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0:02
[ acoustic guitar playing ]
0:25
[ jazz combo playing ]
0:49
This is such a mysterious subject. Why do certain kinds of folk songs make you want to cry? Or why does certain kinds of music make you want to dance? MAN: Jazz cannot be defined. Blues cannot be defined. You cannot put your hands on it. No, it’s like an eel. It’s moving fast, quicksilver. It’s constantly changing, so when you grab it and it’s one thing, then it turns into something else, like a chameleon, you know? [ saxophone playing ]
1:34
[ piano playing ]
2:01
This is one of the most significant art forms that we have, not only in this country, in the world. [ combo playing ]
2:24
People do associate America with jazz. Freedom of speech, improvisation, they go hand in hand. [ combo playing ]
2:55
It’s just a feeling that makes you feel so wonderful to walk around and just to wake up. You know, music is a powerful thing.
3:13
It can change not only your life. It can change the way you think about things. It can change the way you walk down the street.
3:21
Jazz is... yeah, it comes alive. It’s the only thing America owns. Uh, we don’t own baseball. We don’t own apple pie. That didn’t come from the United States. Only thing came from the States is jazz. Sort of like our American classical music, if you would, and it’s associated with us, and that now is just part of the legend of the United States, of who we are as a nation. [ combo playing ]
4:04
I feel completely liberated as a person, and I’m able to translate that through the music. And then other times, I feel like a foreigner, that I don’t speak the language and I’m trying to kind of guess with crude hand gestures and, like, sounds to try to express myself in that medium. The first time I heard it, it was this... a love affair, you know.
4:38
It’s the only art form we have in the United States, jazz.
4:53
SPALDING: I discovered the bass, the instrument first. I had never experienced that in all the years of playing this music with people. You know, creating together these incredible orchestral works didn’t even compare to just this really crude little blues that I could hardly play. Just in those 10 minutes, I felt and experienced something really incredible.
5:25
Fresh air for your life. You wake up, "Wow, listen to this music." And then you could go around and be like, "Whoa."
5:37
Jazz is a language. It’s a language of creativity. It’s a language of individuality.
5:56
The music has, like, a gravity to it, you know? When something... you know, something really is kind of profound and kind of speaking to you in a real, meaningful way, you know, you’re really just... you’re drawn to it.
6:17
Such a huge part of it is improvisation, and our lives are like that, you know. No matter how much structure you set up, when you go to do whatever it is you’re doing, even me and you talking here or taking a shower, you know, cooking the same dish you’ve made, there’s always an element of spontaneity. [ combo playing ]
6:43
Syncopated improvisation, that’s the whole meaning of the whole thing.
7:24
Whoa. Jazz is life for me. [ combo playing ]
8:04
JACKSON: You need to jazz to breathe. It’s just like oxygen, just like air. Music is something that you need just to be cool in life, just to... Just to wake up and just to feel good about yourself, you know.
8:38
[ crowd cheering ]
8:42
[ drums playing ] [ crowd cheering, whistling, exclaiming ]
9:54
[ saxophone playing ]
10:07
Jazz was considered a lot of blatant noise
10:13
and discordant tones that is something that would be even harmful to the ears. And I would notice some of the patrons as they would be dancing around. They’d get near to an orchestra, and they’d hold their ears. "That fellow blows any louder, he’ll knock my eardrums down." [ saxophone playing ]
10:36
DEMCZUK: Jazz comes from New Orleans in the 1890s and early 1900s. It comes from an area called Storyville. Storyville was a very poor area of New Orleans where poor blacks lived. It was created right there on the spot in New Orleans. NARRATOR: At Congo Square, something extraordinary happened. On Sunday afternoons, slaves assembled in a circle and played African rhythms on their handmade instruments. Dancers jumped into the melee and performed tribal dances to the syncopated beats of the drums.
11:13
Larger and larger crowds gathered, and soon people of American, African, Caribbean and European descent joined in the medley. The music served as a common language everyone understood. The clash of African rhythm and European harmonies was perfect. Jazz was born. [ jazz orchestra playing ]
11:49
They had every class. We had Spanish. We had colored. We had whites. We had Frenchmens. We had Americans. We had ’em from all parts of the world. New Orleans was the stomping grounds, they say, for all the greatest pianists in the country. MAN: And there were people who were black. People who were white, people who were Asian, people who were from many different places, different ideas and, indeed, different um educational and religious. All of these things came together
12:24
in a special way to make America what it was, uh, back in those days. MAN: It’s a thing that can only happen when lots of different musics start colliding with each other in interesting ways. Something new happens. And there is no blues scale in Africa. It happens when African music and European music collide. That’s how it was formed, is a bunch of different musics formed together.
12:52
The word "jazz," we believe, comes from a Congolese word of "jizz," J-I-Z-Z. The names? They don’t mean a thing, man. Jazz is the big umbrella as we know it, and a lot of us don’t like the word "jazz." Miles used to hate it, the word "jazz." It doesn’t really mean what we do, because really what this is, is spontaneous, syncopated improvisation.
13:17
That’s the whole meaning of the whole thing, really.
13:38
[ marching drums playing ]
13:46
U Street came together originally during the Civil War. Escaped slaves who came to D.C. looking for freedom sought out the Union Army bases for protection, so African-American communities began to grow up around these army bases, and that was the beginning of the African-American community in U Street.
