The Gift (1917-1924) -
jazz

The second episode is set during the tumultuous era known as the " Jazz Age," when the rhythms and spirit of jazz music mirror the world that emerged in the wake of World War I. The program introduces two extraordinary individuals whose lives will be interwoven throughout the rest of the series: the brilliant bandleader and composer Duke Ellington and the virtuoso New Orleans-born cornetist Louis Armstrong, who single-handedly transforms jazz from ensemble music to a soloist' s art. This episode follows black bandleader and WWI hero James Reese Europe and his Harlem regiment to the war in France and back home again. In the l920s, jazz enters American living rooms through radio and phonograph records. The migration of millions of African Americans from the South to the North helps create a receptive audience for the new music -- especially evident on the south side of Chicago. White musicians, entranced by the recordings and the music they hear in Chicago's night clubs, begin to make their mark on jazz.

Duration: 1 hour 56 minutes and 46 seconds

Episode Number: 102

No future air times were found for this episode.

About Jazz:

Jazz is born in the unique musical and social cauldron of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century, emerging from several forms of music, including ragtime, marching bands, work songs, spirituals, European classical music, funeral parade music and, above all, the blues.

Musicians who advance early jazz in New Orleans include Creole pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton, cornetist Buddy Bolden and clarinet prodigy Sidney Bechet.

Composer W.C.

Handy codifies the blues through his popular compositions.

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band makes the first jazz recordings.

Their enormous popularity spreads the sounds of jazz across the country and, eventually, the world.

At the end of the episode, viewers meet an 11-year-old New Orleans boy, Louis Armstrong, who will emerge from the city's toughest streets to become jazz music's greatest star and transform American music.