ken burns jazz is the usa version better?

I have the English version of the Ken Burns Jazz documentary which is the same as the one the BBC showed many moons ago. Now i've heard the American version is 19 hours long compared to the paltry 12 hours we've got. Has anyone seen the American version and is it worth shelling out big bucks for a copy or sticking with the English one?. Must admit when i saw it they seemed to skip the jazz fusion part and gave only lip service to certain musicians and for anyone who watched what was the relevance of the last chapter? I mean rap/jazz crossover? come on!

Haven't seen the US version. I enjoyed the version we got in the UK but when it reached the 60's it went downhill. I really like the advent of free jazz/avante garde and the jazz rock fusion era's. The programme utterly dissed these periods and completely omited the likes of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Pastorius, Mclaughlin, Frisell, Sco, Braxton, Metheny etc etc etc and European artists utterly ignored. Electric jazz was seen as unworthy.

A good watch and informative for early jazz the development of - but from the 60's it went totally off the rails and became ultra biased. Very sad.

Yap, zargb, the series is excellent for the jazz up to the 60s, for newer forms it's just not there.
Ken Burns was a bit "under the influence" of his artistic advisor, whom I have great respect for, but who sometimes doesn't respect other opinions on jazz.
The part that is covered is actually quite entertaining and very wathcable (at times even magnificent), but,
Mark53, don't buy the US version if you're looking for fusion, free jazz and such.

ken burns jazz is all a croc of ish!!

Both versions a pitifully wasted opportunity that gives the impression Jazz was done mainly by male instrumentalists. It also emits many, many important artists in favor of over-indulging Parker and Armstrong.

Many apsects of Jazz history and the individual artists has been done way better and to a much higher and comprehensive level by PBS and BBC.

The recent BBC4 doc 'The Swing Thing' covers the Jazz genre in way more depth [political/social as well as musical dimensions] and soul than Burn's film. And manages to not fall into the misnomer than Swing somehow ended on New Years Eve 1949. A far superior doc along with other superior BBC4 Jazz docs on Monk, Nina Simone, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington [almost all completely overlooked in Burn's film].

Imho Ken Burns Jazz dvd is worth one watch, and it gets increasingly frustrating as it goes on [way too much footage time of Armstrong as opposed to king Oliver etc and way bias towards Be Bop and then leaves little time for anything else later].

Warning - this film is a mess on many levels and does nothing to truly celebrate or promote Jazz's relevance or importance.

Rent it or get a cheap 2nd hand copy.

Yes i found that regarding Louis Armstrong. Okay a innovator but they really went over the top regarding him. Don't care what Ken Burns may think 'hello dolly' is not jazz in any sense or form. I felt the series took ages to get anywhere. Also a deffinate bias against white musicians.

I have the American edition and consider it entirely worthwhile. I'm glad Burns followed the legendary shapers of the music to the finish of their careers. Considering Armstrong's humble beginnings in life, Burns was making a point on how remarkable it was that Armstrong's appeal continued into the 1960s, whether Hello Dolly is considered jazz or not. He sang it the same way he sang everything else: as himself, and it was a huge hit. I call that a further expression of his genius.

I was also glad Burns went into Armstrong's deep feelings about civil rights, and that incident might not have been covered (with the original news footage I'd never seen before) if Burns had shortened his segments. The same with the ups and downs in Ellington's career and his triumph at Newport.

I was not put off my Burns' apparent omission of certain musicians, because I expected up front that he would find it impossible to cover everyone (such as Bill Evans, a personal favorite), and so I do not consider these omissions as a valid reason to cynically downgrade this series like some others have, mostly it seems from those who have been listening to jazz for years. The series wasn't exactly intended for them but for those who might be new to jazz, or those who knew much of its history and were still interested in the 75 interviews, the more than _500_ pieces of music and the rare, unseen photos and footage.

After 19 hours of not only the music but the slices of American history that ran parallel, others are welcome to search out any presentations they want on more of our contemporary musicians or any jazz genre they might be interested in, because Burns laid a nice foundation that all but the most pampered and lazy listeners can build upon on their own time. After all, there are even experienced jazz lovers who are not into Cecil Taylor, and yet Burns included him and pointed out that jazz continues to develop. ♬

Mr P commented

<<The recent BBC4 doc 'The Swing Thing' covers the Jazz genre in way more depth [political/social as well as musical dimensions] and soul...>>

I'm interested in watching this. Any pointers to where it can be obtained wold be appreciated.

Ajarn,

'The Swing Thing' is truly a refreshing and detailed account of the whole Swing period from 20's 2 early 60's and makes up for the Ken Burns confused misguided mess. And it has way more footage of the greats [better condition than KB docs and some previously unseen footage.]

Heres a summary.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00g3694

And here's the broadcast times its been shown between 2008-11....so here's hopin they show it gain soon. [I made sure I took a copy!]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00g3694/broadcasts

Keep an eye on your listings or see if u can set up a reminder for next broadcast via the BBC iplaya....its overdue for a rerun!

It Dont Mean A Thing....