14:09
This is when a million African-Americans left the oppressive South. They were pushed out of the South, and so the music followed the people, because the people made the music. NARRATOR: One place in Washington acted as an unlikely springboard for early jazz, the first shipyard of the Navy. It was home to the most famous marching band of all time, led by John Philip Sousa. [ combo playing ] MAN: Sousa was born in 1854 in Washington in what’s known as the Navy Yard today,
14:45
which is south of the Capitol building. The Sousa band gives well over 15,000 concerts over the course of its career, was astronomical. He’s playing a lot of music, hugely popular, incredibly wealthy. Sousa’s today most famous as a march composer, "Washington Post," "Stars and Stripes Forever." But when you look at ragtime, someone like Scott Joplin, Scott Joplin’s "Maple Leaf Rag" is suspiciously like a march. [ humming, scatting a tune ]
15:43
And suddenly with just this little nudge of syncopation, it almost becomes jazz. [ Morton humming, scatting continues ]
15:56
[ piano playing ] NARRATOR: In 1891, a 10-year-old boy and his family had moved into a new house just a few doors down from Sousa. 27 years younger than Sousa, James Reese Europe was a child of the Ragtime era. In 1901, he participated in an early public concert of syncopated music and soon started to lead his own band. The style of his music was loose with plenty of swing, an unusually energetic drumbeat and saxophones to spice things up. During World War I,
16:31
he joined the 369th Hellfighter Regiment and embarked to Europe in an all-black regiment. At the end of World War I, he gave concerts in France and Britain as a dignified war hero and left Europe in jazz fever. LYLES: James Reese Europe, he had a military band, and when he went to Europe, he was playing... which I just called you, that New Orleans rhythm. People ate it up. They went crazy, never heard a marching band play like that. [ jazz orchestra playing ]
17:01
NARRATOR: When the Hellfighter Regiment returned to the United States, a victory reception almost one million people strong celebrated them in New York City. [ combo playing ] A different crowd greeted the black soldiers returning from World War I in Washington.
17:42
DEMCZUK: So I think what jazz is, is an opportunity for people who have traditionally been oppressed, traditionally have been poor, to express who they are, to express their humanness, to express their personal dignity and their individuality. Because at that time, as you well know, African-Americans were not only segregated and discriminated against, but they were... they were thought of as less than human, and they were thought of as not being fully Americans. This was an opportunity for them
18:12
to really show that they were truly human, truly Americans and truly individuals.
18:19
Jazz has deeper meaning than just being great music.
18:37
[ new jazz combo playing ]
18:53
Before there was the Apollo, there was the Howard Theatre. Before there was Harlem, there was U Street, Washington, D.C. [ crowd cheers ]
19:03
The Howard Theatre becomes the major... The major venue, for black entertainment in America. That’s 22 years before the Apollo. The Apollo was 1932. The Howard is 1910. Any great black entertainer in America played at the Howard Theatre. If you were great, you played at the Howard starting in the early 1900s.
19:29
MAN: And at the Howard Theatre for the matinee, I think it was 75 cents. You could see the bands, the comedian and a movie. What it’s about, man. I think about them bands used to be at the Howard Theatre. See, when I was a kid and went up there, I couldn’t get in. I didn’t have no money. So I’d go back to the loading dock and crawl up one of them loading docks and stand there and listen. DEMCZUK: So this area, because of the theaters, because of the blues, because of the jazz,
20:00
because of the literature, because of the poetry, because of the music, actually started here and was transported to Harlem. And so, even our great... our great contributors of Harlem, the Harlem Renaissance, came right out of U Street. I mean, Jean Toomer, the great novelist who wrote "Cane," which is considered the novel of the Harlem Renaissance, was written right here on U Street. REENACTOR: "Life of nigger alleys", "of poolrooms and restaurants "and near-beer saloons
20:30
"soaks into the walls of the Howard Theatre "and sets them throbbing jazz songs. "Black-skinned, they dance and shout "above the tick and trill of white-walled buildings. "At night, they open doors to people "who come in to stamp their feet and shout. "A pianist slips into the pit and improvises. "The walls awake, arms of the girls "and their limbs which jazz, jazz. "By lifting up their tight street skirts, "they set free, jab the air "and clog the floor in the rhythm to their music.
21:01
Lift your skirt, baby, and talk to Papa." DEMCZUK: Langston Hughes, the great poet of the Harlem Renaissance, lived right here. He lived right down the street on R Street near Dupont Circle. He wrote "Weary Blues" from here. And he wrote "Weary Blues" about what? He wrote "Weary Blues" about 7th Street, 7th Street, Washington, D.C. REENACTOR: "Droning a drowsy syncopated tune", "Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, "I heard a Negro play. "He did a lazy sway... "He did a lazy sway...
21:34
"To the tune o’ those Weary Blues. "With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made the poor piano moan with melody." [ applause ] NARRATOR: Having spent most of his adult life in a vagabond lifestyle that took him to Mexico, Africa and Europe, Langston Hughes found his true calling when he settled in Washington to work as a busboy and poet. REENACTOR: "I tried to write poems" "in the syncopated rhythm of jazz. "I tried to write poems "like the songs they sang on 7th Street.
22:06
I wouldn’t give up jazz for a world revolution." [ jazz orchestra playing ]
22:16
NARRATOR: Out of this inspiring environment came one of the greatest musicians of all times. It took a village to raise a genius.
22:27
WARFIELD: Duke Ellington is not the greatest jazz musician. He’s not America’s greatest musician. He is one of the great musicians. NARRATOR: At age 14, Ellington sneaked around in the pool halls, like Frank Holiday’s Pool Hall next door to the Howard Theatre. While working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Cafe, he wrote his first composition, "Poodle Dog Rag."
22:55
He took private lessons in musical harmony with Henry Lee Grant, son of Henry Fleet Grant, who had worked with John Philip Sousa.
23:06
Ellington and Sousa may have shared a musical forebearer. I think it’s a fantastic idea. I was taught by James Reese Europe’s sister and a man who lived across the street from me, name of Henry Grant, who was one of the few people who taught Duke Ellington. As a matter of fact, when I was a piano student and taking classical piano lessons from him, the phone would ring, uh, and he’d go away, and he’d be gone for 20 minutes or so, and he’d come back, and he said, "Well, I’m sorry
23:40
"I had to interrupt your lesson, but that was Duke Ellington."
