The Masters of Jazz DVD profiles eight influential jazz artists, it comes in a set of four discs. The first disc is called Jazz Pioneers and focuses on two artists; Louis Armstrong otherwise known as Satchmo and Count Basie. Disc 2 is called Jazz Innovators which profiles Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk artists who stretched the boundaries of jazz through their deep understanding not only of their own art form but also Western classical music, and in John Coltrane’s case Sufism and Indian music. Disc 3 is called Vocal Legends and profiles Ray Charles, Billy Holiday and Sarah Vaughn. The Billy Holiday and Charlie Parker sections are refreshing in the sense that it does not spend the whole documentary focussing on their well publicised drug addiction; it does not show them as the tragic victims we have got used to hearing about, but as artists who were well respected and contributed so much to their art form. The fourth disc is called A History of Jazz and is divided into two sections; Bluesland – A Portrait in American Music and The Story of jazz.
Whether or not you are a jazz fan this 4 disc DVD set is excellent, its detailed profiling of each artist is very in depth. If you thought you knew anything about jazz, as I did, it just revealed to me how much I had not appreciated its rich history and the plethora of geniuses littered throughout its history. We don’t get the “history lesson” told completely by the different narrators, it is told by the musicians who performed with the artists or who were their close friends. of the artists; this translates into very intimate portraits. The Count Basie profile just had musicians who knew him and worked closely with him, sitting around a table talking about their friend, and Tony Bennett’s and Wynton Marsalis’ summing up of their admiration and respect for Louis Armstrong is so touching it makes Armstrong even more intriguing. Each artist is profiled for about an hour, there are full length sequences of old TV footage of the artists in performance, so you really get a feel for their music and time to absorb what their music was like. This set shows you how the artists were all influenced by each other and had at some point played together, the references to the previously profiled artists in other sections help the viewer to understand the important musical connections.
However, sometimes the narration jars with the informal talking heads, particularly in the Count Basie and Satchmo sections. On all the sections the narration does not come in until quite late, and at times it feels as if it is intruding in on the intimate feel of the programme, sometimes it came across as a little disjointed from the programmes. The fourth disc has the narrator speaking directly to the camera which breaks up the continuity of style from the other sections. If you are not a jazz connoisseur or a musician the technical detail given about chords and phrasing can seem a little daunting, but it does not take away from the main aim of the documentaries; to underline how important the artists were. In addition, the last section on the fourth disc, the story of jazz can seem a little repetitive, as it covers many of the major artists who have already been profiled on the previous discs.
Despite the criticisms I have for the narration, the sections still manage to have a nice continuity of style for all four DVDs, even though each section has different narrators, producers, writers and directors. The programmes typically begin with talking heads or with old footage of the artist being profiled performing. This allows the artist’s music or those who knew them well to set the “scene.”
There is a discography on all the DVDs except for the fourth disc, each DVD has a photo gallery where photos of various artists are shown with back ground music, but it does not add anything. This DVD set is so informative and so full of great anecdotes and detail, it is just like having a history of jazz reference book on your bookshelf, and like any good reference book, you will have look at it again.