Posted by Harry O. Brunn on February 23, 2001 at 20:25:01:
I would like to add my name to the growing list of people who have been outraged by the gross misrepresentation of jazz history in Ken Burns' 18 hour racial propaganda series on PBS, especially as concerns their disgraceful treatment of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Their problem seems to stem from their inability to distinguish jazz from ragtime. (And if this was to be history of American music, why didn't they go back to Stephen Foster?) As explained in my book" The Story of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band" ( LSU Press,1960 ) it was the ODJB that took ragtime and made jazz out of it in Chicago in 1916. They were the first group ever to be called a "jass band"-- a documented fact conveniently overlooked by the Burns organization. The ODJB, besides being the first to record jazz, was also the first to carry it to England and first to make a radio broadcast of jazz.
It will be amusing to note that Florentine Films, who produced this series,
purchased several items from me in 1996 for use on the show, including a tape-recorded
interview with Nick LaRocca, the band's leader, explaining in detail how thhe
first jazz record was made, and that none of it was ever used! It has therefore
become clear to me that somewhere along the production route, the jazz politicians
got into the act( the same ones who tried to keep my book from being published
in 1958) and carefully extirpated anything that did not support their pro-black
musical philosophy.
H.O. Brunn Official Historian Original Dixieland Jazz Band