Episode 1
Gumbo: Beginnings to 1917
"Gumbo" traces the roots of jazz from the 1800s to 1917. The viewer will catch glimpses of Jelly Roll Morton,...
Episode 2
The Gift: 1917-1924
How can one explain the genius of a Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington? Blessed with skill and talent far excee...
Episode 3
Our Language: 1924 -1929
Colorful characters like the tragic Bix Beiderbecke, powerhouse Bessie Smith, and the braggart Jelly Roll Mort...
Episode 4
The True Welcome: 1929-1934
"The True Welcome" continues many of the stories begun in Episode 3, following several troubling years for Lou...
Episode 5
Swing: Pure Pleasure - 1935-1937
1935 was the year that swing became the most popular music in the country and that the king of swing, Benny Go...
Episode 6
Swing: The Velocity of Celebration - 1937-1939
Swing would be reacquainted with its blues roots by way of Kansas City, when Count Basie and the Barons of Rhy...
Episode 7
Dedicated to Chaos: 1940-1945
"Dedicated to Chaos" finds jazz musicians teetering on the brink of the modern era, fighting against the strai...
Episode 8
Risk: 1945-1955
The bop revolution’s influence would spread to other musicians, but unlike swing, it would never become a popu...
Episode 9
The Adventure: 1956-1960
Critics who had believed that Charlie Parker was "too much" musically, could not have welcomed the arrival of...
Episode 10
A Masterpiece by Midnight: 1960 to the Present
Obviously Ken Burns knows that he can’t fit the last thirty-nine years of jazz history onto two hours of video...