Posted by Jody Hughes on January 31, 2001 at 17:06:01:
Well, with episode #9, my husband John has given up on the show in disgust! He heard Early talking about making music that the white musicians couldn't copy, and that was the final straw for him. He's by no means racist, but he was sick of everything being so biased. I did watch the whole show, and I now know more about Miles Davis and John Coltrane than I ever cared to know. I also noted that the west coast music played by whites was bland and they made a lot of money playing it. However, the never mentioned who those white guys were. Do they mean Turk Murphy or Dave Brubeck styles?
"Buying into the myth." Although John gave up on the series, I found a friend who has been watching the series and just loves it. We were at their house for the super bowl on Sunday, so he had seen episodes 1-8. He then proceeded to tell me that jazz was black music until the swing era when whites started playing it. He would have been willing to argue his point until he remembered that I'm familiar with jazz.
Well, on to tonight's final installment. I'll see if I can get John to watch once more!
Jody Hughes