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Episodes 10-12 in the twelve episode series.
Episode Ten – Irresistible, 1949 – 1955
A generation of musicians, faced with the overwhelming genius of Charlie Parker, embrace the challenge of moving beyond his innovations. Visionary pianist, Thelonius Monk, infuses bebop with his eccentric personality to create a music all his own, while John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet refine bebop’s balance between improvisation and composition. Except for musicians and true jazz initiates, few people are listening to Parker and bebop. Searching for a new audience, California musicians create a mellow sound called cool jazz.
Episode Eleven – The Adventure, 1956 – 1960
In the late 50s, America’s post war prosperity continues but beneath the surface run currents of change. Families move to the suburbs, watching TV is the new national pastime, and baby boomers begin coming of age. For jazz, it is also a period of transition. Old stars burn out, while young talents arise to take the music in new directions: saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins, jazz diva Sarah Vaughan, and the mesmerising Miles Davis. John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman push the boundaries further still, prompting the question “Is it still jazz?”.
Episode Twelve – A Masterpiece by Midnight, 1960 to the Present
In the 60s, critics divide jazz into ‘schools’ – Dixieland, swing, bebop, hard bop, modal, free and avant-garde. Most young people are listening to rock and roll and, desperate for work, many jazz musicians head for Europe. At home, jazz searches for relevance – it’s a voice of protest for Charles Mingus and Archie Shepp; a quest for higher consciousness for John Coltrane; and, when Miles Davis combines it with rock and roll, a wildly popular sound called Fusion.
Over the next two decades a new generation of musicians emerges, led by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis – schooled in the music’s traditions, skilled in the art of improvisation and aflame with ideas only jazz can express. Entering its second century, jazz is still brand new every night, still vibrant, still evolving and still swinging.
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