Jazz: A History of America’s Music Audiobook (Free)

The companion volume towards the ten-part PBS TV series with the team in charge of

The Civil War and Baseball.

Continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed functions, Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns vividly bring to life the story from the quintessential American music-jazz. Delivered in the black community of turn-of-the-century New Orleans but played from the beginning by musicians of every color, jazz celebrates all Us citizens at their finest.

Listed below are the stories of the extraordinary men and on the subject of Jazz: A History of America’s Music females who made the music: Louis Armstrong, the fatherless waif whose unrivaled genius helped convert jazz into a soloist’s art and influenced every singer, every instrumentalist who came after him; Duke Ellington, the pampered kid of middle-class parents who changed a whole orchestra into his personal device, wrote almost two thousand items for it, and captured more of American existence than some other composer. Bix Beiderbecke, the doomed cornet prodigy who showed white music artists that they too could make a significant contribution to the music; Benny Goodman, the immigrants’ kid who learned the clarinet to help feed his family members, but who was raised to teach a whole country how to dance; Billie Vacation, whose distinctive design routinely transformed mediocre music into great art; Charlie Parker, who helped business lead a musical trend, only to demolish himself at thirty-four; and Mls Davis, whose search for fresh ways to sound made him probably the most important jazz musician of his generation, and led him to forego jazz altogether. Pal Bolden, Jelly Move Morton, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Artie Shaw, and Ella Fitzgerald are here; so can be Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Adolescent, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and a host of others.

But Jazz is a lot more than simple biography. The history from the music echoes the annals of twentieth-century America. Jazz provided the background for the giddy period that F. Scott Fitzgerald known as the Jazz Age. The irresistible pulse of big-band golf swing lifted the spirits and boosted American morale during the Great Despair and World Battle II. The virtuosic, challenging style called bebop mirrored the stepped-up pace and dislocation that came with peace. During the Cool War era, jazz served as a propaganda weapon-and forged links using the burgeoning counterculture. The storyplot of jazz includes the story of American courtship and show business; the epic development of great cities-New Orleans and Chicago, Kansas Town and New York-and the struggle for civil privileges and simple justice that continues into the brand-new millennium.

Visually stunning, with more than 500 photographs, some never before published, this book, just like the music it chronicles, can be an exploration-and a celebration-of the American experiment.