Ken Burns??

[sonic1]

Written by John Grabowski and posted to rec.music.bluenote on January 25:

Presenting Ken Burns' 144-hour Extremely Important documentary, "Jazz."

Fade up on a grainy old photograph of a man in a three-piece suit, holding a cornet. Or a bicycle horn, it's hard to tell.

Narrator: Skunkbucket LeFunke was born in 1876 and died in 1901. No one who heard him is alive today. The grandchildren of the people who heard him are not alive today. The great-grandchildren of the people who heard him are not alive today. He was never recorded.

Wynton Marsalis: I'll tell you what Skunkbucket LeFunke sounded like. He had this big rippling sound, and he always phrased off the beat, and he slurred his notes. And when the Creole bands were still playing De-bah-de-bah-ta-da-tah, he was already playing Bo-dap-da-lete-do-do-do-bah! He was just like gumbo, ahead of his time.

Narrator: LeFunke was a cornet player, gambler, card shark, pool hustler, pimp, male prostitute, Kelly Girl, computer programmer, brain surgeon and he invented the internet.

Stanley Crouch: When people listened to Skunkbucket LeFunke, they heard Do-do-dee-bwap-da-dee-dee-de-da-da-doop-doop-dap. And they knew even then how deeply profound that was.

Narrator: It didn't take LeFunke long to advance the art of jazz past its humble beginnings in New Orleans whoredom with the addition of a bold and sassy beat.

Wynton: Let me tell you about the Big Four. Before the Big Four, jazz drumming sounded like BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick. But now they had the Big Four, which was so powerful some said it felt like a Six. A few visiting musicians even swore they were in an Eight.

Stanley: It was smooth and responsive, and there was no knocking and pinging, even on 87 octane.

Wynton: Even on gumbo.

Narrator: When any musician in the world heard Louis Armstrong for the first time, they gnawed their arm off with envy, then said the angels probably wanted to sound like Louis. When you consider a bunch of angels talking in gruff voices and singing "Hello Dolly," you realize what a stupid aspiration that is.

Gary Giddens: Louis changed jazz because he was the only cat going Do-da-dep-do-wah-be-be, while everyone else was doing Do-de-dap-dit-dit-dee.

Stanley: And that was very profound.

Marsalis: Like gumbo.

Stanley: Uh-huh.

Matt Glaser: I always have this fantasy that when Louis performed in Belgium, Heisenberg was in the audience and he was blown away and that's where he got the idea for his Uncertainty Principle.

Wynton: Because the Uncertainty Principle, applied to jazz, means you never know if a cat is going to go Dap-da-de-do-ba-ta-bah or Dap-da-de-do-bip-de-beep.

Glaser: Louis was the first one to realize that.

Stanley: And that can be very profound.

Wynton: I thought it was a box of chocolates...

Narrator: The Savoy Ballroom brought people of all races colors and political persuasions together to get sweaty as Europe moved closer and closer to the brink of World War II.

Savoy Dancer: We didn't care what color you were at the Savoy. We only cared if you were wearing deodorant.

Stanley: Wynton always wears deodorant.

Glaser: I'll bet Arthur Murray was on the dance floor and he was thinking about Louis and that's where he got the idea to open a bunch of dance schools.

Stanley: And that was very profound.

Giddens: Let's talk about Louis some more. We've wasted three minutes of this 57-part documentary not talking about Louis.

Wynton: He was an angel, a genius, much better than Cats.

Stanley: He invented the word "Cats."

Wynton: He invented swing, he invented jazz, he invented the telephone, the automobile and the polio vaccine.

Stanley: And the internet.

Wynton: Very profound.

Narrator: Louis Armstrong turned commercial in the 1930s and didn't make any more breakthrough contributions to jazz. But it's not PC to point that out, so we'll be showing him in every segment of this series to come, even if he's just doing the same things as the last time you saw him.

Glaser: I'll bet Chuck Yeager was in the audience when Louis was hitting those high Cs at the Earle Theater in Philadelphia, and that's what made him decide to break the sound barrier.

Stanley: And from there go to Pluto.

Wynton: I'm going to make some gumbo.

Stanley: BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick

Giddens: Do-yap-do-wee-bah-scoot-scoot-dap-dap...That's what all the cats were saying back then.

Narrator: In 1964, John Coltrane was at his peak, Eric Dolphy was in Europe, where he would eventually die, the Modern Jazz Quartet was making breakthrough recordings in the field of Third Stream Music, Miles Davis was breaking new barriers with his second great quintet, and Charlie Mingus was extending jazz composition to new levels of complexity. But we're going to talk about Louis singing "Hello Dolly" instead.

Stanley: Louis went, Ba-ba-yaba-do-do-dee-da-bebin-doo-wap-deet-deet-do-da-da.

Wynton: Sweets went, Scoop-doop-shalaba-yaba-mokey-hokey-bwap-bwap-tee-tee-dee.

Giddens: I go, Da-da-shoobie-doobie-det-det-det-bap-bap-baaaaa...

Narrator: The rest of the history of jazz will be shown in fast forward and will occupy exactly seven seconds. There, that was it. Now here are some scenes from Ken Burns' next documentary, a 97-part epic about the Empire State Building, titled "The Empire State Building."

"It is tall and majestic. It is America's building. It is the Empire State Building. Dozens of workers gave their lives in the construction of this building."

