A Masterpiece by Midnight - During the Sixties, jazz is in trouble. Critics divide the music into "schools" - Dixieland, swing, bebop, hard bop, modal, free, avant-garde. But most young people are listening to rock 'n' roll.
During the Sixties, jazz is in trouble.
Currents of change in American now impact Jazz.
The postwar years bring America to a level of prosperity unimaginable a decade before.
When America enters World War II, jazz is part of the arsenal.
A new sound emerges- pulsing, stomping, suffused with the blues.
As the Depression drags on, jazz comes as close as ever to being America's music
Jazz is called upon to lift the spirits of a frightened country.
As the stock market continues to soar, jazz is everywhere in America
Louis Armstrong shows the whole world how to swing.
JAZZ begins in New Orleans, nineteenth century America's most cosmopolitan city.
Jazz has been called the purest expression of American democracy; a music built on individualism and compromise, independence and cooperation. Ken Burns follows the growth and development of jazz music from the gritty streets of New Orleans to Chicago's south side, the speakeasies of Kansas city and to Times Square.
