his card went on to play at the famous Five Spot, and he finally earned recognition with his well-received album, "Brilliant Corners."
Billie Holiday, whose cover of "Autumn in New York" was considered a definitive version, also lost her cabaret card for some time, and her famous voice began to diminish thanks to her hard living. A more tranquil form of the genre known as "cool jazz" flourished on the West Coast, and Dave Brubeck explains how he used his wartime travels to learn from foreign musicians, with his piano style complemented by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, who went on to compose "Take Five." Brubeck later toured with Ellington, and he explains that he was distressed to land the cover of Time magazine before his idol was given the same honor. Promoter Norman Granz worked with the biggest names of the day, demanding equal treatment for his black and white musicians, and Levey recalls how he simply ignored racial norms and checked all of his players into the same hotels without comment. In March 1954, Parker was devastated by the death of his two-year-old daughter Pree from pneumonia, and Chan recalls receiving a series of "incoherent" telegrams from her distraught husband across the country. He sank further into addiction, at one point begging friend Gillespie to "save" him, and in March 1955, he passed away in the hotel room of his friend Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter while watching "The Tommy Dorsey Variety Show." Parker's mother banned jazz from his funeral proceedings, and Giddins praises the "uncorrupted humanity" of his music. Elsewhere, inspired by the athleticism of boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, Davis committed to kicking drugs cold turkey. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: February 29, 2012 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:59:12
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:74599
- GENRE: Education/Information
- SUBJECT HEADING: Education/Information; Jazz; African-American Collection - Music; African-American Collection - News/Talk
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 2001
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - "Jazz" series home video, CD set and book
- TV - Commercials - General Motors products
CREDITS
- Ken Burns … Executive Producer, Director
- Pam Tubridy Baucom … Coordinating Producer
- Lynn Novick … Producer
- Victoria Gohl … Co-Producer
- Peter Miller … Co-Producer
- Sarah Botstein … Associate Producer
- Natalie Bullock Brown … Associate Producer
- Shola Lynch … Associate Producer
- Karen Kenton … Associate Producer
- Madison Davis Lacy … Consulting Producer
- Geoffrey C. Ward … Writer
- Keith David … Narrator
- Samuel L. Jackson … Voice
- Delroy Lindo … Voice
- Anthony LaPaglia … Voice
- Kevin Conway … Voice
- Stan Levey … Interviewee
- Gary Giddins … Interviewee
- Wynton Marsalis … Interviewee
- Jackie McLean … Interviewee
- Branford Marsalis … Interviewee
- Chan Richardson Parker … Interviewee
- Dave Brubeck … Interviewee
- Louis Armstrong
- Miles Davis
- Pannonica de Koenigswarter
- Paul Desmond
- Duke Ellington
- Gil Evans
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Dizzy Gillespie (see also: John Birks Gillespie)
- Norman Granz
- Billie Holiday
- Louis Jordan
- John Lewis
- Melba Liston
- Thelonious Monk
- Charlie Parker
- Bud Powell
- Chano Pozo
- Sugar Ray Robinson (see also: Walker Smith, Jr.)
- Frank Sinatra
- Jack Teagarden