My name is Martin Scholes. I like writing reviews on Ciao. I am married, we have a cockatiel and a c...
My name is Martin Scholes. I like writing reviews on Ciao. I am married, we have a cockatiel and a cat. And a growing African Grey. Who orders the cat around!
Member since:06.12.2003
Reviews:334
Members who trust:65
A History of Jazz just has got to be one of the most comprehensive programmes on the history of jazz that I have ever come across.
It is subtitled Bluesland A portrait In American Music. It shows the very heavy Blues influence on the original forms of jazz.
The first section is called: Everybody got the Blues. It starts with a haunting Blues refrain, as the camera look along some railroad tracks to some plaintive blues music. The camera then shows some typical scenes of life in the south of America. A steam train, black people working on the farms and playing and singing the blues.
Then, comes the introduction to the programme, proper, by the host, Keith David, with Albert Murray and Robert Palmer.
Keith David points out that everyone gets the blues, and that everyone develops methods of coping with the blues. His favourite method is, unsurprisingly, perhaps, seeing the theme of the programme, the blues music, which, he pointed out, could take on the blue demons face-to-face and beat them with its own hoodoo.
Bluesman Albert Murray then points out that the blues is a way of affirming life in the face of adversity. This is spoken against some of the best blues guitar music that I have ever heard.
I really can't find anything else to say about this programme, except to ay that it is jam-packed with not only the music ,but also the story of why and how it came about.
If you want to know the whys of the history of jazz and the blues you really do need this packed programme.
Are there any extras? No. But why would you need any??
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