JAZZ（ISBN=） 英文原版

　　The companion volume to the ten-part PBS TV series by the team
responsible for”The Civil War” and “Baseball.” Continuing in the
tradition of their critically acclaimed works, Geoffrey C. Ward and
Ken Burns vividly bring to life the story of the quintessential
American music–jazz. Born in the black community of
turn-of-the-century New Orleans but played from the beginning by
musicians of every color, jazz celebrates all Americans at their
best. Here are the stories of the extraordinary men and women who
made the music: Louis Armstrong, the fatherless waif whose
unrivaled genius helped turn jazz into a soloist’s art and
influenced every singer, every instrumentalist who came after him;
Duke Ellington, the pampered son of middle-class parents who turned
a whole orchestra into his personal instrument, wrote nearly two
thousand pieces for it, and captured more of American life than any
other composer. Bix Beiderbecke, the doomed cornet prodigy who
showed white musicians that they too could make an important
contribution to the music; Benny Goodman, the immigrants’ son who
learned the clarinet to help feed his family, but who grew up to
teach a whole country how to dance; Billie Holiday, whose
distinctive style routinely transformed mediocre music into great
art; Charlie Parker, who helped lead a musical revolution, only to
destroy himself at thirty-four; and Miles Davis, whose search for
fresh ways to sound made him the most influential jazz musician of
his generation, and then led him to abandon jazz altogether. Buddy
Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Count Basie,
Dave Brubeck, Artie Shaw, and Ella Fitzgerald are all here; so are
Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, John Coltrane,
Ornette Coleman, and a host of others. But Jazz is more than mere
biography. The history of the music echoes the history of
twentieth-century America. Jazz provided the background for the
giddy era that F. Scott Fitzgerald called the Jazz Age. The
irresistible pulse of big-band swing lifted the spirits and boosted
American morale during the Great Depression and World War II. The
virtuosic, demanding style called bebop mirrored the stepped-up
pace and dislocation that came with peace. During the Cold War era,
jazz served as a propaganda weapon–and forged links with the
burgeoning counterculture. The story of jazz encompasses the story
of American courtship and show business; the epic growth of great
cities–New Orleans and Chicago, Kansas City and New York–and the
struggle for civil rights and simple justice that continues into
the new millennium. Visually stunning, with more than five hundred
photographs, some never before published, this book, like the music
it chronicles, is an exploration–and a celebration–of the
American experiment. “From the Hardcover edition.”

  　Geoffrey C. Ward has written or co-written many
documentary films, including The Civil War, Baseball, The West, Not
for Ourselves Alone, and Jazz. He lives in New York City.
  　Ken Burns is a director, producer, and writer who has been
making documentaries for more than twenty years. His landmark film
The Civil War was the highest-rated series in the history of
American public television, and his work has won numerous
prizes.