23:53
NARRATOR: Ellington gave his first public performance at the True Reformer Hall at the age of 18 for a wage of 75 cents. Discovering his entrepreneurial skills, he ran a paint sign business next door to the Howard Theatre. When customers asked him to paint a sign advertising a dance, he asked if they needed musical entertainment. After he performed at the Louis Thomas Cabaret in 1920 and had to give the manager 90 of the $100 he earned as a booking fee,
24:27
Ellington decided to take his fate into his own hands. The next morning, he went to the telephone company and placed an ad in the phone book. WARFIELD: Duke Ellington wasn’t your dropout sort of guy. Duke Ellington was a... Had grown up in a culture that expected a high level of proficiency, and he went out and achieved a high level of proficiency.
24:55
[ crowd applauds ] This guy is as sophisticated as you can get. That may be a special Washington idea, that it’s sort of the Harlem Renaissance not yet in Harlem, right? A lot of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance lived in D.C. They were at Howard University, right, Locke, for example. And so much of what becomes important in Harlem in the late teens and twenties was happening here in the 1890s and the aughts, when Ellington is growing up. It’s a huge amount of pride, and playing this music
25:29
was not some sort of nightclubbing activity. It was a culturally sophisticated, prideful activity. That’s why Duke Ellington appears in tuxedos in the photographs, right? He’s not dragging around. As he composes at the piano... And he’s a composer, right? He’s not Louis Armstrong off the train in Chicago. He’s a composer. CUJE: I saw Duke Ellington. That... Suddenly, that curtain opens. There’s that white piano, and then the band is behind the curtain, and the curtain opens, and there’s that...
26:04
I mean, it’s an experience, you know. Say, "Wow!" DR. RUBLE: The U Street community became one of the elite African-American neighborhoods in the country. For people like Langston Hughes and Duke Ellington, this was their salvation. It’s one of those places where the sounds of 20th-century America were being invented.
26:32
[ piano playing ]
26:43
We could actually hear Jelly Roll Morton’s foot going when he was playing. You hear this guy’s banging his foot against the floor. We wanted to see who, uh, the guy with the foot was... What he sounded like and what he looked like.
27:03
NARRATOR: Jazz was in full swing when an unexpected visitor arrived in Washington, D.C., in 1935... Jelly Roll Morton, one of the founding fathers of jazz.
27:17
Morton had traveled the country in style in his Cadillac, flaunting a diamond insert in his gold front tooth and changing expensive suits multiple times per day, often showing his friends a suitcase seemingly full of money due to a shallow false bottom. He was quite the showman, impresario and street hustler rolled into one and made a big impression in every town he arrived.
28:12
I mean, this guy was one of the guys that really played in his day in New Orleans, and when he traveled around the cou... He went to the west coast, and he went to other places, made piano rolls in the Midwest and did a lot of things. He really got around, but he was a good arranger. He was a great composer. He did things that really helped jazz move from one place to another. [ piano playing ] NARRATOR: In Washington, nobody paid attention to his arrival,
28:44
and only few patrons visited the Jungle Inn on U Street, a jazz venue that he owned and where he performed every night. Like most of the country, Morton was hit hard by the Great Depression. His publisher had dropped him, his union card had expired, and he hadn’t recorded in a long time. Morton was broke. MORTON: When I made $100 a day, I thought I had a small day, and now today, if I make 10, I think I’ve got a great day. [ piano playing ]
29:20
DR. TAYLOR: Four of us in all went to see Jelly Roll Morton. And his partner said, "Four young guys came to hear you play tonight. You know, there’s..." And he looked up at us and said, "They’re nothing but kids." You know? [ piano playing ]
29:44
He sat down, and he was gonna show these kids that they didn’t really know anything, didn’t know enough as they should about the music that he said that he had created. He played something very, very difficult. I mean, he was playing stride piano, very corny, I mean, but it was very good. And I had to really kind of say to myself, "Man, that... I really have to listen "more carefully to this guy, because he’s playing things that I can’t play," and ’cause... He challenged us.
30:16
He’d say, "You kids can’t play it?" We couldn’t. I mean, it was that simple, you know. [ piano playing ]
30:25
NARRATOR: Alan Lomax, who recorded folk music for the Library of Congress, invited Morton to sit down and record an oral history of jazz. During the nine hours of recordings at the Coolidge Auditorium, jazz history was made. For the first time, someone who was there from the beginning told stories about the roots of jazz.
30:50
DR. TAYLOR: Jelly Roll Morton was... I found out later when I did a little research on him... Was a guy who claimed that he invented jazz. And, indeed, he had a great deal to do with it. It wasn’t far from the truth. NARRATOR: Encouraged by the Library of Congress’ interest in him, Morton’s giant ego reawakened, and he wrote letters to the White House, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the "Down Beat" magazine and "The Afro-American" newspaper. In these letters, Morton claimed
31:20
that he single-handedly invented jazz in 1902.
31:27
I mean, he was absolutely correct in saying that he helped in inventing jazz, because he really did the kinds of things that were needed from an arranger, from a composer, from someone who could play the kinds of things that he talked about.
31:48
And he did document it himself, so he can... Nobody can take that credit away from him.
