Re: [Harp-L] Re : Hendrik on Jazz

[Chesper Nevins <chespernevins@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, Robert and Hurricane!

I was working at Gunther Schuller's house (his record company was in the
attic) around the time Ken Burns was researching the jazz series.

(Gunther is the author of "The Swing Era" and "Early Jazz", two of the
greatest jazz books out there.)

Ken talked with Gunther for a while about being a consultant for the series,
but for some reason it fell through.  Perhaps Wynton and Gunther could not
co-exist on the same project - even though they know each other and have
worked together before.  Maybe Ken and Gunther had different visions for
what the show should be.  Gunther was the musicologist - or at least one of
a handful of musicologists - that Hurricane mentioned was needed but was
omitted.  I never found out the reason for sure.

There are many different takes on the history of jazz - and not only
Gunther's is valid - but I think the series missed out quite a bit in losing
Gunther's input.

Ken clearly had none of his own knowledge about jazz - he said once that he
had only one jazz record when he started the project.  He is a giant sponge,
though, when it comes to researching a project.  So his sources (and
obviously Wynton was his number one source) really influenced the final
project.  A great accomplishment and a disappointment at the same time.