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.
JAZZ is a celebration of a music that is uniquely American.
It's also a window into our collective history, in all of its complexity, that will hopefully help Americans of all ages, but especially our youth, appreciate the joy of improvisation and collaboration, in both music and in life. To further support JAZZ, as it has with all of Ken Burns's films, General Motors is also underwriting an extensive educational outreach program to bring this film and history to students around the nation. In cooperation with the Music Educators National Conference, General Motors will be distributing curriculum materials to 75,000 teachers nationwide, reaching over six million students. Music from the film will also be available for teachers for their curriculum, along with a specially edited compilation clip of the film. Burns and his team of producers, editors and researchers at Florentine Films, including writer Geoffrey C. Ward and producer Lynn Novick, have been working on JAZZ for the last six years.