33:03
♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Hey, see, I got my ♪ ♪ Fire ♪ ♪ Hey, I got, hey, a sea lion ♪ ♪ Sea lion woman ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ She drank coffee ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ She drank tea ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ And then she go home ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Sea lion woman ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Wiggle, wiggle ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Purr like a cat ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Wink at a man ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ And then she wink back ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Sea lion woman ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Sea lion woman ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Dressed in red ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Wink at a man ♪
33:36
♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ And they fall right dead ♪ ♪ Sea lion ♪ ♪ Hey, and I got my ♪ ♪ Fire ♪ ♪ Hey, see, I got my fire ♪ ♪ I got, hey, I got, hey ♪ ♪ I set my spirit free ♪ [ scatting ]
33:59
[ new song begins ] ♪ He says he’ll love me ♪ ♪ He’s so fine and mellow... ♪ LYLES: Little Harlem, they had a piano player up there. Man, he could play a thousand songs. Man, he knew every song ever written. NARRATOR: One night, the door opened, and a young lady in an elegant evening gown and wrapped in a blue mink coat came up the stairs. It was the legendary singer Billie Holiday. Everybody stared in disbelief while she walked straight up to the piano player
34:31
and demanded, "You, you’re coming with me. From now on, you belong to me." From that night on, he was her loyal piano player for the next seven years. Maurice Lyles played with them on drums. Carl Drinkard was an amazing pianist, man. He was an amazing pianist. See, one of the problems with singers, if they get somebody who is excellent, they’ll eat him up. It’s love at first sight, man. ’Cause you need somebody that’s gonna accompany you and, as players say, "Don’t get in the way."
35:02
"Don’t give me too much. Just give me enough for, like, a rug to walk on." That’s what an accompanist would do. You accompany the singer. She had a way with a song, hardly anybody could touch it with that. It was uncanny. That was my first introduction to brandy, ’cause we was playing in this bar, and she was drinking brandy. I say, "Well, I’m gonna try this." Ooh, it liked it. NARRATOR: The same year, her close friend and legendary saxophone player Lester Young moved to Washington.
35:31
When he arrived at Olivia’s Patio Lounge for a one-week engagement, many considered him a washed-up, tragic musician way past his peak. The days of his glory were long gone. He hadn’t recorded in years, and a life of alcohol abuse had taken its toll on his health. Halfway through the week, Lester Young noticed three microphones, two reel-to-reel audio recorders and a mixer onstage. Lester refused to be recorded, and it took the entire persuasive skills of the Bill Potts Trio
36:06
and a bottle of Hennessy to convince him. Lester Young was in peak condition, and the recording turned out to be a milestone in his long recording career. LYLES: I met Lester in ’47. [ chuckles ] He wore a big red bathrobe, had a big dragon on the back of it. He was a hell of a guy, man, very temperamental, very emotional, but he had a way with a ballad, man. "These Foolish Things," you remember that tune? Hey, man, he’d make you cry, man.
36:40
NARRATOR: Jazz history happened again when Charlie Parker was scheduled to perform at the Club Kavakos and a few days later at the Howard Theatre. When he arrived, he was carrying a plastic saxophone. The night before, he had spent all his money and was forced to pawn his gold-plated saxophone. The recordings from these nights give testament that a true musical genius could even make a plastic instrument sound phenomenal. I saw Lester Young and Charlie Parker during that time, you know.
37:16
They were my idols, Lester Young and Charlie Parker, yeah. I also saw Dizzy there. He was my trumpet hero. "I always wanted to play high like you, the high notes." And, "Man, can I just give you a hug and a kiss on your cheek?" And he went and put his finger to his nose, and he said, "Which cheek?" And he had six of ’em here. [ laughs ]
37:43
NARRATOR: In 1958, a jazz band came to the Spotlight Lounge in search for a new sound. John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb under the leadership of the young trumpeter, Miles Davis. At the Spotlight Lounge, the Miles Davis Sextet made live radio broadcasts to test their new musical endeavors. ANNOUNCER: "From Washington, D.C., Jazz Limited presents Miles Davis." MAN: As a matter of fact, Miles was working there when he broke in the new band.
38:17
And when he would get off from his... from his work, he’d come to the Caverns to listen to us, and he was doing... [ laughs ] He was doing that pretty much six nights a week. NARRATOR: As soon as the group returned to New York, they recorded the best-selling jazz album of all times, Miles Davis’ "Kind of Blue."
38:42
[ saxophone playing ]
38:52
A modest saxophone player from Washington played with Miles Davis and John Coltrane and was asked to go on tour with them. He declined the offer, because he preferred to stay with his family in the District. His steady job seemed too valuable to risk for the uncertain life of a touring musician. He was a mailman. HILL: I had to. I got married young and had children, so I had to keep a day job. And I was a mailman at the time, you know. I was delivering mail. [ chuckles ]
39:26
I was always thinking about music. Music was always in my head, so it was a frustrating job. [ chuckles ] I didn’t get the recording date because of that, but that’s okay. I’m all right now. [ laughs ]
39:54
Oh, yeah, played with Sonny Rollins when he was playing with Max Roach, and I played with the Miles Davis group, but Coltrane didn’t play. He just let me play. You know, I respect Buck Hill a lot. I love what he did. Buck Hill is famous around Washington with the Washingtonians, you know. HILL: Yeah, I met Charlie Parker. I met Lester Young. Yeah, I met ’em all, Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. I played with them, you know.
40:34
[ combo playing ]
40:44
One multitalented Washingtonian was fascinated by John Coltrane like no other. There’s a saxophone player named Andrew White III that’s an amazing guy. I mean, he’s transcribed, like, hundreds of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy solos. He was playing electric bass with The 5th Dimension, and then this guy, he’s played oboe with the ballet.
41:17
I transcribed and published over 700 transcriptions of John Coltrane’s improvisations. I was electric bassist... Principal electric bassist with Stevie Wonder. I was also... During that same tenure, I was the principal oboist with the American Ballet Theatre of New York. I was still playing full-time jazz saxophone in town. It’s pretty good to have all this going on. [ laughs ]
41:46
That’s my conductor, Dean Dixon, memorial award from 1984. And this is my diploma from the French Society of Arts, Sciences and Letters. I was awarded the gold medal. This is my gold medal here that I had.
