Serious Burns
I'm about four hours into Jazz, the nineteen-hour Ken Burns documentary attempting to comprehensively cover the origin and history of jazz. I approached it with mixed feelings but I don't think I will be disappointed. To attempt something of this magnitude is brave, difficult and certainly important, but I hope that it will also do the subject justice, as far as it is possible in this constrained form.
My only complaint thus far is that at times it seems more like "Wynton Marsalis Informs Us About Jazz" than anything else. I'm not sure exactly what it is that bothers me about him. Don't get me wrong, he is a terrific technical player, an eloquent speaker and a great advocate and educator, but the way he always speaks so authoritatively on every topic within jazz exudes a certain arrogance. It's almost as if he feels that he has mastered jazz and therefore can define it for the world however he likes. I admit that this feeling is the sum of rumors, secondhand stories and vague impressions but still, I am finding more evidence to prove than disprove.