Nonfiction
DVD
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Details
PUBLISHED
©2000
DESCRIPTION
1 videodisc (approximately 90 min.) : sound, color and black and white ; 4 3/4 in
ISBN/ISSN
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NOTES
"PBS DVD Gold."
In the mid 1930s, as the Great Depression refuses to lift, Benny Goodman finds himself hailed as the "King of Swing" and becomes the first white bandleader to hire black musicians. He has a host or rivals among them, Chick Webb, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford, Glen Miller and Artie Shaw. Louis Armstrong heads a big band of his own, while Duke Ellington continues his independent course, but great black artists still can't eat or sleep in many of the hotels where they perform. Billie Holiday emerges from a childhood of tragedy to begin her career as the greatest of all female jazz singers
Cinematography, Buddy Squires, Ken Burns ; editors, Tricia Reidy, Sarah E. Hill, and Shannon Robards
Commentary, Wynton Marsalis, Artie Shaw, Joya Sherrill, Albert Murray, Margo Jefferson, James Maher, Gary Giddins, James Lincoln Collier, Milt Hinton, John Sanders, Dave Brubeck, Harry Edison, Jimmy Rowles, Lionel Hampton, Helen Oakley Dance, Stan Levy ; narrator, Keith David
DVD, stereo