42:05
This is the Benny Golson Jazz Master Award that I received, that was awarded me by Howard University. [ combo playing ] Here I am with Lyndon Johnson. Here’s a letter from Jimmy Carter.
42:23
Oh, and this is my "Congressional Record" here.
42:27
And here I am receiving my award here also with the President of the Society of Arts, Sciences and Letters.
42:38
Here I am with... Here’s a famous rock-’n’-roll picture of me with my bass.
42:45
There’s Stevie Wonder up there. You see Stevie Wonder? Can’t get all of ’em. [ combo continues ]
43:01
MUSICIAN: Break it down, baby. Break it down. Break it down.
43:04
My 840-page autobiography.
43:16
Just goes on and on and on and on. [ laughing ] [ new combo playing ]
43:34
NARRATOR: The most popular place where stars like Art Tatum, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Dinah Washington and Pearl Bailey hung out after their shows was simply named after its owner, Charles Lindsey. CUJE: We came in through down in the basement. We went through here, carried an instrument in here and went down... downstairs here. That’s where the kitchen was for this after-hour club. And you either had to bring your own bottle
44:09
or pay a lot of money to have a drink. They had a bar and everything, but here we’d come. We’d come in through down here and bring the instruments, and that’s where the kitchen was. Hello, pussy puss. [ meows ] So on this floor... this floor here is where the party was happening. And we would play, be, you know, dancing, doing the boogaloo. The music of the day was boogaloo. And we recorded an album for Argo with Buck Clarke, and two of the tunes on there were sort of boogaloo tunes.
44:47
[ scats a tune ] And I was known as the Snowflake.
44:54
By the time we’d get here, would be easily 2:00, 2:30. Be home by 7:00. And there, you had to wear a hairpiece if you were bald. WOMAN: You had to wear a hairpiece? You had to wear a rug, a carpet, to play. But this was the happening place, you know. So while the jukebox was going, we were playing. Girls were dancing, these beautiful girls, ones with that little blonde streak in their hair. Shiny black eyes were glittering, and red lips were smiling, and wonderful white teeth were inviting.
45:33
It was a wonderful life. [ laughs ] Take me back then. [ combo playing ]
46:08
[ crowd applauds ] [ new combo playing ]
46:25
If you’re gonna do old Brazilian music, the first thing you got to do is find an old Brazilian. [ laughs ]
46:34
Well, that’s Stan Getz on the left, me in the middle and Charlie on the right. [ combo continues ]
46:58
NARRATOR: When the guitarist Charlie Byrd returned from a State Department sponsored trip to Brazil, the soundtrack of an entire generation changed. That’s when he discovered the bossa nova thing. NARRATOR: Byrd wasted no time, called Stan Getz and insisted that he had to come down from New York City right away to record a new album. His wife at the time suggested that he give Stan Getz a call, and that was one of the best calls he ever made.
47:30
Because Brazilian music is so melodic and so beautiful, and Stan Getz is so melodical and so beautiful as well. It was a match made in heaven for Stan.
47:43
Don’t think he ever regretted it, that’s for sure. [ laughs ]
47:48
Charlie was good friends with the minister there at the time.
47:55
All of our recording, we’d do in one day. And then I’d run across these rock-’n’-roll groups on the road, you know, and we’d be talking to these guys, and they’d been... You know, they could be working on one album for three months. [ laughs ] They must do it one note at a time. [ laughs ]
48:16
And it was just great fun. We had no idea that CD would do as well as it did. I was totally surprised. Everybody was, you know. We had no idea what would happen. We’d helped promote the bossa nova in all of the free world. The music was so refreshing. And, you know, that eighth-note feeling that the rhythm thing has was like a breath of fresh air. It was wonderful and infectious. That... It was... It just felt good. [ chuckles ] And it sounded good and felt good. I mean, it could have you
48:55
dancing in your seat, you know? There’s just something about it, and it still is.
49:03
[ piano playing ]
50:13
MILLER: People who are into the freedom of basically expressing themselves through improvisation are people who believe very strongly in standing up for their rights.
50:23
MAN: Sometimes the artist is the canary in the coal mine warning us about things that are happening. REENACTOR: "Jazz speaks of life." "The blues tell a story of life’s difficulties. "And if you think for a moment, "you will realize that they take "the hardest realities of life, "then put them into music, "only to come out with some new hope "or a sense of triumph. "This is triumphant music. "It is no wonder that so much "of the search for identity among American Negroes
50:54
was championed by jazz musicians." ♪ Freedom... ♪ They were out there. They were taking this music or this sensibility and taking it out to the people. ♪ Freedom, I want freedom ♪ ♪ Hey, hey ♪ ♪ I want to sing freedom ♪ ♪ Hey, freedom, hey, freedom ♪ ♪ Woke up with a smile on my face ♪ ♪ And a song in my heart ♪ ♪ Knowing I’m where I belong ♪ WARFIELD: Jazz is an incredibly political form of art. "Free Jazz." All right, if... Ornette Coleman was clearly political. John Coltrane’s "Alabama"
51:36
is clearly a political moment. "We insist! Freedom now" from Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln can only be a political moment. ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪ ♪ I stand for ♪ ♪ Freedom ♪
52:02
[ crowd cheers ] REENACTOR: "I’m white inside", "but that don’t help my case. "That’s life. "Can’t hide. "What is it in my face? "How would it end? "Ain’t got a friend. "My only sin is in my skin. What did I do to be so black and blue?" You know, see, we’re talking about segregation. See, there were black clubs and white clubs, and they didn’t mix. And Charlie Parker played with that band. He had to come in through the kitchen. Oh, Billie Holiday suffered, man. Artie Shaw used to take her,
52:38
and he would take her on the elevator with him, but they wanted her to ride the freight elevator. [ chuckles ] Making the choice to play what’s recognized as a principally African-American musical form in the U Street community, which is a principally... Or has historically been principally an African-American neighborhood, is certainly a cultural and political statement about what it means to be black in D.C.
