Lee Flier Posted January 9, 2001 Share Posted January 9, 2001 I watched the premiere episode of the "Jazz" series last night on PBS. Boy was it cool! The background behind the development of jazz in New Orleans was just wonderful, as well as the profiles of very early practitioners such as Buddy Bolden. Anybody else watch? It continues tonight, so if you didn't watch, you should! One thing that really struck me was when they showed a film of an early recording session. There were no microphones as we know them - the players each played into a giant cone that looked like it was made out of paper. The cones were arranged in a big circle around the recorder and were all physically attached to it from what I could see. Anybody know about these things and how that all worked? Could they work with today's equipment? --Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tedster Posted January 9, 2001 Share Posted January 9, 2001 Damn! Missed it...I'll make sure I watch tonight...thanks, Lee... "Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigstarletyahoo.com Posted January 9, 2001 Share Posted January 9, 2001 Just the detail of the history and ALL THAT MUSIC was amazing. The Ella Fitzgerald special that came on afterward (in my area, at least) was impressive in itself as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fet Posted January 9, 2001 Share Posted January 9, 2001 Check out www.tinfoil.com for an incredible amount of info re early days of recording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Flier Posted January 9, 2001 Author Share Posted January 9, 2001 WOW, thanks fet, that is some great stuff! Anybody who's into recording ought to appreciate this site... thanks so much for posting it. --Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbox Posted January 10, 2001 Share Posted January 10, 2001 I thought it was much better than the American Music Awards!!! Enthusiasm powers the world. Craig Anderton's Archiving Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vononoffon.com Posted January 10, 2001 Share Posted January 10, 2001 Hi - Von Babasin here. I actually wrote Ken Burns about including my father in his anthology. He wrote back but only eluded that he might be mentioned. I have a recording from June 16, 1952, made at the Tradewinds in Inglewood, that has my dad playing bass with Charlie Parker on one of Bird's only trips to the west coast. On that night, my father introduced Bird to Chet Baker. It was Chet's first gig. This recording is available on CD from Fresh Sound Records in Spain and Charly Records in the U.K. under the titles, 'Inglewood Jam' and 'Live at the Tradewinds'. I'm praying that in the episodes covering the 40's through the 60's, Mr. Burns actually mentions Harry Babasin. I don't really expect him to, but it sure would be nice. After all, he played with Goodman's band in the late 40's, and Woody Herman, Charlie Barnet, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Tommy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Tal Farlow, Joe Pass, Laurindo Almeida, Skinny Ennis, Gene Krupa, Louis Bellson, Maynard Ferguson, Howard Roberts, everyone in west coast jazz, etc. etc. etc. And if you didn't see the other post, I just found the Dallas Observer article about my dad on the web!!!! Here's the link: http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2000-12-07/music.html It makes for some fairly interesting reading. Enjoy, Von from ONOFFON Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP3 Posted January 10, 2001 Share Posted January 10, 2001 Lee, don't know if you get BET On Jazz where you live but they have some good old shows from the 50s that they air. Remarkable sound quality for the age of the tapes. Can't wait to check out the Burns series!! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtreathome.com Posted January 11, 2001 Share Posted January 11, 2001 The entire Burns series is reason enough to buy a player and own all three DVD's, Civil War, Baseball and now Jazz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent_powellpalmercay.com Posted January 11, 2001 Share Posted January 11, 2001 I was pretty excited tuning in Monday night but...I found myself nodding out on Tuesday's installment. I feel Burns does not delve deep enough into the material to make it interesting. This is a gloss-over encyclopedic approach. The material deserves better. My parents were English teachers, so I saw a lot of papers being graded as I grew up. Burns reminds me of the kid(s) who would string together a bunch of quotes they found in library books, tack on the footnotes and turn in a heavily padded report containing little or no original thought. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the attempt to educate us on a sorely neglected topic. I just wish someone had done a better job of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R. Posted January 11, 2001 Share Posted January 11, 2001 Good stuff. I would love to see more performances and interviews with the artists. They had only a couple quick snippets of Louis Armstrong talking. More! More! -David R. -David R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Flier Posted January 11, 2001 Author Share Posted January 11, 2001 David, so far most of the artists they've covered are long dead, and many were probably never interviewed. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif I suspect we'll start seeing more interviews as the series progresses. Kent, I don't see how something of this scope could have been done without glossing some things over. Burns is attempting not only to discuss jazz but also its historical context. I think anybody whose interest is piqued by this overview can delve deeper into the finer points. But this is a TV series, and even a 10 parter with no commercials can't begin to cover the subject in too much detail. I am really digging the old photos and film footage myself. Haven't seen the majority of it. And I really like the comments from Branford Marsalis, punctuated with horn solos. TinderArts: I have seen a couple of the jazz programs on BET and I agree, they're great! --Lee This message has been edited by Lee Flier on 01-10-2001 at 04:56 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R. Posted January 11, 2001 Share Posted January 11, 2001 Yes Lee, most would be dead. I loved seeing Satchmo talk about Satchmo. I would love to see longer segments of the interview. -David R. -David R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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