Thursdays beginning January 7, 2021, 9:00 p.m. ET
Jazz is born in the musical and social cauldron of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century.
During the tumultuous “Jazz Age,” the rhythms and spirit of jazz mirror the post-WWI world.
Follow influential musicians, including Duke Ellington, who begins his career as jazz composer.
Amid the Depression, a new dance and a new kind of big band jazz begin to emerge.
Big band jazz—swing—becomes the most popular music in America.
As the Great Depression deepens, jazz thrives and the saxophone emerges as an iconic instrument of the music.
Innovators take jazz in startling new directions in the US; in Europe, jazz is banned by the Nazis.
Jazz splinters into different camps: white and black, cool and hot, East and West, trad and modern.
As R&B and rock erode jazz’ audience further, the music nonetheless enjoys great creativity.
Jazz becomes divided into “schools,” and the question of what is jazz and what isn’t rages.