Matt Glaser: I'll bet that they were thinking of Louis as they were falling to their deaths. I have this fantasy that his high notes inspired the immenseness of the Empire State Building.

Wynton Marsalis: I'll bet most people who'd fall off the Empire State Building would go "Aaaaaahhhh!" But these cats went "Dee-dee-daba-da-da-bop-bop-de-dop-shewap-splat!"

"That's next time on PBS

[Steve Reynolds]

the shizz-nit, baby!!!


Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows

[Gary Sisco]

Walter Horn needs to read this and respond with 200 questions to clarify.

[walto]

That's a really funny piece--thanks for posting it, Jared.

Gary, my only pressing question is, how the fuck off the beat can a Six pretending to be a Big Four be? I mean, just think of it, Sha de Bip Bip Sha Dweep di Bip. Come on, there's no Doo wip, Sha, Sha, CHOCKA in there at all!

[Pete C]

That may have been posted here before. It's at least a couple of years old.

[Mike Schwartz]

Originally Posted by Pete C

That may have been posted here before. It's at least a couple of years old.

Party Pooper!!

[Nate Dorward]

Yeah, I think this must be the 5th time I've seen it at least.




Still funny, though.

[Scott Yanow]

I haven't seen this story in a couple years It's still hilarious.

I had fun in my Jazz On Film book giving Ken Burns' Jazz a 2 out of a possible 10 and going into detail about basically how it stinks.

[RainyDay]

Reflections of "Ken Burns': Jazz"
New York Times
By: Jason Moran

Watching "Jazz," I felt proud to be a young African-American playing the music. Frequently during the program, I smiled. I smiled, knowing that I live in Harlem, the home of so many innovators. I smiled, recognizing that nobody had it easy. The pain of Duke Ellington, the highs and lows of Louis Armstrong's career: that's where the true history of jazz is hidden. I applaud Mr. Burns for seeing that.

No history of jazz can be 100 percent complete, but this program gives a very good outline. It acknowledges that jazz history is really American history. The questions I'm asking myself now are these: How many times are we going to have to recite the same script? Why were the early criticisms of ragtime and swing and be-bop the same exact criticisms as those directed at hip-hop today? But then again, why did Stravinsky encounter the same criticisms as Bach?

http://www.jasonmoran.com/articles5.html

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by RainyDay

But then again, why did Stravinsky encounter the same criticisms as Bach?

Interesting. I don't know anything about the reception of Bach in his time, but does anybody know if that's accurate?

[sonic1]

Bach was considered an outsider during his time; a sort of eccectic weirdo. In fact his compositions were found a lot later and hailed way after his death.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by sonic1

Bach was considered an outsider during his time; a sort of eccectic weirdo. In fact his compositions were found a lot later and hailed way after his death.

I know that his works fell into obscurity and were revived with the help of Mendelssohn, and that C.P.E. was much more popular, but was J.S. the recipient of hostility, or just neglect?

[sonic1]

More like neglect.

I always thought it was because of his overt Christian faith.

[jazzy mary]

sonic, I read that piece when it first came out a couple of years ago. It was hysterical then and is still. thanks for posting it, it gave me a laugh again!

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by JamesH

I hate to say it, and maybe I'm just too sensitive and don't get the joke, but on infrequent but significant occassions I feel like I'm a fly on the wall at a Klan meeting around here. At least with a few random JC posters.

I was tough on the Burns film when it came out, but it's old news.

I should think that James & Rainy's concerns vis a vis the discourse should at least be given some thought before dismissing it out of hand. I may not agree with them, but people rarely make such allegations frivolously, so they deserve consideration.

Originally Posted by chuckyd4

That's like the second one in two weeks.

By the same poster?


By the way, can anyone else explain the "Klan meeting" comment since Snuggles said he isn't coming back?

[chuckyd4]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

By the same poster?

Yeah, he had a drive-by crapping on a thread about RVGs recently, too. If you search for RVG, go to the thread crawjo (I think?) started - something about "Discuss new RVGs" or something like that.

I'm not sure about the Klan thing.... did he mean that in a racial sense? Like he feels like we want to string him up and kill him?

Obviously, Pete, I don't think those ideas should be dismissed out of hand, since I started a thread about it. But if that's what he's talking about, why did he post in a thread about Ken Burns, and not the one expressly designed for it?

Thread-crapping. That's what it's called. And it's why I gave him the Kevin Bresnahan-introduced thread-crap dog.

[sonic1]

Originally Posted by JamesH

Thanks Rainy Day. And thanks Pete C and Scott Dolan for shifting the subject.

I hate to say it, and maybe I'm just too sensitive and don't get the joke, but on infrequent but significant occassions I feel like I'm a fly on the wall at a Klan meeting around here. At least with a few random JC posters.

I'm sure this comment will elicit a lot of anger and bitching, maybe even a veiled threat or two. But since I'm not in the mood to fight today, or prove that JC posters aren't as clever as they think they are, I won't return to this thread. I just had to make that comment because for me it feels true.


Have at it.

Have at it? How does one respond to this? It is like responding to someone who has Tourette syndrome.

Originally Posted by sonic1

Have at it? How does one respond to this? It is like responding to someone who has Tourette syndrome.

And on top of that, who "shifted the subject" first in this thread?

Hint: rhymes with Painey. And even her post wasn't any major shift.

But,

Pete responded to something that was in her post, Jared responded to Pete, and I responded to both on the same subject.

Sorry, I'm just not getting it.