The Story of Jazz (review)

The producers of a fine music series (Masters of American Music) have made it even finer with this digitally restored and remastered re-release. The audio, photographs and film footage are sharper and clearer than the series’ first release (1993), and even though most of performances will be familiar to lovers of jazz, it is evident while watching and listening to a clean copy that despite the familiarity of the performances, some are still as timeless, unique and precious as any work of art.

Performances such as Louis Armstrong’s 1933 stage performance of “Dinah” are still mesmerizing and iconic. Louis mugs, scats and delivers the music effortlessly in body language. During his sparse solo he quotes the song “Exactly Like You” and—as the band careens behind him—stretches the time slowly as if it were elastic.

Or Billie Holiday’s performance of “Fine and Mellow” on the 1957 CBS TV special, “The Sound of Jazz.” Backed by an all-star band, Holiday’s caresses each note as she sings and her eyes go all dreamy and sweet as Lester Young sighs out one of the most sensual solos ever caught on video.

While there is no definitive story of jazz, this series is up there with Ken Burn’s Jazz series, and each is equally valuable and deficient in its own way. Each tells their story in photos and footage with a voice-over narrative interspersed with comments from colleagues and admiring strangers. Masters of American Music features more colleagues and bandmates than admiring strangers though, which takes the viewer one step closer to the artist through recollections, personal memories and anecdotes.

Masters of American Music is well paced, visually entertaining, and presents a good general overview of each subject. The individual artists’ stories could be more comprehensive but it is difficult to cover anyone’s life story thoroughly in an hour and still leave room for the performances.

The writing and narrative are good overall, though occasionally clunky. But that can be overlooked because the general facts are correct and the material is so rich. And there are both excerpts of performances and full length segments. The Masters of American Music series should absolutely be part of any music lover’s library.