53:02
♪ Haven’t got the heart ♪ ♪ To stand those memories... ♪
53:12
This is me. this is who I am. This is what you’re gonna get at this particular moment that’s not gonna sound like anything that you’ve heard me do before. ♪ And old midnight knows it, too ♪
53:30
♪ When some quarrel we had ♪ ♪ Needs mending ♪ ♪ Doesn’t mean that our love ♪ ♪ Is ending ♪ ♪ Darling, I ♪ ♪ Need you now ♪ ♪ Oh, yes, I find ♪ ♪ You’re out of my arms ♪ ♪ And now out ♪ ♪ Of my mind... ♪ All the jazz was on U Street, and when... after the riots, you know, it was in the air.
54:20
CUJE: Till the riots came, and all of U street, all that burned down. The whole scene came to an end, the jazz, the integration. I mean, now integration was here, and people didn’t integrate anymore. DEMCZUK: As a result of that murder of Dr. King, this city, like many other cities in America, went up in flames.
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And that was probably the most devastating blow to this proud black, African-American community, was the riots of ’68. It burned down half of U Street, parts of 14th Street, much of 7th Street, much of 8th Street in Northeast. It burned all of these areas out, and people did not want to come back down here. So that was it, man. That was it. That was it. That was a terrible time, man. [ piano playing ]
56:45
and everybody loved that sound.
56:49
He was really in New York only for a few years, and in that time, he became a studio musician at Blue Note, which is how he got to be on all of these records that became so famous and so important.
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BYRD: Butch went with Monk. And one of the funny stories, Butch said he worked his head off to learn this tune that Monk was playing, and he worked and worked on it, and he finally felt like he really had it down, right? So he goes in one night, and Monk plays this tune, and after they finish the tune, Monk turned to Butch and said, "I liked it better when you didn’t know it." [ laughing ]
57:39
That’s just pretty funny.
1:00:50
[ combo playing ]
1:01:04
He took the audience back four decades to another place, and all of a sudden, you felt like you were in a Blue Note album. Well, in fact, you were in a Blue Note album, because this was Butch Warren, who’s on all those great Blue Note albums. And he dressed the way he would have to a session in 1962,
1:01:26
and his manner and the way he comports himself just felt like 1960s jazz.
1:01:34
He looks like someone who you only know in black and white.
1:01:40
[ combo continues ]
1:02:03
[ bass playing ]
1:02:20
♪ Let me be patient ♪
1:02:25
♪ Let me be kind ♪ ♪ Make me unselfish ♪ ♪ Without being blind ♪ ♪ Though I may suffer, I’ll envy it not ♪
1:02:40
♪ And endure what comes ♪ ♪ ’Cause he’s all I’ve got, and tell him ♪ ♪ Tell him I need him ♪ ♪ Tell him I ♪
1:02:53
♪ Love him ♪ ♪ It’ll be all right ♪
1:03:00
♪ Now, I may have strength ♪ ♪ To make mountains fall ♪ ♪ But if I lack love ♪ ♪ I’m nothing at all ♪ ♪ I can give away everything I possess ♪
1:03:19
♪ But being without love ♪ ♪ And I have no happiness ♪ ♪ Now, I know I’m imperfect and not without sin ♪ ♪ But now that I’m older ♪ ♪ All childish things end ♪ ♪ And tell him ♪ ♪ Tell him I need him ♪ ♪ Tell him I love him ♪ ♪ And it’ll be all right ♪
1:03:49
♪ Now, I won’t be jealous ♪ ♪ And I won’t be too proud ♪ ♪ ’Cause love is not boastful ♪ ♪ And love is not loud ♪ ♪ Tell him I need him ♪ ♪ Tell him I love him ♪ ♪ And everything will be all right ♪
1:04:19
♪ All right ♪ Playing music is about projecting a message or communication. ♪ I may have wisdom, and ♪
1:04:34
♪ Knowledge on earth ♪
1:04:37
♪ But if I speak wrong ♪ ♪ What is it worth? ♪ We’re trying to communicate. That’s... We’re speaking a language, and that language is universal across all cultures and nationalities, and it’s something that everyone can relate to. ♪ When our lives were spared... ♪ It takes all of the things that makes us unique to people in other parts of the world. ♪ It’s gonna be ♪ ♪ It’s gonna be all right ♪
1:05:14
BARROSSE: In 1955, actually, Congressman Clayton, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., suggested that perhaps the government should fund a tour of Dizzy Gillespie. He was in Eastern Europe. He was in Asia. He traveled, actually, to Iran and Pakistan and Yugoslavia and Syria, among other countries. And then that summer, he traveled to Latin America, and then that got the whole thing started. We wanted to basically win over the hearts and minds of people around the world, particularly people in countries
1:05:46
that had just become independent. And the idea was that, through jazz, we were able to have a dialogue with people. We were able to showcase some of the best that we have in the United States through these virtuosi that were able to converse through music when language was not necessarily a common language. WILSON: Ultimately, there’s something in every culture that they can relate to the expression of jazz, because jazz represents the ultimate democracy. It’s the individual voice
1:06:20
expressing itself within the group context. ’Cause the idea, really, of democracy is being part of a huge community and feeling a responsibility to a community that’s much bigger than what you can see or understand. [ combo playing ]
1:07:31
Just like in a democracy, you sway back and forth between a consciousness of offering to the whole and worrying about what other people are thinking about you and what can I get for myself. I want to be better. I want to excel. I want to exceed... I mean succeed artistically and in my career. And again, that’s a parable, or it can be an analogy for what happens in democracy, too, so all the pros and cons of that ideal exist in the ideal of being a jazz musician.
