It s an art form that can give us a painless way of understanding ourselves.
Jazz offers a precise prism through which so much of American history can be seen.
Embedded in the music, in its riveting biographies and soaring artistic achievement, can be found our oft-neglected conscience, a message of hope and transcendence, of affirmation in the face of adversity, unequaled in the unfolding drama and parade we call American history. While Burns explores these stories, he also celebrates the music, taking it from the background to the foreground. The narrative style that we adopted for JAZZ is in many ways dictated by the music. It was incumbent upon us to have the sound up-front, for the images and narration to accent the music rather than the other way around. The discovery that has meant the most to me has been the astonishing music of Louis Armstrong.