Jazz. Episode six, Swing, the velocity of celebration / A film by Ken Burns; written by Geoffrey C. Ward; produced by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick

Format:

Video

Contributor:

Burns, Ken, 1953- producer, director.

Ward, Geoffrey C., screenwriter.

Novick, Lynn, producer.

David, Keith, narrator.

Florentine Films, production company.

Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.), production company.

Series:

Academic Video Online

Ken Burns's Jazz ; 6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Depression & World War II (1929-1945).

African-Americans.

Jazz music.

Musicians.

Kansas City, MO.

New York, NY.

Local Subjects:

Depression & World War II (1929-1945).

African-Americans.

Jazz music.

Musicians.

Kansas City, MO.

New York, NY.

Genre:

Documentary

Physical Description:

1 online resource (102 minutes)

Place of Publication:

Arlington, VA : Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 2000.

Language Note:

In English.

Original language in English.

System Details:

video file

Summary:

As the 1930s come to a close, Swing-mania is still going strong, but some fans are saying success has made the music too predictable. Their ears are tuned to a new sound - pulsing, stomping, suffused with the blues. It's the Kansas City sound of Count Basie's band and it quickly reignites the spirit of Swing. By 1938, Basie and his men are helping Benny Goodman bring jazz to Carnegie Hall. After the show, they travel uptown to battle Chick Webb to a draw at the Savoy Ballroom. And that summer, they turn 52nd Street into 'Swing Street,' performing nightly at the Famous Door. Soon Basie's lead saxophonist, Lester Young, is challenging Coleman Hawkins for supremacy, matching the old sax-master's muscular sound with a laid-back style of his own. Young teams with Billie Holiday for a series of recordings that reveals them as musical soulmates, and tours with her in Basie's band until she leaves to join Artie Shaw. But America isn't ready for a black woman who swings with white musicians and Holiday is soon back in New York, pouring her outrage into the anti-lynching ballad, Strange Fruit. By the decade's end, Chick Webb has taken a chance on a teenage singer named Ella Fitzgerald and achieved the fame he dreamed of. Duke Ellington has been hailed as a hero in Europe, amid anxious preparations for war. And weeks after that war begins, Coleman Hawkins startles the world with a glimpse of what jazz will become, improvising a new music on the old standard, Body and Soul.

Notes:

Title from resource description page (viewed December 12, 2018).