Jazz is a 2001television documentaryminiseries directed byKen Burns. It was broadcast onPBS in 2001^[2] and was nominated for anEmmy Award forOutstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.^[3] Its chronological and thematic episodes provided a history ofjazz, emphasizing innovative composers and musicians and American history.

Swing musiciansLouis Armstrong andDuke Ellington are the central figures.^[4] Several episodes discussed the later contributions ofCharlie Parker andDizzy Gillespie tobebop, and ofMiles Davis,Ornette Coleman, andJohn Coltrane tofree andcool jazz. Of this 10-part documentary surveying jazz in the years from 1917 to 2001, all but the last episode are devoted to music pre-1961. The series was produced by Florentine Films in cooperation with theBBC and in association withWETA-TV, Washington.

The documentary concerned the history of jazz music in the United States, from its origins at the turn of the 20th century to the present day. It was narrated byKeith David and featured interviews with present-day musicians and critics such as trumpeterWynton Marsalis (also the artistic director and co-producer ofJazz) and criticsGary Giddins andStanley Crouch. Music critic andAfrican-American historianGerald Early was a consultant. Broadcaster and producerPhil Schaap was interviewed briefly.

Visually,Jazz was in the same style as Ken Burns' previous works: slowly panning and zooming shots of photographs are mixed with period movie sequences, accompanied by music of, and commentary on, the period being examined. Between these sequences, present-day jazz figures provided anecdotes and explained the defining features of the major musicians' styles.Duke Ellington's "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" (1938) was a recurringmotif at the opening and closing of individual episodes of the series.

The documentary focused on a number of major musicians:Louis Armstrong andDuke Ellington are the central figures, "providing the narrative thread around which the stories of other major figures turn",^[4] among themSidney Bechet,Count Basie,Benny Goodman,Billie Holiday,Charlie Parker,Miles Davis andJohn Coltrane.

A number of companion CDs were released simultaneously.

Each 87–123 minute episode of the ten episodes ofJazz covered a different era.^[1]

Reason magazine wrote thatJazz "is filled with rewards, many of them proffered unintentionally. ... Burns's documentary gifts are not visionary, analytical, nor even properly historical. Rather, he is a talented biographer, and his films are most effective when he is able to present an overarching narrative in terms of the biographical detail of that narrative's participants."^[5] Jason Van Bergen said, "The nearly 19 hours of documentary coverage contained in theJazz series unravels like a fine wine", and due to the series' attention to detail, "a complete discussion of every episode in Ken Burns'sJazz would be better suited for a master's thesis" than to his brief review. ... Burns's encyclopedic rendering of the growth of jazz cannot be questioned. Followers of the music will need this set on their shelves; but perhaps slightly more surprisingly, serious students of American history may also require the set to supplement their versions of the past century."^[6] InThe New York Times, Ben Ratlife wrote that the program's "major thematic device is effective, and would not come naturally to a music-focused jazz historian. It is to show what happens when American whites and blacks encounter each other, not in the abstract but person to person, and make some sort of connection."^[7]

Writing in theNational Review, Deroy Murdock wrote, "the TV documentary sometimes feels like Thanksgiving dinner. It's rich, delightful, filling, altogether satisfying, and, here and there, hypnotic. ... Burns's film is never dull. It's fascinating and captivating."^[8]Gene Santoro, writing inThe Nation, notes, "If Burns had cut the final episode and billed this asJazz: The First 50 Years, more of the discussion might be where it belongs—on the movie."^[9] William Berlind wrote inThe Observer, "In allowing Mr. Marsalis to guide him, Mr. Burns has ultimately done us a disservice. He has managed to make a vital, evolving music seem dead and static."^[10] The British newspaperThe Guardian wrote, "The series' principal totemic figures, quite rightly, are Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. Since a large proportion ofJazz is devoted to the swing era, two white bandleaders, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, are also given prominence—as, later on, is Dave Brubeck. But even some critics who have spent their lives arguing for a proper recognition of jazz's African-American essence believe that Burns—with the encouragement of Marsalis, Crouch and Murray—has pushed the Afrocentric line so far that the refusal to give credit to the contribution of white musicians undermines the series' historical accuracy."^[11] Professor emeritus Frank Tirro wrote, "He gives, as one example, Louis Armstrong's 'West End Blues' as 'a reflection of the country in the moments before the Great Depression.' I cannot see how he can support this statement. What is it reflecting? The African Americans in Harlem, the Wall Street entrepreneurs, or the white middle-class farmers in Kansas and Iowa? This is bull-session history."^[12]

On November 7, 2000, 22 companion single-artistcompilation albums, all titledKen Burns Jazz, were released by theVerve andColumbia/Legacy labels.^[2] A five-CDbox set,Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music, was also released, along with a single album sampler of that box set (The Best of Ken Burns Jazz).

• Count Basie
• Art Blakey
• John Coltrane
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Dizzy Gillespie
• Coleman Hawkins
• Billie Holiday
• Charlie Parker
• Sonny Rollins
• Sarah Vaughan
• Lester Young

• Louis Armstrong
• Sidney Bechet
• Dave Brubeck
• Ornette Coleman
• Miles Davis
• Duke Ellington
• Benny Goodman
• Herbie Hancock
• Fletcher Henderson
• Charles Mingus
• Thelonious Monk
• Various Artists –The Best of Ken Burns Jazz
• Various Artists –Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music

In 2002, Columbia also released two low-priced box sets, each containing three of the previously released single-artist collections.

• Ken Burns Jazz, Vol. 1 (Includes Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman compilations)
• Ken Burns Jazz, Vol. 2 (Includes Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Dave Brubeck compilations)

• Ken Burns'Jazz on PBS
• Ken Burns on PBS
• Ken Burns'Jazz review by cosmopolis.ch
• Ken Burns' Jazz atIMDb
• Jazz Greats in One Immortal 1958 Image (New York Times, September 25, 2018)

• Documentary television series about music
• PBS original programming
• 2000s American television miniseries
• History of jazz
• 2001 American television series debuts
• 2001 American television series endings
• American English-language television shows
• 2000s in jazz
• 2000s American documentary television series
• Works about jazz

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