1:07:58
A nation of very diverse individuals who can nevertheless come together and work towards one purpose. And so, all of these elements come together to really make jazz the great American contribution to world culture.
1:08:50
Jazz is just... You know, it’s just... the best way to express myself, you know. There’s no limitations on what you can do in jazz.
1:09:05
You know, nobody, you know, can really tell you what you can do, so you’re kind of free to be yourself. And, you know... and that’s... You know, that’s just the beauty about jazz. Like, whoever you are, whatever you want to do with your music, you know, jazz will let you do it. Since the beginning of the Rhythm Road program, 2005, where we’ve been very much keeping track of all this, we have had 97 countries visited. WILLIAMS: I played in South Africa a few months ago.
1:09:34
I mean, that was pretty amazing. Performed in Brazil, you know. That was pretty mind-blowing, too, so... We went to Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Zaire, Morocco, Congo and Tunisia. All in all, we did several around-the-world tours for the State Department. Oh, we went to about 125 different countries and some of ’em 2 or 3 times. [ chuckles ] Not bad, eh? We certainly covered every region of the world. When I was touring with the Don Redman orchestra, this was the first group that went to Europe
1:10:13
after the second World War. The one thing that people asked me first... This was in 1944, and they wanted to know how I, as a black man, could speak so lovingly about the music and about the things that we were involved in. "How can you live in a place "where you can’t go in different places to eat "and you can’t... staying in different places? You know, things are not as good for you as perhaps you would like." I said, "Well, it’s far from it, but we’re working on it,"
1:10:49
and we were in those days. And I’m delighted that in my lifetime we worked on it well enough to bring things to the point where people from all over the world come and they want to perform jazz, they want to learn what jazz is, because it speaks of freedom, individual freedom, in a way that no other music does, none.
1:11:18
[ vocalizing and scatting ]
1:12:36
[ crowd cheers ]
1:12:39
[ combo playing ]
1:12:49
CHILD: Hello from the children of planet Earth. NARRATOR: NASA officials gathered at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington on May 14, 1977. The task at hand, to select the 50 most important songs that represent the human race. At 3 A.M., NASA approved Alan Lomax’s recommendation and made its final decision. Louis Armstrong’s "Melancholy Blues" will be sent into outer space.
1:13:25
And of course Louie Armstrong was the grandfather, the godfather. Pops was the boss.
1:13:32
BARROSSE: Since the thirties, we had Louis Armstrong and some of our great jazz ambassadors on their own already touring Europe. BARACK OBAMA: The great jazz musician Louis Armstrong once said simply, "What we play is life. What we play is life." And that is what these artists do. They express the joys and hardships of life and remind us how much all of us have in common.
1:14:06
NARRATOR: Two Titan rockets blasted into space. 3 2 1 0.
1:14:14
Their precious cargo were two Voyager spacecrafts that should explore the outer regions of the solar system. Bolted on the outside of each of the two spacecrafts was an unlikely passenger, a golden record entitled "Sounds of Earth," the most expensive record ever made. With an anticipated lifetime of around one billion years, the record should showcase the cultural evolution of human life on Earth in the unlikely event that it was found by an advanced civilization in interstellar space.
1:14:51
Jazz may have conquered the world, but its journey is far from over. Louis Armstrong’s "Melancholy Blues" has left our solar system and is racing to another star. [ "Melancholy Blues" playing ] When it arrives in 40,000 years, what will alien life-forms think and feel when they put the included cartridge on the record, make it spin and listen to the "Melancholy Blues"?
1:15:36
[ new combo playing ]
1:15:57
I was startled. I mean, literally, I had a physical sensation, like my heart started racing a little faster. And I’m thinking, "Is this as rare as I think?"
1:16:09
And I’m looking on the shelf to see, okay, what are we gonna work on this week? And I see eight reels labeled "Carnegie Hall Jazz, 1957."
1:16:30
Then I looked on one of the back... I looked at one of the reels, and on the back of the box in pencil, it said, "T. Monk."
1:16:41
And I thought, "Wow", this could be some unpublished Monk. This could be some new Monk that nobody’s ever heard.
1:16:49
And it’s only when we went to digitize it...
1:16:53
and I heard, "Oh, that’s Coltrane. That’s Coltrane with Monk." And I realized how rare this is.
1:17:01
Could it be? Could this be, you know, one of those Holy Grail concerts that everybody’s been looking for? NARRATOR: But while the federal institutions are busy archiving their historic collections, the rich jazz history in Washington is slowly fading into oblivion. HILL: The status of jazz? [ saxophone playing ] I think jazz is dead.
1:17:28
Dead? Dead yeah.
1:17:36
It’s pretty bad. So it’s a disappointing decline that we’ve seen in the state of jazz, even though this is naturally probably the second-best jazz town in America after New York.
1:17:56
I think the main culprit there is the loss of jazz on the radio. WHITE: When I came out of that place then, I was servicing about 120 stations worldwide, mainly here. But I don’t think we got 120 stations in the country now. You know, you got these satellite companies that buy up all the sta... [ laughs ] So here’s a guy with a satellite company in Arizona somewhere telling you what to play in Boston. You know, well, that’s actually happening, right? [ laughs ] We can lose it easily.
1:18:28
You can listen to your radio. Radio stations are dropping like that. Next thing you know, you’re listening to some great jazz stations. This is what... your soundtrack to your life. Then you get up one day, they be... [ imitates guitar ] They got a country and western station. I mean, there are a thousand saxophone players that sound the same way now, and they’re all paying more payola to get on the radio to be played on the New Jersey Turnpike at 4:00 in the morning to the truckers. [ laughs ]
1:18:57
And all they wanted to play is Lynyrd Skynyrd or something like that. They’re not interested in jazz out there on the New Jersey Turnpike. Heh. Jazz is becoming a museum music.
