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The Best of Ken Burns Jazz

For: $9.97

Ken Burns, America's premier documentary filmmaker, scores another hit with his landmark 10-part, 19-hour PBS documentary, Jazz. This sampler is a smaller version of the accompanying five-CD box set, with 22 selections spanning the music's many styles: from Benny Goodman's 1938 classic rendition of "King Porter Stomp" to John Coltrane's immortal "Giant Steps." Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan form a sweeping spectrum of jazz singing with their varying styles. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker's "Groovin' High," Thelonious Monk's riff blues "'Straight, No Chaser," and Miles Davis's modal masterpiece "So What" are among the music's "greatest hits" compiled here. Louis Armstrong's down-home treatment of Hoagy Carmichael's "Star Dust" and Duke Ellington's rousing "Cotton Tail" show why they are the alpha and the omega of this music. Although the documentary and the sampler omit the avant-garde and Latin jazz, this is, overall, good one-stop shopping for those just getting in the groove. --Eugene Holley Jr.

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23 Reviews

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From: Amazon Posted: Jun 14, 2008 Type: User Review Essential for any jazz lover or Ken Burns JAZZ series collector!

Don't feel like buying every single artist in the 'Ken Burns JAZZ' series? Well, now there's a solution. 'The Best of Ken Burns JAZZ' offers all of the highlights from the discs you can buy in the series on one CD!

All of the jazz...
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5.00 Star Rating
5.00/5
From: Amazon Posted: May 23, 2007 Type: User Review Fabulous Compilation

This a great CD to own if one hasn't listen to jazz before. I do not own many jazz CDs, but I greatly enjoy listening to this one. I would recommend this CD to anyone that wants to listen to something upbeat. The CD is great to listen to during...
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5.00 Star Rating
5.00/5
From: Amazon Posted: Feb 18, 2007 Type: User Review Gift

I bought this as a gift for my son. It will be my last purchase at Amazon as long as they promote products that encourage animal fighting.
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5.00 Star Rating
5.00/5
From: Amazon Posted: Aug 12, 2005 Type: User Review Good overview for a novice

I'm a complete novice to Jazz. Hence this purchase. It serves its purpose of providing a good introduction, and has informed my further exploration of this music. I much prefer the more recent work such as from Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, and John...
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4.00 Star Rating
4.00/5
From: Amazon Posted: May 06, 2005 Type: User Review A Great Jazz Overview

I have had an interest in jazz for a long time but I was always looking for a good introduction to this most American of music. I continued to have questions as to how jazz evolved and even though I knew the names of many of the great jazz...
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5.00 Star Rating
5.00/5
From: Amazon Posted: Mar 12, 2005 Type: User Review Initiation to Jazz and serious music

This was my first Jazz music purchase. Since then, largely because of good introduction through this CD, I have purchased a few dozen Jazz CDs and even upgraded my sound system for better appreciating recorded music in its purest sense.
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5.00 Star Rating
5.00/5
From: Amazon Posted: Sep 10, 2002 Type: User Review Dynamic

Even though I am a jazz novice, I can feel the artists' motivations. I feel their soul, in their music they communicate something eternal, which may not be recreated. Take a chance and you will be inspired. One note from Louis Armstrong and you...
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5.00 Star Rating
5.00/5
From: Amazon Posted: Aug 22, 2002 Type: User Review You Gotta Get This!

This is a must for any music lover's CD collection. 'Nuf said!
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5.00 Star Rating
5.00/5
From: Amazon Posted: Jul 27, 2002 Type: User Review A good sampler Jazz CD, with some, if not all, of the best

It's easy to quibble about what's not on this CD, for example, I wanted more Thelonius Monk, more Benny Goodman, more Duke, more jazz piano in general, and..and..and...

but...think about it. How hard must it have been for Ken Burns to choose the...
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5.00 Star Rating
5.00/5
From: Amazon Posted: Jun 07, 2002 Type: User Review Worthy compilation from a list of HUGE possibilities

Out of 19 hours of footage and who knows how many hours of music to go through, this collection captures the absolute minimum of possible greatness. All of the histroical ginats are here, and with fine selections. And while some jazz fans might...
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4.00 Star Rating
4.00/5
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