Customer Reviews

Masters of American Music: The Story of Jazz

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Starting with the history of New Orleans and its role in the development of Jazz, this Masters of American Music DVD highlights the most influential individuals in jazz. It includes well selected performance clips for many of the featured artists. However, the documentary has - to me - a few distractions. For example, no disrespect to the narrator, but his monotone delivery nearly put me to sleep. Also, the pace of the film is sometimes uneven. The history of New Orleans and its impact on Jazz seemed to be rushed. On the other hand, I understand the significance of Louis Armstrong, but after a while it was like, "Ok, I get it. Move on!" The documentary felt longer than 90 minutes; there are clips, interviews, and narration that could have been cut. With this said (and I realize those observations may seem picky),the documentary provides succinct and sufficient information that explains each artist's contributions. There are great interviews with Jazz players who were there when things were happening, and the performance clips show the featured artists in peak form. Before tackling Ken Burns' series, this documentary will serve as a good primer!