1:19:09
[ laughs ] Well, there is a risk, you know. [ crowd cheering, exclaiming ]
1:19:26
There never has always been a guarantee that the music is going to move forward, you know. There’s really only a handful of innovators. There’s been thousands of people who’ve learned this music and played this music, you know, over the decades, really. And some people, you know, they choose to look forward and to move forward, and some people, they choose to sort of embrace what already exists.
1:20:13
And then you have the other side of that whole thing, which says, "No, we are Preservation Hall." "We are not changing, no matter what you say. "This is original jazz. This is going nowhere "from where you want to pollute it "by the changes you’re putting in. This is what it should be." [ combo playing ]
1:20:37
"What was alive is like a little flame that was burning, "and it’s being threatened "by these winds out in the culture, and we have to wrap it in something to keep the flame going." It’s a kind of preservation approach.
1:21:01
What jazz musicians of today have done is sandbag the tradition so much, they’ve made it so diluted and boring, so disconnected from movie score, drama, so disconnected from the power of a horror movie and the music that goes with that, so disconnected from the romance of and suspense of Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann type music, so distant from the social fervor and power of the Coltrane, civil rights movement era, so disconnected from even the technical brilliance of the classical...
1:21:43
European classical music.
1:21:54
COLTRANE: You know, the idea of people saying we have to keep jazz alive, you know, I think is... I think it’s, you know... For me, it can be kind of dangerous. You know what I mean? You know, I don’t believe that it’s dead. The history of jazz is bedrock. It’s rock solid, you know? And that music, important music of any kind, any important music, is always gonna be here. It’s always gonna be listened to. It’s always gonna be learned. It’s always going to be loved and appreciated, you know.
1:22:30
♪ Man made the car ♪
1:22:34
♪ To take us over the road ♪ The future of jazz depends in a large part on what you think jazz is. Jazz is definitely not dead, because people aren’t dead. ♪ Hah hah ♪
1:22:49
♪ Man made electric lights ♪
1:22:52
♪ To take us out of the dark ♪ WATTS: Jazz is evolving like everything else evolves. That is the nature of the universe. I think it has a future, but you have to do something to make it sell. The records are not selling to the public. They don’t reach the public. ♪ But it wouldn’t be nothing ♪ ♪ Nothing ♪ ♪ Without a woman or a girl, yow ♪ The public is looking out for something different. It has to be something personal. [ chuckles ] ♪ Good Lord ♪
1:23:27
Times are always changing, so, you know, jazz will change right along with it. I think we can never stop jazz from incorporating different genres. But if you look at where jazz started in the twenties, even to the forties, it was different, and the forties was different from the fifties. It’s a sponge. It’s a living organism. We could never stop the outside influences. RUFFIN: And I just don’t think it could ever die, ever. Yeah, it definitely has a future.
1:23:58
Of course, we’re up against some incredible odds. How the music will evolve, we don’t know, and that’s what makes it interesting, and that’s what makes it alive. Happy Birthday, Howard Theatre! CROWD: Happy Birthday, Howard Theatre! Happy Birthday, Howard. [ cheering ] [ combo playing ]
1:24:20
DEMCZUK: Ladies and gentlemen, today it’s a happy 100th birthday. We pledge to rebuild the Howard Theatre. [ combo continues ]
1:24:53
Not all progress is good, but I don’t think that you should try to stop progress either. I think the question is understanding what of this legacy do we want to bring forward? What of this do I want to hold on to? We don’t want this music to die. The question is what don’t you want to die? What are the elements and why, and what is useful? What is it that we want to pass on? And maybe focus on those things, ’cause I think that maybe a lot of elements of jazz are not transferable as a bulk
1:25:29
into the next age of music or the next evolution of music.
1:25:35
PARKER: I think it’s still forging ahead, you know. And, you know, we’re gonna keep it alive as long as we keep, you know, that, it in our heart. We should be in a position where we could flourish playing the music that we love, yeah.
1:25:59
DEMCZUK: But most importantly, what I saw last night on U Street was jazz coming out of about 10 different establishments, jazz. Now, that’s the way it was back in the 1920s and thirties. Jazz was coming out of every place, and today, jazz is coming out of U Street, right out of the Caverns of U Street, right up from the streets, right out on the streets with the music, competing with the hip-hop music. That’s great. Hip-hop music is driving down the street in the cars, but jazz is competing,
1:26:33
coming out of the doorways.
1:26:37
JACKSON: The future of jazz is gonna be just fine, because you need jazz to walk. You need jazz to breathe. It’s just like oxygen, just like air. Music is something that you need just to be cool in life, just to wake up and just feel good about yourself, you know. And the Grammy for Best New Artist goes to...
1:27:03
Esperanza Spalding.
1:27:07
Upset. Yeah. SPALDING: ♪ And the want of thought is death ♪ ♪ Oh ♪
1:27:20
♪ Little fly ♪ I take this honor to heart so sincerely, and I’ll do my damnedest to make a whole lot of great music for all of you. It’s such a blessing and an honor. God bless. Thank you. Thank you. [ cheering ]
1:27:39
I’ve gone through the beginnings of jazz right up to the present. [ combo playing ] What I have seen and what I’ve heard, I see that jazz is in the best position it has been ever.
1:28:02
It’s like oxygen. I mean, it’s the same. Oxygen for the ears, for the heart, for the soul.
1:29:13
[ combo continues ] [ applause ]
1:29:21
[ combo continues under saxophone ]
1:29:37
[ applause ]
1:29:43
[ combo continues ]
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