Jazz (TV series) Jazz (TV series) Jazz is a 2001 documentary miniseries, directed by Ken Burns. It was broadcast on PBS in 2001, and was released on DVD and VHS on January 2, 2001 by the same company. Its chronological and thematic episodes provided a history of jazz, emphasizing innovative composers and musicians and American history. Swing musicians Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington are the central figures. Several episodes discussed the later contributions of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to bebop, and of Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltrane to free and cool jazz. Nine episodes surveyed forty-five years (1917–1961), leaving the
The World According to John Coltrane The World According to John Coltrane The World According to John Coltrane is a documentary about jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. "The World According to John Coltrane" moves chronologically. It shows interviews with musicians who worked with Coltrane, such as Rashied Ali, Jimmy Heath, Roscoe Mitchell, and Wayne Shorter, and film clips of live performances. One brief clip shows Coltrane playing "So What" with Miles Davis in 1959. Shown, too, is a performance by the classic quartet of Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, and McCoy Tyner at a jazz festival, and the quartet playing with Eric Dolphy. Coltrane's live performance of